Fairshake PACs spend $7.2M on five states’ primaries

Political action committees affiliated with Fairshake reported $7.2 million in media expenditures to support candidates in Georgia, Texas, Nebraska, Alabama and Kentucky ahead of May primary contests, according to Federal Election Commission filings submitted this week.

Two Fairshake-linked PACs accounted for the spending. Protect Progress, which generally backs Democratic candidates, disclosed about $1.6 million in expenditures for Jasmine Clark in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District and Christian Menefee in Texas’ 18th District. Clark faces a May 19 Democratic primary and Menefee is scheduled for a May 26 runoff against Representative Al Green. Protect Progress described Green as “actively hostile towards a growing Texas crypto community” and said it planned to spend roughly $1.5 million to oppose his reelection.

Defend American Jobs, a Fairshake affiliate that typically supports Republican candidates, reported roughly $5.6 million in media spending across races in Georgia’s 1st and 14th districts, Nebraska’s 3rd district and U.S. Senate contests in Alabama and Kentucky. The largest single media outlay was more than $3.5 million in advertising supporting Representative Andy Barr in his U.S. Senate bid in Kentucky. The PAC also disclosed about $514,000 in advertising supporting Republican James Baird’s reelection campaign in Indiana and additional media expenditures in Texas and Illinois races this year.

Fairshake reported holding $193 million in assets as of January. Company disclosures show Fairshake and affiliated PACs spent more than $130 million on political advertising in 2024.

Lawmakers are considering several pieces of legislation related to digital assets that could affect members’ relationships with crypto industry backers. A market-structure bill for digital assets known as the CLARITY Act is under discussion in Congress. Senate negotiators last week announced a compromise on stablecoin yield that could allow the CLARITY Act to move to markup in the Senate Banking Committee; as of Thursday the committee had not scheduled that markup.

Cody Carbone, chief executive of The Digital Chamber, said, “I do think it is critically important that every single member of Congress have a position on crypto, it’s part of their election campaign and their platform, and voters are going to be paying attention to this.”

Representative Andy Barr has publicly supported pro-crypto policy and voted for measures including the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act. The FEC filings provide a record of how industry-funded groups directed media spending into primary contests ahead of key dates in May.