Crypto PACs Burn $200M on Midterms, Still Can't Beat Sherrod Brown

Sherrod Brown is heading back to the Senate. The Ohio Democrat beat Republican Jon Husted by nearly five points, flipping back the seat he lost to Bernie Moreno in 2024 — a race where Fairshake's heavy spending helped send him packing. This time, the crypto network put $56 million into trying to stop him, while Reuters reports the industry's PACs collectively spent more than $60 million against him.

Not every scorecard agrees. A separate count by Unchained, built from election filings, puts four PACs at $64.05 million in the Ohio race. Those tallies cover different committees and different spending categories, so they don't line up neatly. Federal Election Commission filings do separate money spent boosting Husted from money spent attacking Brown.

The broader bill was staggering. Crypto-linked super PACs plowed roughly $200 million into the 2026 midterms, according to Reuters. Before Election Day, three major players — Fairshake, Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress — were already tracking toward nearly $170 million. The Citation Needed tracker credits the Fairshake network alone with $154.5 million in independent expenditures, with Coinbase, Ripple and Andreessen Horowitz bankrolling the three committees behind it.

Ripple's chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, wasn't ready to call it a loss. Writing on X, he said some headlines would frame the night as a setback for crypto, but that the facts are far more nuanced — Fairshake notched significant wins in both primaries and the general election, he argued.

There's evidence for that. Reuters reports Fairshake backed 32 House candidates and won 29 of the 34 races already decided where it was involved. In Nebraska, Republican Pete Ricketts held his seat against independent Dan Osborn after Defend American Jobs spent at least $13.5 million against Osborn. Stand With Crypto's own tally, as of 1:15 a.m. ET on Nov. 4, counted 17 pro-crypto and 8 anti-crypto winners across 31 declared Senate races — though those labels follow its own criteria and can shift as results firm up.

The political backdrop makes Brown's comeback sting more. Democrats made significant gains in Congress and now carry more weight in fights over crypto rules. The CLARITY Act, meant to give US digital asset markets a clearer legal framework, failed to clear a decisive legislative hurdle in September, and Brown's return could make those negotiations tougher still. Scrutiny of ties between the industry, politicians and the administration may also intensify, per the report — that question goes well beyond campaign checks.