Crypto Industry Committing $12M to Dethrone Sen. Brown in Ohio, PAC Says

The crypto industry’s leading political action committee, Fairshake, announced three U.S. Senate races it intends to spend major amounts to influence in Ohio, Arizona and Michigan.

The Ohio race pits a crypto ally, Bernie Moreno, against the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who has been reluctant to allow crypto legislation to advance in his committee.

Crypto interests are planning to go after Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in their biggest-ever single campaign, setting aside $12 million to support the Republican candidate seeking to snatch the Senate seat from the current chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, who has been highly critical of the digital assets sector and reluctant to embrace crypto legislation.

The organizers of the Fairshake political action committee (PAC) and its affiliates said Tuesday that they’re reserving TV advertising time in Ohio and two other key states – Arizona and Michigan. They’re targeting $12 million in Ohio airtime to push for Republican candidate Bernie Moreno, a blockchain businessman, and they’re devoting about $3 million each to advocate for U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) in the Arizona Senate race and Rep. Elisa Slotkin (D-Mich.) in her Senate race in Michigan.

“Our mission is clear – support candidates who embrace innovation, want to protect American jobs and are committed to working across the aisle to get things done and oppose those who do not,” Fairshake spokesman Josh Vlasto said in a statement. The group is aiming for a “sustainable bipartisan coalition and a consensus that there is an urgent need to pass responsible crypto and blockchain-focused regulation.”

This opening round of general-election Senate support follows a recent announcement from Fairshake that it would be backing 18 members of the House of Representatives in the November elections. All were incumbents, so far, and had records of supporting crypto in office.

The group’s ads during its involvement with dozens of races in the primaries – with few exceptions – haven’t mentioned the crypto positions of the candidates being supported or opposed.

Fairshake and its related PACs – the Democrat-oriented Protect Progress and the Republican-focused Defend American Jobs – will also devote resources to digital ads that specifically target crypto users, the group said.

The crypto industry’s PACs are among the biggest by dollar amount in the 2024 elections, rivaling other major U.S. industries and the parties’ own inside funding. Fairshake has focused so far on congressional races and steered clear of the presidential contest, and it’s carefully divided its support across party lines. The $10 million it spent toward derailing the Senate bid of Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) marked the most it’s previously channeled into a single race.

Edited by Nikhilesh De.