Fairshake Blew Past Its $30M Ohio Pledge. Now It’s at $46M.
The crypto super PAC network shattered its own $30 million spending floor to keep the former Banking Committee chair out of the Senate.
An Oct. 15 Federal Election Commission filing signed by Defend American Jobs logged a $5.2 million media buy against Sherrod Brown. Days later, another $1.95 million went out the door for production and placement costs. The calendar-year total to block the former Senate Banking Committee chairman from returning to Washington now sits at roughly $46.66 million.
That number obliterates the $30 million floor Fairshake signaled earlier this cycle. No other 2026 race has drawn this kind of sustained financial hostility from the cryptocurrency sector.
Brown lost his seat in 2024 after Fairshake pumped approximately $40 million into that contest. Jon Husted, appointed last year to fill the vacancy, is drawing parallel support from the same super PAC network. A Brown victory would reinstall a lawmaker who spent years using his committee gavel to stall digital asset market-structure bills on Capitol Hill.
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The Senate expenditure dwarfs what the industry is doing anywhere else on the map. When the Clarity Act passed the House in July 2025, it hit a wall in the upper chamber. That legislative failure directly triggered the current spending architecture.
Defend American Jobs operates as Fairshake’s affiliate for Republican-leaning contests. The broader network entered September holding about $120 million in cash reserves. Total expenditures across both chambers are projected to exceed $100 million before voters go to the polls.
House races received their own injection on Oct. 5. Fairshake announced backing for 32 incumbents — 19 Republicans, 13 Democrats — all of whom voted to advance the Clarity Act. Six lawmakers secured immediate $1 million commitments each: French Hill, Bill Huizenga, Bryan Steil, Janelle Bynum, Steven Horsford and Derek Tran.
Coinbase, Ripple and Andreessen Horowitz bankroll the operation. Stand With Crypto, an advocacy group backed by Coinbase, runs a separate endorsement slate alongside these direct expenditures.
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