The crypto industry has become the largest single issue spender in American elections. Public Citizen counts more than 200 million dollars contributed by crypto tied organisations in the 2026 cycle, outpacing online betting and data centre groups in federal corporate political spending. The Fairshake network is backing 33 House candidates, 19 Republicans and 14 Democrats, with at least 1 million dollars behind each of six incumbents including House Financial Services chair French Hill and digital assets subcommittee chair Bryan Steil. Coinbase and Ripple each gave 25 million dollars to Fairshake’s midterm effort in 2025.
The centre of the map is Ohio. Fairshake says it has already spent 55 million dollars opposing Sherrod Brown, the former Senate Banking Committee chair who stalled market structure legislation and whom the industry spent about 40 million dollars to unseat in 2024. Brown is running against incumbent Republican Jon Husted; a Marist poll of October 15 to 18 put Brown four points ahead, inside its 4.5 point margin of error.
The policy stake is explicit. The Clarity Act, the bipartisan market structure bill, stalled in the Senate in September after Democrats objected that it did too little to stop senior officials profiting from crypto ventures. If it does not advance before year end, the next Congress starts from scratch. Regulator guidance from a friendly SEC and OCC lasts only as long as the administration, which is why the industry is spending at this scale to shape the Congress that would write the permanent rules.
Status: reported spending, per Federal Election Commission based counts and the PAC’s own statements. Tuesday’s results will show whether the 2024 playbook, which spent about 250 million dollars and reshaped the last Congress, still converts money into seats at the same rate.