In brief
- A new FEC filing shows Fairshake affiliate Defend American Jobs disclosed spending to oppose the Ohio Democrat has increased to about $46.66 million—the industry’s most expensive 2026 target.
- Brown, a longtime crypto skeptic, chaired the Senate Banking Committee before losing in 2024, a race Fairshake spent ~$40 million to influence.
- The blitz follows Fairshake’s Oct. 5 move to back 32 House incumbents with $6 million committed to six.
Crypto’s biggest political spender is turning up the pressure on one of the industry’s fiercest critics. Fairshake has reported fresh spending to defeat Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, pushing its total outlay against the former Senate Banking Committee chairman well past the $40 million mark.
A filing with the Federal Election Commission, signed Oct. 15, shows Defend American Jobs, the Fairshake affiliate that spends in Republican-friendly races, disclosed a $5.2 million media buy opposing Brown, followed by another roughly $1.95 million buy days later, plus media-production costs.
The filing lists Brown’s calendar-year-to-date total at about $46.66 million, cementing the Ohio contest as the most expensive target of the crypto industry’s 2026 campaign. The same filing showed parallel spending supporting Brown’s Republican opponent, Jon Husted, who inherited the seat after being appointed last year.
The sums dwarf what Fairshake is deploying elsewhere, underscoring how personal the Ohio race has become for the industry. The PAC earlier signaled plans to spend at least $30 million against Brown, a figure this filing shows it has already blown past.
Brown’s return to the Senate would hand crypto skeptics a powerful voice on the Banking Committee, the same perch from which he stalled market-structure legislation before losing his seat in 2024, a defeat Fairshake spent roughly $40 million to help engineer.
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→The renewed Senate blitz comes days after Fairshake broadened its map to the House. On Oct. 5, the PAC network announced it would back 32 House incumbents, 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats, framing itself as an issue-focused group that supports “pro-crypto candidates who support American innovation in both parties.”
It committed an initial $6 million, or $1 million each, to six of them: Republicans French Hill, Bill Huizenga and Bryan Steil, and Democrats Janelle Bynum, Steven Horsford and Derek Tran. All 32 voted to advance the Clarity Act when it passed the House in July 2025.
Fairshake, funded largely by Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen Horowitz, entered September with roughly $120 million in cash and is expected to spend more than $100 million across House and Senate races this cycle. Its push runs alongside the Coinbase-backed advocacy group Stand With Crypto, which has rolled out its own slate of midterm endorsements.
The spending reflects the industry’s hardened resolve after the Clarity Act stalled in the Senate, channeling its considerable war chest into reshaping the Congress that will decide crypto’s rules.
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