Bores in Defeat Says A.I is “the Fight of Our Time” Congratulates Lasher on Win
In an eight person field to represent CD-12, it ended as a two many race between Alex Bores, the East Side Assembly member with strong union backing, and Micah Lasher, the west side Assembly member with most of the Dem establishment behind him.
| 29 Jun 2026 | 04:09
Alex Bores (center), wife Diane (right) and and many supporters on primary night June 23. (
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East side Assembly member Alex Bores finished a close second to west side assembly member Micah Lahser in the June 23 Democratic primary for Congress in NY’s 12th congressional district. “I can’t say I am not disappointed, but I am not discouraged.” (
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While Micah Lasher won the CD-12 Democratic primary, Alex Bores carried younger voters by an eight percent margin, according to prelimiary returns from the Board of Elections. This was evident the campaign watch party at the Freehand Hotel on primary night on June 23. (
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Alex Bores silenced a supporter who had started to boo assembly member Micah Lasher who was the winner of the Democratic primary on CD-12. (
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East side assembly member Alex Bores thanked his wife Diane for being “in the foxhole with me” during his Congressional primary campaign. (
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Lori Bores was frequently on the campaign trail with a sash identifying her as “Alex Bores’ Mom.” (
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Alex Bores built a strong network of volunteers and many turned out the Freehand Hotel on primary night. After a short concession speech, Bores spent the rest of the evening offering thanks to his many campaign workers. (
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A somewhat subdued but unbowed Alex Bores took to the podium around 10:15 p.m. on June 23 and after a sometimes bitter campaign against Micah Lasher, took the high road.
”First I want to congratulate Micah Lasher on his victory,” said Bores, and when one supporter from the back of the room started to boo, Bores was quick to silence it.
“Micah has spent his career dedicated to public service, and he’ll continue that legacy in Congress from this district,” Bores said.
It was a diplomatic unity call in a campaign that had grown increasingly bitter, with much of the millions spent in attack ads by PACs in print and tv directed against Bores because of his push calling for regulation of artificial intelligence.
He thanked his wife Diane, who got some rousing cheers from supporters. He joked that she experienced a lot more than she signed up for. “She married a computer scientist,” said Bores, who attended Hunter College High School and Cornell and earned a graduate degree in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology. “She ended up in the foxhole with me” in a Congressional campaign that was one of the most expensive in the nation.
He also called attention to his son, Charlie who is less than a year old and insisted the battles he fought to regulate A.I. he was doing for the next generation. “You’re not old enough to remember this,” he said, “but you’ll read about it.”
”This is the fight of our time,” he said.
An estimate $27 million was spent by super PACs with backing tied to tech and artificial intelligence companies.
In the end, Lasher with backing from the Democratic establishment including Gov. Kathy Hochul, former mayor Mike Bloomberg and Congressman Jerry Nadler, who wanted his one time aide to be his successor, pulled in about 39.1 percent of the vote to the 34 percent that Bores racked up.
UES assembly member Rebecca Seawright was on the scene with Bores supporters who gathered at the Freehand Hotel on Lexington Avenue as was former Congress member Carolyn Maloney, who lost to Nadler after an east side district was merged with a west side district that pitted two long time incumbents against one another. City council member Virginia Maloney whose district overlapped with much of the 73rd Assembly district that Bores represented, was not on the scene. “She just got engaged,” offered Carolyn by way of explaining her daughter’s absence.
Aside from the top two candidates, the race featured Jack Kennedy Schlossberg, the grandson of President John F. Kennedy who pulled in about 10.8 percent of the vote and finished third and relentless Trump critic George Conway, a one-time Republican-turned-Democrat who actually fell to fifth.
Nina Schwalbe, a health care activist was a surprise fourth place finisher, with about 7.1 percent of the vote nosing out Conway who ended up with 6.1 percent. The other candidates in the race included civil rights attorney Laura Dunn, at 1.3 percent and software engineer Chris Diep, and lawyer Patrick Timmins, both of whom pulled less than one percent.
”While this campaign may be over, the fight is just beginning,” said Bores. “We can’t meet the moment with fear and complacency,” he said. “We’re building for the future and continuing the work we started here.”
He concluded, “I can’t say I am not disappointed, but I am not discouraged...thank you and God bless.”