The crypto industry’s political spending paid off in Texas on Tuesday night. Six candidates backed by the Fairshake PAC won their primary runoff races, including a victory over a 20-year Democratic incumbent. The results mark the first time this election cycle a sitting House Democrat has lost a primary — and the industry’s biggest electoral win to date.
What happened in Texas
Fairshake poured roughly $6.5 million into supporting Christian Menefee, who defeated Rep. Al Green in the Democratic primary runoff for Texas’s 18th Congressional District. Green was the first Democratic incumbent to lose his seat this cycle. Fairshake spokesman Geoff Vetter said anti-crypto positions can have real electoral consequences and that the group will “aggressively back” leaders like Menefee.
Four other crypto-aligned candidates — Alex Mealer, Tom Sell, John Bonck, and Carlos De La Cruz — also won their respective runoff races. Fairshake spent about $1.8 million backing that quartet, bringing the PAC’s Texas outlay to around $8.3 million.
A Senate upset with crypto money
Attorney General Ken Paxton’s surprise defeat of Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican Senate primary runoff drew support from crypto-aligned donors, though Fairshake’s own filings don’t break out specific sums for that race. The industry’s presence in Paxton’s win adds to the narrative that crypto money is becoming a force in Texas politics — and that incumbents hostile to the sector are vulnerable.
What’s next: Maryland and California
The industry isn’t done. Fairshake has already spent about $2.12 million backing state lawmaker Adrian Boafo in the June Democratic primary for Maryland’s 5th Congressional District. And the PAC is expected to focus heavily on California’s top-two primary in the state’s 32nd Congressional District, where long-time crypto critic Rep. Brad Sherman faces Jake Levine, a former Biden White House official. That race could be the next test of whether crypto spending can unseat a sitting lawmaker — or if Tuesday was just the start.
