Crypto campaign cash from Fairshake flooded Southern primaries, picked winners

The crypto industry's campaign-finance juggernaut, the Fairshake political action committee, backed winners in half a dozen Southern primaries on Tuesday, pouring millions of dollars into the races as one of the congressional midterms elections' leading spenders.

The super PAC deployed more than $20 million in political advertising in three states, mostly to Republican candidates who are considered likely to win their deep-red regions in the November general elections. So far this year, Fairshake — which has in previous election cycles helped get dozens of pro-crypto candidates to Washington — has backed a lengthy list of primary winners, though it did experience some setbacks, most notably in the Illinois race in which it spent more than $10 million trying to defeat Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton on her way to her Democratic primary victory in March.

Fairshake devoted more than $7 million each in Tuesday's Senate primaries in Alabama and Kentucky. It backed Republican U.S. Representative Andy Barr in Kentucky to replace the longtime Senate powerhouse Mitch McConnell, and Barr won that primary handily with more than 60% of the vote. In Alabama, the $7.4 million spent by Fairshake didn't quite get to a resolution, yet, because Representative Barry Moore didn't get past the 50% mark despite leading his closest competitor by more than 13 percentage points, so the crypto-backed candidate will face a runoff."Fairshake's 6-0 sweep tonight was a clear victory for pro-crypto leaders across the country," said Geoff Vetter, a spokesperson for Fairshake, in a statement. "This powerful bipartisan mandate is being heard across America from Georgia to Alabama to Kentucky."

In Georgia, the PAC focused on four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, including a Democratic primary in the district left vacant after the death of longtime Democratic Representative David Scott. In the district, Fairshake supported Jasmine Clark, a Democratic state lawmaker who dominated a crowded field in this week's primary after getting $4.2 million in crypto ad spending.

Such spending far outstripped the organic campaign fundraising in that race, with the crypto funds totaling more than was raised by all 10 Democratic candidates and far more than Clark's own $1.2 million brought in by her campaign directly.

Clark's campaign had included a supporting statement for crypto technology, which has often been the case with candidates Fairshake devoted its millions.

"We need to reassert ourselves as a leader on emerging technologies — whether that be AI, blockchain or cryptocurrencies — by working with experts to craft a smart, clear regulatory framework to help the industry grow and protect consumers from bad actors," Clark's campaign website declared.

Across Georgia, Fairshake also poured lesser amounts of cash into Republican primaries, backing candidates Jim Kingston (who won with 52%), Houston Gaines (who won with 67%) and incumbent Representative Clay Fuller (who had previously prevailed in a special election in April to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene and won this week with 81%).

Super PACs buy their ads without consultation with the campaigns they're supporting, and Fairshake's strategy has been to run ads designed to support or oppose candidates on whatever political points the committee sees as most effective — almost never mentioning the issue of cryptocurrency.