WASHINGTON — Political action committees backed by the cryptocurrency industry have spent more than $60 million on ads and messaging in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race, supporting Republican Sen. Jon Husted and opposing Democrat Sherrod Brown, according to an analysis released Nov. 2 by Americans for Financial Reform.
The coalition, which advocates for stronger regulation of the financial industry, said the Ohio contest has drawn a large share of the crypto PACs’ total spending this cycle.
According to the analysis, Defend American Jobs, an affiliate of the crypto super PAC Fairshake, spent more than $55 million in Ohio between Sept. 21 and Oct. 26. The group said that amounts to more than half of the PAC’s national independent expenditures since the start of 2025.
The analysis said Defend American Jobs spent more than $36 million supporting Husted and $19.7 million opposing Brown. That spending makes it the third-largest independent expenditure spender in the state, behind the Senate Leadership Fund’s SLF PAC and WinSenate, the group said.
A second PAC, Digital Freedom Fund, which the group described as backed by the Winklevoss twins, spent $3 million supporting Husted and $4 million opposing Brown, according to the analysis. It said that PAC’s spending during the period went almost entirely to Ohio, with smaller amounts in Texas and Iowa races.
Both PACs spent more in Ohio this cycle than in previous years, and all of their messaging in the race backed Husted or opposed Brown, the group said.
Americans for Financial Reform counted 13 communications expenditures of more than $1 million each. The two largest, $11.3 million and $10.2 million, were media buys by Defend American Jobs supporting Husted, according to the analysis. The group said one highlighted Husted’s biography and the other criticized Brown’s votes on the gas tax, the IRS and Social Security, and that the ads typically do not mention cryptocurrency.
The group noted that Brown served as the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee during his previous time in the Senate and has called for oversight of crypto firms. It said Husted co-sponsored and voted for the industry-supported GENIUS and CLARITY acts.
The analysis cited Federal Election Commission records for Defend American Jobs.
This report is based on information from Americans for Financial Reform.
Source: Americans for Financial Reform
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