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Crypto PAC Fairshake Steps Up For an Encore in Florida Special Elections
The campaign-financial operation that shook the 2024 elections has returned to dabble in Florida congressional seats vacated by Matt Gaetz and Michael Waltz.
Jan 17, 2025, 9:47 p.m.
What to know:
- Two Florida seats are open for special elections, and crypto's Fairshake PAC has moved in to buy ads for its favored candidates.
- The Republican seats were vacated by Donald Trump's nominations for his administration, including his pick of then-Representative Matt Gaetz to be attorney general, though he bowed out as a congressional ethics investigation tied him to illegal activities.
Crypto's chief political action committee has put money on its picks for the Florida congressional seats vacated by one of President-elect Donald Trump's closest allies, Matt Gaetz, and the politician Trump tapped as a national security advisor, Michael Waltz.
With an extremely tight majority in the House of Representatives, the replacement of the two Florida Republicans is paramount to the party's political agenda in Congress. Crypto super PAC Fairshake — through its affiliate PAC, Defend American Jobs — has begun spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on pro-crypto names in the special elections set to fill the seats.
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Gaetz was briefly President-elect Donald Trump's pick for U.S. attorney general — the nation's highest law enforcement official — but he resigned from consideration and from Congress as pressures mounted from a House ethics investigation into his alleged payments for drugs and sex (including a report of sexual activity with a 17-year-old).
Trump turned to embrace the state's chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis, as his favored candidate to fill the resulting opening in the House of Representatives. Patronis, who is outpacing a crowded field of Republican rivals in the January 28 primary, is benefiting from about $200,000 in ad spending from Fairshake, the group said.
In October, Patronis pushed for putting some state pension money into crypto investments.
The PAC also committed about $500,000 to get state Senator Randy Fine to fill Representative Waltz's vacancy. Trump also backed Fine in an endorsement that reportedly scattered a number of potential competitors.
The candidate posted on social media site X this week that "Floridians want crypto innovation!"
Super PACs can buy ads for or against candidates, as long as they're "independent expenditures" not approved or coordinated by the candidates. Fairshake spent $139 million to help get 53 allies into the new session of Congress, so one in ten of the sitting lawmakers benefited from crypto-funded ads.
"We are keeping our foot on the gas," Fairshake spokesman Josh Vlasto said on Friday.
The PAC still has a towering $103 million in funds at its disposal for the next congressional election cycle, putting it far ahead for the 2026 races.
Read More: Crypto Cash Fueled 53 Members of the Next U.S. Congress
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