Scoop: Crypto money starts to flow into Michigan, Iowa senate races
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Two crypto groups are launching $1.5 million in ad spending to boost GOP Senate candidates in Michigan and Iowa, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: It's a preview of what could be coming.
- With fewer than 100 days until the midterm elections, there's more than $125 million in crypto cash sitting on the sidelines.
- Fairshake, the industry's biggest super PAC, is staying neutral as negotiators make an eleventh-hour push to find the 60 votes necessary to pass a market-structure bill this summer.
- That is frustrating some GOP operatives, who think it's high time to put the CLARITY Act on the floor and force Democrats to go on the record.
Driving the news: Enter First Principles Digital.
- The new PAC is placing an $800,000 ad buy to bolster former Rep. Mike Rogers ahead of his Senate primary in Michigan next week, while a related organization, America First Digital, is spending another $750,000 in favor of Rep. Ashley Hinson in Iowa.
"Mike Rogers has spent his career doing the work," Jason Thielman, executive director of both FPD and AFD, said in a statement first provided to Axios, "Now he's ready to fight to lower the cost of living and protect the American Dream for Michigan families."
- The TV and cable ad will focus on the Detroit media market. Last cycle, crypto groups spent some $10 million against Rogers in favor of now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.)
- "Rep. Ashley Hinson has built a record of taking on tough challenges and delivering meaningful results for working Iowans," Thielman said in another statement. "Our campaign will help ensure her constituents are aware of her commitment to delivering real results."
- The ad will run statewide through mid-August.
State of play: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has indicated there will be a procedural vote before the Senate leaves town.
- "We'll probably have a vote on the CLARITY Act," Thune said this week. "We'll see if the Democrats give us the votes to get on that."
The intrigue: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), one of the key Democrats negotiating the CLARITY Act, also chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
- If the crypto industry starts targeting her candidates, that could complicate — if not derail — negotiations over the bill.
- She is also being strafed -- in remarkably personal terms -- by progressives over her prominent role in crypto negotiations.
The bottom line: Party leaders and campaigns on both sides are wondering whether — and when — Fairshake will join the 2026 fray.
- The super PAC wasn't shy last cycle, spending more than $40 million to help elect Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and defeat former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).
- But Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) has yet to receive a single dollar from the group, even though he's facing Brown, who is mounting a comeback bid.
