Crypto PACs escalate spending against Sherrod Brown in Ohio Senate race

Affiliates of the Fairshake political action committee (PAC), largely funded by Coinbase and Ripple Labs, have increased their initially announced expenditures by more than 50% in what could be a key race for control of Congress in 2026.

According to Thursday filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Fairshake affiliate Defend American Jobs — a group that supports Republican candidates in primaries and elections — spent $46.6 million on media opposing former lawmaker Sherrod Brown and supporting Republican incumbent Jon Husted in Ohio’s Senate race for the 2026 midterms. The spending marked a sharp increase over what Fairshake said in September it initially planned to spend opposing Brown’s return to the Senate: $30 million.

“I’ve spent my career taking on Wall Street, taking on big pharma, taking on big oil and been successful in many cases,” said Brown in an interview aired Friday on Pod Save America, addressing the attack ads funded by the crypto industry, adding:

“Jon Husted is their boy [...] They know he’s their guy, they know I’m going to hold him accountable and I guess it’s a perfect storm, so they spend literally tens and tens of millions of dollars.”

With just under three weeks until the US election, early voting has already been underway for 10 days in Ohio. Notably, Fairshake’s affiliate was not the only crypto-aligned PAC to ramp up spending as Ohio voters cast their ballots. The Digital Freedom Fund, a Super PAC created by Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, reported about $3 million in ad spending this week to oppose Brown and support Husted, bringing the group’s total media purchases in the Ohio race to more than $5.9 million.