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Progressive insurgents lost<\/span> a close North Carolina primary this week, when Rep. Valerie Foushee, D-N.C., narrowly defeated a challenge from Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam in a race inundated with outside spending from the artificial intelligence industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n The race had come down to just over 1,000 votes and 1 percentage point as of Thursday morning, with Allam nearly catching up to Foushee in the eleventh hour. After initially saying she would request a recount, Allam conceded to Foushee on Wednesday night, writing on social media that the AI lobby had \u201cbought\u201d the race. Pro-AI groups spent roughly $1.3 million<\/a> backing Foushee, who is now heavily favored to win the November general election in North Carolina\u2019s Democrat-dominated 4th Congressional District.<\/p>\n In a statement sent to The Intercept, Allam urged her own progressive supporters to hold the incumbent\u2019s feet to the fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt should not take being challenged in a primary to take bold stances that voters overwhelmingly support,\u201d said Allam, \u201cbut I am proud that our movement pushed our incumbent to better reflect our deeply held values and convictions. It\u2019s up to us as an entire district to demand that our Representative deliver on her promises.\u201d<\/p>\n In a victory statement released<\/a> Wednesday night, Foushee vowed to fight for a slew of marquee progressive causes. She pledged to fight to \u201cstop Trump\u2019s attacks on our democracy, regulate AI, overturn Citizens United, establish a Green New Deal, ensure Medicare for All, pass legislation to block arms sales to Israel, and lower the cost of groceries, housing, and education.\u201d<\/p>\n Commentators on social media directed frustration over Allam\u2019s loss at key progressive figures Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, both of whom declined to endorse the challenger over the incumbent. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee David Hogg endorsed Allam, as did notable progressive organizations like Justice Democrats<\/a>, and it\u2019s unclear if input from the New York politicians would have made the difference in the North Carolina race. But with such a tight margin, some argued more forceful rallying from progressive surrogates could have helped Allam.\u00a0<\/p>\n As the race drew to a close, technology and foreign policy dominated the North Carolina primary. Allam repeatedly criticized Foushee as too cozy with corporate and pro-Israel interests, forcing the incumbent to play defense. These divisions intensified after the United States and Israel attacked<\/a> Iran over the weekend.<\/p>\n Allam released a political advertisement<\/a> on Monday criticizing her opponent for benefiting from millions in spending from AI-connected super PACs with ties to the United States and Israel\u2019s attacks on Iran. Jobs and Democracy PAC \u2014 a super PAC supported by Anthropic, whose AI model Claude was reportedly deployed<\/a> in the Trump administration\u2019s strike on Iran \u2014 spent over $1.3 million in support of Foushee in the North Carolina primary.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs election day approaches,\u00a0you will see nearly $2 million of ads for my opponent, funded by AI-backed super PACs,\u201d Allam said in the ad<\/a>, \u201cthe same AI corporation who powered Trump\u2019s attacks on Iran, while my opponent takes donations from Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and General Dynamics.\u201d<\/p>\n But the harsh words weren\u2019t enough to oust Foushee, who also beat<\/a> Allam by a far larger margin in a 2022 race after the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent almost $2.5 million <\/a>in her favor. While the congresswoman said that she would not accept money from AIPAC<\/a> this cycle, signaling the megadonors\u2019 unpopularity<\/a> with Democratic voters, Allam and her supporters continued to hammer home that Foushee was the pick of the pro-Israel foreign policy establishment.\u00a0<\/p>\n American Priorities, the anti-AIPAC super PAC looking to counter pro-Israel spending in elections, sunk nearly $1 million<\/a> into supporting Allam, hoping to use her win as an early example of Democratic primary voters shifting allegiances away from supporting Israel. The PAC, which has endorsed several other progressive challengers, including Kat Abughazaleh in Illinois\u2019 9th Congressional District<\/a>, will get another chance to test its theory in the upcoming months with primary candidates in Tennessee, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n