With $200m to spend on the midterms, crypto hopes to repeat its 2024 success: ‘It’s the most critical time’

With the first primaries of the US midterm elections now under way, the cryptocurrency industry is injecting millions of dollars into congressional races across the country, with particular emphasis on Illinois, which has attracted the bulk of the campaign financing. Arkansas, Alabama and Texas have also drawn the industry’s donations.

Crypto Pacs, firms and investors have already spent $32m supporting industry-friendly candidates and opposing its detractors, according to Federal Election Commission data, building on the industry’s expansive spending in the 2024 presidential election.

The bulk of that comes from Fairshake, a crypto-backed Super Pac, and its affiliates. Heading into 2026, Fairshake held more than $193m in cash, FEC filings show, making it the most heavily funded Super Pac of this election cycle.

To the crypto industry, the midterms present an opportunity to cement nascent Trump-era gains and future-proof against a backslide into regulatory limbo. Despite electing a president who dreams of the US as the “crypto capital of the world”, the industry now needs Congress to agree.

“This is the biggest legislative agenda that crypto has ever seen. So, it’s the most critical time to make sure that we have pro-crypto voters in Congress, because there’s a lot that needs to get done,” said Summer Mersinger, CEO of the Blockchain Association, whose Pac has spent $38,500 this election cycle.

The industry’s most urgent legislative priority is passing the Clarity act, a regulatory crypto framework that would remove legal risks and, the industry says, unleash institutional capital. The bill has, however, stalled in the Senate amid gridlocked negotiations. It must advance to a floor vote by July before Congress breaks for the midterms or face an uncertain future.

A boost for Republicans

The industry has already dipped into 28 federal battlegrounds this election. While crypto lobbyists insist the industry’s approach is bipartisan, the majority of spending in those contests flows to Republican candidates. Likewise, in 2024, roughly two-thirds of spending was directed towards supporting Republicans and opposing Democrats.

“Spending will likely lean towards Republicans again this cycle, who have historically been more supportive when it comes to crypto,” said one lobbyist, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The House banking committee, which oversees the financial services industry, is led by the Republican French Hill as chair, followed by the Democrat Maxine Waters as the ranking member. Hill is one of crypto’s chief advocates, while Waters is one of its staunchest adversaries. Should the Democrats regain the House as expected, Waters is set to become chair.

“A chairman who is not pro-crypto can delay or complicate the next step on legislative effort. You have influence. You can try to represent the party line,” the lobbyist said.

Hill received a $4m boost from the crypto industry going into the Republican House primary in Arkansas last week. He won by a landslide.

In the 2024 elections, throwing on a “Make Bitcoin Great Again” cap could prove lucrative. Today, however, the industry has classified some 500 federal politicians as “pro-crypto”, so lobbyists are targeting competitive races and candidates on committees overseeing market structure.

“We’re not just blindly supporting folks that are supportive of crypto. This is a large amount of money being spent in a few key places in a way that most advantages the industry going forward,” said Colin McLaren, head of government relations at Solana Policy Institute, who worked on spending at Fairshake in 2024. “There are plenty of people who will come and say: ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m polling at 10% but I’m really pro-crypto. Can you come in and help me?’”

McLaren predicted Fairshake will swoop in during the final weeks of a close, expensive race “where every dollar counts” and there’s a candidate with got a strong crypto voting record.

The biggest midterm crypto battleground: Illinois

Illinois has attracted the most crypto spending so far, with $14.2m deployed before a 17 March primary.

The top target is the lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, a Democrat running for the US Senate. Fairshake and its affiliates have spent $10m on attack ads opposing her campaign.

“Stratton isn’t being honest about who she is,” one ad opens. Another labels her part of the “Madigan machine”, referring to former Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan, who is serving a prison sentence for corruption, though there is no evidence that she was involved in his crimes.

Stratton has dismissed the campaign, calling Fairshake a “Trump-aligned Super Pac”.

The lieutenant governor has no track record on crypto, but her boss does: her campaign is backed by Illinois governor JB Pritzker, a billionaire who, alongside his wife, has donated $6mn to the Super Pac supporting her candidacy. While Stratton served as lieutenant governor, Pritzker signed laws creating state-level crypto regulations, undermining the Clarity act’s attempt to set a federal framework. The industry sees her as likely to follow in Pritzker’s footsteps.

“While Trump lets crypto bros write federal policy, Illinois is implementing common-sense protections for investors and consumers,” Pritzker wrote on X in August. “We won’t tolerate fraudsters.”

Stratton’s main opponent in the primary is the Democratic representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, who has received $25,300 from crypto companies and executives. A pro-industry ally, Krishnamoorthi voted in favour of both crypto bills that passed the House last year, and has “expressed strong support for establishing a clear, pro-innovation regulatory framework for digital assets”, according to the advocacy organisation Stand With Crypto.

In Chicago, Fairshake has spent almost $2.5m on attack ads against state representative La Shawn Ford. Last August, Ford voted in favour of creating state-level crypto regulations – what Stand With Crypto described as “regulatory burdens that undermine the work Congress is doing to create a federal, nationwide standard”.

“They’ve been blasting me nonstop – on TV, radio, mailers, you name it,” Ford said. The ads center on a federal tax fraud charge brought against him in 2012, though they omit that prosecutors later dropped all felony charges. “Corruption, fraud, self-dealing,” the narrator of one ad says.

“[Fairshake] is trying to tarnish his character,” said the representative Danny Davis, who is retiring after three decades representing Illinois’s seventh congressional district and has endorsed Ford as his successor. “It’s a big effort to change people’s minds based on untrue statements.”

Cashing in

The representative Barry Moore of Alabama, a veteran crypto advocate in Congress, which he has doubled down on under the Trump administration, is the industry’s most generously funded candidate to date. His Senate campaign will receive $5m from one of Fairshake’s pro-crypto Pacs, it said in February. The open seat is a competitive race.

Some candidates are finding the industry’s dollars are there for the taking. The representative Christian Menefee faced Al Green in a Democratic primary in Houston, Texas, on 3 March, in a race that will advance to a runoff in May. As a senior member of the House financial services committee, Green has been a persistent thorn in the industry’s side, voting against every pro-crypto bill to pass the House. Menefee, who had no track record on crypto, recently signalled his support.

“We should make sure the next generation of blockchain innovation is built in America,” he told Stand With Crypto in a January questionnaire.

Within a month, a crypto Pac had donated more than $1.5m to his campaign – a boost of roughly 60%.

Texas Republican Jessica Steinmann similarly declared herself “a strong supporter of digital assets” and, despite having no voting history on crypto, received almost $800,000 from the industry in February, going on to win the Republican primary on 3 March.

Lessons from 2024

Crypto lobbyists are hoping to emulate their success from the 2024 federal elections. Fairshake and its affiliates spent roughly $130m on candidates, with 80% of the 68 congressional races they intervened in going their way. This included supporting 28 candidates in the general election, of whom 23 won, a success rate of more than 90%.

The question now is where the remaining war chest will be deployed. Candidates who sit – or have sat – on key congressional committees overseeing regulation of financial markets are likely to draw particular attention.

One possible target is the Democrat Sherrod Brown, who is mounting a comeback bid in Ohio. As the former Senate banking committee chair, Brown was a vocal adversary of the industry. Crypto fought him with fire: industry lobbyists spent $40m successfully defeating his Senate campaign in 2024, making Brown into their No 1 enemy.

Bracing for another onslaught, his campaign raised $14m last year, and has softened its tone. Brown “recognises that cryptocurrency is a part of America’s economy. He’ll keep an open mind towards all issues as they come before the Senate,” campaign manager Patrick Eisenhauer said.

But it may not be enough to placate the industry’s concerns.

“He showed his colors in the past. Can you change that dramatically overnight? Or is he going to go back to his old ways?” asked the crypto lobbyist.

Meanwhile, crypto’s financial ties to Trump himself have only deepened. Last year, crypto-focused firms and investors donated more than $50m to Maga Inc, the president’s main Super Pac, which now holds $310m in cash – more than any Pac has ever held heading into a midterm year, according to the Financial Times.