The Democratic primary to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler turned into what one candidate called a “triangular firing squad” Thursday night, as three contenders spent a PIX 11 debate hammering Assembly Member Alex Bores over how much AI and crypto money is flowing into his campaign. City and State first reported the exchanges from the debate for New York’s 12th congressional district, a middle-of-Manhattan seat that is one of the most Democratic in the country. That makes the June 23 primary winner all but certain to take the seat.

Bores is running as the candidate who stands up to Big Tech. He successfully pushed a major AI regulation through Albany. But an OpenAI-funded super PAC has spent millions trying to sink him, while a separate super PAC tied to rival AI company Anthropic has spent millions to boost him. When the first question of the night asked how candidates would protect jobs in the age of AI, his opponents had their opening.

Assembly Member Micah Lasher, who was narrowly leading Bores in a recent PIX 11/Emerson College poll, took it in the first 30 seconds of his first answer. “There’s one candidate on this stage that’s been standing up to Big Tech for more than a decade, one candidate on the stage who has voted consistently for regulation of artificial intelligence, one candidate on this stage who is not backed by any of the big AI companies,” Lasher said. “That candidate is not Alex, that candidate is me.”