Mashadipati: Washington Edition: Money isn’t everything

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Today, Capitol influence reporter Emily Birnbaum looks at what the AI and crypto industries got for all their spending on the Illinois primary.

Low Yield

The deep-pocketed artificial intelligence and crypto industries dropped millions into the Illinois primary and came away with — not much.

Among the first big states to pick candidates for the November elections, deep blue Illinois became an early test case for the collection of vaguely named super PACs backed by AI and crypto money that say they'll have a combined $300 million to spend on shaping Congress in the midterms.

The biggest investment was $10 million by crypto's Fairshake PAC against Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton in the Democratic primary for an open Senate seat. Stratton, endorsed by popular Governor JB Pritzker, bested Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, who had the industry's backing.

Meanwhile, the AI industry spent $1.3 million on behalf of Jesse Jackson Jr.'s bid to reclaim a Chicago-area House seat but came up short. Instead, a $4 million investment from a group associated with the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC helped springboard local politician Donna Miller to victory.

The two industries did score a victory with Melissa Bean, a former US representative with moderate politics, who won the 8th District seat being vacated by Krishnamoorthi. She got support from the crypto and AI PACs as well as a group associated with AIPAC.

Josh Vlasto, a strategist for the AI billionaire-funded Leading the Future, touted Bean's commitment to a "national regulatory framework for AI" — a big priority for the industry as multiple states consider an array of AI regulations.

Leading the Future is backed by billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and OpenAI President Greg Brockman, among other Silicon Valley leaders.

Meta Platforms, which is running a separate effort at the state level, also had a rough night. The company spent $750,000 across four Illinois primaries. Only one of the super PACs chosen candidates won their race.

The combined war chests of AI, crypto and the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC has candidates who don't have their backing wary. But yesterday's losses in Illinois suggest that their money won't always get them their way.

It also reaffirms that factors like the quality of the candidates and local political clout, such as Pritzker's, still matter. — Emily Birnbaum

War With Iran

Iran and Israel traded strikes on key energy facilities in the Middle East, complicating US President Donald Trump's efforts to curb turmoil in markets as the conflict stretched toward three weeks.

Oil and European natural gas prices surged as Iran listed energy assets across the region that it could target in response to a US and Israeli attack on its industry, threatening a new wave of supply disruption.

Saudi Arabia has already ramped up its oil exports to more than half of normal levels despite the disruptions from the Iran war, an early sign of success for the kingdom's ambitious contingency plan to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.

Spy chief Tulsi Gabbard dodged questions about the severity of the threat posed by Iran in Senate testimony, taking care not to contradict either her own past statements or the Trump administration's stance on the conflict.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog urged the US and Iran to resume negotiations, saying concern over Tehran's nuclear program can't be solved by military action alone.

US supplies of long-range and defensive munitions were running low before the latest strikes on Iran, a constraint that may force Washington to scale back its role in the conflict, according to Seth G. Jones of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: The US strikes on Iran mark a new age of warfare assisted by artificial intelligence. The US military spent years developing ways to deploy AI to the battlefield, and these advances are now unfolding in real time. Bloomberg journalists answer your questions in a Live Q&A conversation on Thursday, March 19 at 11 a.m. EDT. Tune in here and send questions in advance with the subject line "AI warfare" to [email protected].

Don't Miss

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he plans to stay at the central bank until after the Justice Department's investigation is complete, the first time he's given a public indication that he intends to continue serving his term as a governor after his term as chair expires in May.

Fed officials left interest rates unchanged and continued to expect one rate cut this year as they acknowledged increased uncertainty due to war in the Middle East.

Inflation at the wholesale level in the US unexpectedly accelerated in February from a month earlier, reflecting higher costs for goods and services prior to the war in Iran.

The Republican overseeing hearings on Senator Markwayne Mullin's nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security challenged the Oklahoma Republican on whether his "anger issues" disqualified him from leading an agency enmeshed in controversy over aggressive tactics.

A new US intelligence assessment backed away from previous projections that China wants to be ready to retake Taiwan by force as early as next year, as the Trump administration adopts a more conciliatory tone toward Beijing.

Suits challenging the administration's efforts to roll back protections for some migrants have become a flashpoint in the debate over the Supreme Court's handling of emergency requests, known to critics as the "shadow docket."

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said trade talks with Canada have fallen behind those with Mexico as the administration prepares for this year's review of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement trade deal.

Trump vowed to quickly end a brutal Republican Senate runoff in Texas by making an endorsement, saying the GOP had to unify to defeat an emboldened Democratic Party. But it hasn't happened.

Watch & Listen

Today on Bloomberg Television's Balance of Power early edition at 1 p.m., hosts Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz interviewed Democratic Representative Haley Stevens of Michigan about the spike in energy prices because of the war with Iran and the state of the economy.

On the program at 5 p.m., they talk with former Treasury official Joe Lavorgna, now chief economist at SMBC Nikko Securities America, about the Fed's decision on rates and the outlook going forward.

On the Big Take podcast, host David Gura sits down with Bloomberg Federal Reserve reporter Amara Omeokwe and Wharton professor and historian Peter Conti-Brown to discuss how the Fed is thinking about the Iran War and its impacts on the US economy — and what could shift its calculus in the months ahead. Listen on iHeart, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Chart of the Day

Black and Hispanic voters helped power Trump's return to the White House, as Trump improved his 2020 margins among those voters by 16 and 22 percentage points, respectively. Now, both groups are approaching near-record levels of pessimism about the economy. A new Economist/YouGov poll finds 78% of Black and 65% of Hispanic registered voters say conditions are getting worse. Affordability concerns appear to be driving the change, especially among Hispanic voters — who are more likely than any other racial or ethnic group to cite inflation and prices as their top issue, and who disproportionately report being worse off financially than a year ago. With those numbers correlating to disapproval of Trump's job performance, the trends pose a warning sign for Republicans heading into the 2026 midterm election. — Gregory Korte

What's Next

New home sales in January will be released tomorrow.

Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is scheduled to meet with Trump in Washington tomorrow.

Construction spending in the US for January will be reported Monday.

Import and export prices in February will be released March 25.

The University of Michigan's index of consumer sentiment in March will be published March 27.

Seen Elsewhere

The company that helped organize Trump's Jan. 6, 2021, rally was awarded more than $13 million in contracts by the Trump administration through carve-outs in bidding procedures, the New York Times reports.
The late Cesar Chavez, a Latino civil rights icon, is accused of grooming and sexually abusing girls and women who were involved in the farmworker labor movement, according to the Times.
A health technology company acknowledged in court that it mined digital medical records of individuals from multiple health systems and sold them to lawyers for potential use in litigation, the Washington Post reports.

Washington Edition: Money isn’t everything