WASHINGTON — The cryptocurrency industry is going to spend millions to punish Democrats for voting down its priority legislation, targeting a key Democratic Senate candidate in a move many party operatives argue proves the industry’s professed bipartisanship is a mirage.
The group Fairshake, a super PAC funded by the biggest companies in crypto, announced in The New York Times on Monday it would dump $30 million to fight former Sen. Sherrod Brown’s bid to return to the Senate by unseating Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio). A victory for Brown, who has led every poll of the race conducted since August, is considered an essential part of Democrats’ path to winning back control of Congress’ upper chamber.
“Jon Husted’s for sale and the billionaires and corporations pouring millions into this race know it,” Brown campaign manager Patrick Eisenhauer said in a statement.
All Senate Democrats voted against the “Digital Asset Market Clarity Act,” a bill that would establish friendly regulations for crypto and protect it from the sort of aggressive oversight it experienced during President Joe Biden’s administration. A group of about a dozen Democrats provided input on the bill, but voted against it because Republicans wouldn’t go along with provisions to stop President Donald Trump from continuing to earn billions of dollars from crypto while in office.
The crypto industry has spent hundreds of millions on congressional campaigns since 2024, including $41 million on ads to oust Brown last cycle. Brown has since moderated his criticism of the industry, and his campaign’s statement on Monday didn’t mention crypto, instead calling Husted the “face of spreading hundreds of data centers across Ohio while raising utility rates.”
In a fundraising email, Brown warned supporters Big Tech spending contributed to his defeat in 2024.
A Husted campaign spokeswoman said it’s “understandable that Sherrod Brown is panicking about the onslaught of ads coming his way ― after failing hardworking Ohio families for 50 years, he must be terrified of having his abysmal record splashed across TV screens.”
After the Clarity Act failed, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who is both the chair of Senate Democrats’ main campaign organization and a top industry ally, put out a statement reiterating pro-crypto Democrats’ commitment to ultimately passing the legislation.
“This week was a setback, but not the end of that important work. We remain committed to working in a bipartisan fashion to get this legislation passed,” Gillibrand said in a joint statement with Sens. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.).
Despite their seeming commitment to the bill, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), the leading crypto advocate in Congress, said it was dead.
“I’m not optimistic that they can find it in their hearts to support American innovation,” Lummis told HuffPost.
Asked if she believed Gillibrand put out the statement in order to discourage crypto from spending money against Democrats, Lummis said she didn’t know.
Democratic campaign operatives grumbled that by targeting Brown, who didn’t even vote on the Clarity Act since he’s not currently a senator, and not any of the four Republicans who did vote against the bill, Fairshake seemed to be dropping any pretense that it’s not a partisan organization.
“So, nothing against Republican Susan Collins, who voted against the Clarity Act, and $30 million against Sherrod Brown, who did not even vote on the Clarity Act. But this is a non-partisan group? Got it,” Chris Meagher, a former Pentagon spokesperson during the Biden administration, said on social media.
Fairshake did not respond to a request for comment.