- Fairshake affiliate Defend American Jobs has disclosed new spending against Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, bringing its total opposition outlay to approximately $46.66 million.
- The Ohio race is now the crypto industry’s most expensive 2026 target, surpassing the roughly $40 million Fairshake spent to influence Brown’s 2024 loss.
- The Senate blitz follows Fairshake’s Oct. 5 announcement backing 32 House incumbents with an initial $6 million commitment to six candidates.
Crypto’s biggest political spender is escalating its campaign against one of the industry’s fiercest critics. A Federal Election Commission filing signed Oct. 15 shows Defend American Jobs, the Fairshake affiliate active in Republican-friendly races, disclosed a $5.2 million media buy opposing Brown, followed by another roughly $1.95 million purchase days later, plus media-production costs, according to the official filing.
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. Fairshake spent roughly $40 million to help engineer that defeat.
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 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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