Fairshake-backed PACs win four of five primaries; $2M attack ads fail

Fairshake-affiliated PACs backed candidates who won or advanced in Tuesday’s primaries in Alaska, Florida and Wyoming, while a targeted, more than $2 million negative ad buy failed to prevent Oliver Gilbert from winning Florida’s 24th congressional Democratic primary.

The media arms Protect Progress and Defend American Jobs spent about $3.6 million combined on House and Senate races across the three states. Protect Progress backed Democratic Representative Lois Frankel in Florida’s 23rd district with more than $150,000 in supportive ads. Defend American Jobs spent roughly $1.5 million combined to support Republican Nick Begich in Alaska’s at-large race, Republican Sydney Gruters in Florida’s 16th district and Representative Harriet Hageman in Wyoming’s Senate primary. Gruters and Hageman won their primaries; Begich is expected to advance in Alaska’s next stage.

In Florida’s 24th district Democratic primary, Oliver Gilbert won with 34.4% of the vote, defeating Shevrin Jones and Kendrick Meek. Protect Progress funded more than $2 million in negative ads aimed at Gilbert. Some of those ads used newspaper-style headlines that misrepresented his positions; the PAC maintained the ads’ underlying facts were accurate. Gilbert accused “Trump’s tech billionaire buddies” of backing “crypto con artists trying to buy a Democratic primary.” He did not reference the ads or the cryptocurrency industry in his victory remarks.

Fairshake reported holding a $193 million balance as of January. The committee funded more than $130 million in pro-crypto ads during the 2024 cycle and had spent over $82 million on races ahead of the 2026 midterms as of June. Following the primary results, Geoff Vetter, a Fairshake spokesperson, described the effort as “just getting started building the largest pro-crypto Congress in history.”

Both the House and Senate are in recess until September. The Senate is scheduled to consider a cloture motion on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in September; the House approved the bill in July by a 294-134 vote. Some Senate Democrats have pushed for additional ethics provisions related to private cryptocurrency holdings tied to the Trump family.

Lawmakers elected in November 2026 will oversee rulemaking and oversight that affect digital-asset market structure and investor protections. The four Fairshake-supported candidates who won or are expected to advance will proceed toward general election contests in November 2026.