After Clarity Act Fails, Crypto Super PAC Fairshake Targets Sherrod Brown With $30 Million

In brief

Fairshake plans to spend $30 million opposing Sherrod Brown in Ohio.
The group spent roughly $40 million helping defeat Brown in 2024.
The announcement follows the Senate’s failure to advance the Clarity Act.

Crypto super PAC Fairshake plans to spend $30 million opposing former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s bid to return to Congress, days after the Senate blocked the Clarity Act.

Fairshake confirmed the plan to target Brown, who is challenging Republican Sen. Jon Husted in an Ohio race that could help determine control of the Senate, Politico reported.

Myriad: Will Congress pass the Clarity Act? Click to make your prediction.

“Of course the special interests are panicking, they know Sherrod will fight the rigged system they’re feasting on to stand up for working Ohioans,” Brown’s campaign manager, Patrick Eisenhauer, said in a statement.

Husted, a former Ohio lieutenant governor, was appointed to the Senate in January 2025 to replace JD Vance after Vance became vice president.

The new campaign would be the second against Brown. In 2024, Fairshake spent roughly $40 million to help Republican Bernie Moreno unseat Brown, whose crypto skepticism and leadership of the Senate Banking Committee made him a major industry target.

The latest spending announcement follows the Senate’s rejection of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which would establish federal rules for crypto markets and divide oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The Senate voted 49-50 against cloture on a motion to proceed to the bill. The measure needed 60 votes to advance.

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All Democrats present voted against advancing the bill, along with Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, and Jerry Moran. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis changed his vote to “no” for procedural reasons to allow the bill to be reintroduced at a later date.

The vote left little time to revive the legislation before the November 3 midterms.

Coinbase-backed advocacy group Stand With Crypto also warned of electoral consequences after the vote. The group said it would add senators’ votes to its lawmaker scorecards as it mobilizes supporters ahead of the election.

Fairshake, primarily funded by Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen Horowitz, had raised $116 million for the 2026 elections by January 2025 and reported $108 million remaining at the end of August.

Fairshake says it supports candidates from both parties who favor crypto-friendly policies. Its ads, however, often avoid discussing crypto and instead focus on issues more likely to sway voters.

The group used that strategy during the 2024 election and again in this year’s congressional primaries.