Stand With Crypto Targets Senate Control With First Bipartisan Endorsements Ahead of Midterms
The Coinbase-backed advocacy group is leveraging its three-million-member network to target key Senate races after the Clarity Act failed by a single vote.
Ohio’s U.S. Senate race has become the central battleground for the cryptocurrency industry’s political ambitions, with Stand With Crypto backing Republican Jon Husted against former Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown in a contest that could reshape digital asset oversight for years.
The endorsement marks the first time the Coinbase-founded advocacy group has weighed in on Senate races. It arrives roughly four weeks before the November 2026 midterm elections and immediately follows the collapse of the Clarity Act, which failed to advance through the Senate last month on a 49-50 vote. Democrats voted as a unified bloc against the market structure bill, citing concerns over President Donald Trump’s personal crypto holdings and potential conflicts of interest.
Brown represents exactly the type of institutional resistance the industry is attempting to dismantle at the ballot box. As a former chair of the Senate Banking Committee—the panel responsible for drafting cryptocurrency legislation and overseeing the Securities and Exchange Commission—his return to Washington would restore one of Capitol Hill’s most vocal critics of unregulated digital assets to a position of direct legislative influence. The Fairshake super PAC has already deployed $30 million in advertising specifically targeting Brown’s campaign in Ohio.
Unlike traditional political action committees, Stand With Crypto does not issue direct campaign checks. Operating under a grassroots mobilization model, it relies on its Voter Hub platform to grade candidates and activate a network Executive Director Mason Lynaugh says now exceeds three million advocates. This structural distinction separates it from the broader torrent of industry money flooding the 2026 cycle. Combined spending by crypto-aligned political committees, led primarily by Fairshake, has approached $200 million this election season, dwarfing the roughly $119 million the sector deployed during the 2024 cycle when it successfully helped flip several key House seats.
While the Ohio matchup carries the heaviest regulatory implications, the organization expanded its Senate slate across party lines. In Iowa, Stand With Crypto endorsed Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson for her Senate bid. In New Hampshire, it backed Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas, who is running against former Republican Sen. John Sununu. The bipartisan approach reflects a strategic calculation born out of the Clarity Act’s defeat: with the Senate evenly divided, the industry cannot afford to rely exclusively on one party to reach the 60-vote threshold required to overcome filibusters on financial regulation bills.
On the House side, the group added Alabama Democrat Shomari Figures and Iowa Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks to its roster. These picks build on an August wave where the organization endorsed 32 sitting House members it classified as proven digital asset policy champions. Advertising buys are accelerating in six targeted House districts where margins remain tight enough for outside voter mobilization to alter outcomes.
The aggressive electoral posture stems directly from the Clarity Act fallout. Following the September procedural vote, Stand With Crypto explicitly warned lawmakers that their positions would be recorded on its public scorecard and used to drive voter behavior. The failure of the bill, which was designed to establish definitive jurisdictional boundaries between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, leaves the U.S. without a comprehensive federal framework for digital asset markets heading into the next Congress.
Bitcoin is trading near $83,662, reflecting broader market consolidation as traders await clarity on whether the incoming Congress will revive market structure legislation or pivot toward narrower stablecoin-focused bills.
