Crypto PAC spends $11M to oppose Sherrod Brown in Ohio

What happened

Source: FED Cointelegraph reached out to Husted’s and Brown’s campaigns for comment but did not receive an immediate response. The Republican won the election with 50.2% of the vote to Brown’s 46.4%.

Fairshake pledged an initial $30 million on media opposing the Democratic candidate in Ohio’s Senate race in what some see as a repeat of spending by the crypto industry in 2024. 24 filing from Defend American Jobs PAC.

In 2024, the Ohio Senate race between Brown, then an incumbent, and Republican Bernie Moreno resulted in more than $300 million in spending from outside groups like Fairshake. FEC records showed that the crypto-aligned PAC and its affiliates alone spent about $41 million to oppose Brown and support Moreno.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a co-founder of the digital asset management company Strive, ran as a Republican in the 2024 US presidential election and often spoke favorably about crypto and blockchain. His PAC, “V-PAC: Victors, Not Victims,” also included donations totaling $20 million from Susquehanna International Group co-founder Jeff Yass, $6 million from NYDIG founder Ross Stevens and $5,000 from the Bitcoin Voter Project. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.