Crypto, AI and betting firms fuel record elections spending

Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram, donated $65 million to four different super PACs to spend backing candidates from both parties on state races in California, Texas, Illinois and elsewhere. The company declined to comment.

Counting all political spending, including donations from billionaires, labor groups and social causes, $11.6 billion is expected to be spent on political ads for the midterms — breaking the 2023-2024 cycle's record of $11.2 billion, according to political advertising research firm AdImpact.

Political disruptors

The crypto industry openly backed candidates that supported its policies — regardless of party — and spent millions to end the political careers of those who didn't.

Companies Coinbase and Ripple, along with California venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, spent heavily in 2024 through their Fairshake super PAC to help unseat longtime incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown from his Senate seat in Ohio.

The strategy was so effective (Public Citizen called its super PAC Fairshake a corporate Death Star that could "annihilate individual candidates"), strategists say Big Tech, sports betting and other industries are copying it.

As chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Brown was one of the industry's most vocal critics in Congress, but strategists say he's been quiet on crypto — even conciliatory — as he seeks to return to the Senate. Campaign manager Patrick Eisenhauer said Brown "recognizes that cryptocurrency is part of America's economy" and is keeping an open mind.

Fairshake started the year with a $193 million war chest and has about $130 million left to spend, filings show. It was financed almost entirely by Coinbase and Ripple as well as Andreessen Horowitz.