Fairshake's $30M Ohio Encore: Sherrod Brown Draws Crypto's Wrath Round Two 🎯

Fairshake, the political action committee funded largely by Coinbase, Ripple Labs, and Andreessen Horowitz, plans to spend $30 million opposing Democrat Sherrod Brown's bid to return to the US Senate in Ohio, according to reports from the New York Times and Politico and confirmed by the PAC to Cointelegraph. Fairshake spokesperson Geoff Vetter said the PAC expects to announce additional expenditures before the November 3 midterms. The planned spending marks the second consecutive cycle Fairshake has targeted Brown, a former Senate Banking Committee chair whose crypto-skeptical stance made him a recurring industry target.

In 2024, Fairshake spent roughly $40 million, and combined with other PACs more than $300 million was directed at Brown's race, helping Republican Bernie Moreno unseat the incumbent by about four points. Brown is now challenging Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed to the Senate in January 2025 to replace JD Vance after Vance became vice president. Husted, a former Ohio lieutenant governor, currently holds the seat. Brown's campaign manager Patrick Eisenhauer said in a statement, "Of course the special interests are panicking, they know Sherrod will fight the rigged system they're feasting on to stand up for working Ohioans." Cointelegraph reached out to Brown's campaign but did not receive an immediate response.

The $30 million announcement comes days after the Senate blocked the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which would have established federal rules for crypto markets and divided oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The Senate voted 49-50 against cloture on a motion to proceed to the bill, which needed 60 votes to advance. All Democrats present voted against advancing the bill, along with Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, and Jerry Moran, while Republican Sen. Thom Tillis changed his vote to "no" for procedural reasons to allow the bill to be reintroduced later. The vote left little time to revive the legislation before the midterms, according to Politico.

Coinbase-backed advocacy group Stand With Crypto also warned of electoral consequences after the vote, saying it would add senators' votes to its lawmaker scorecards as it mobilizes supporters ahead of the election. Fairshake, which says it supports candidates from both parties who favor crypto-friendly policies, had raised $116 million for the 2026 elections by January 2025 and reported $108 million remaining at the end of August, with Vetter saying in August the PAC had a $122 million war chest ahead of the election. Vetter declined to comment on the PAC's midterm strategy.

Fairshake is one of many cryptocurrency-aligned groups attempting to influence 2026 midterm races, when control of the House and Senate is up for grabs. As of Monday, many event contracts on prediction market platforms like Kalshi gave Democrats the odds on retaking a majority in both chambers.