Bitcoiner Bruce Fenton Loses Bid to Contest US Senate Seat in New Hampshire

Bitcoiner Bruce Fenton will not get the chance to represent the state of New Hampshire as a Republican in the U.S. Senate, losing his bid after primary polls closed late Tuesday.

Frontrunners Don Bolduc, a former military officer, and Chuck Morse, president of the New Hampshire State Senate, were still neck and neck at 3:46 a.m. Eastern time, separated by only 1% with 82% of precincts reporting, with Bolduc leading by a nose. They are competing to face incumbent Sen. Maggie Hasan (D-N.H.) in November.

Fenton's loss comes as the 2022 primary season wraps up. In addition to New Hampshire, the states of Delaware and Rhode Island held their primary elections Tuesday to close out the final preliminary leg of the midterm elections. The general U.S. election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Fenton, in a Twitter post, thanked his supporters.

Despite Fenton's loss, the U.S. Senate may soon have more crypto-friendly lawmakers after this year's midterm. U.S. Representative Ted Budd (R-N.C.) won his primary bid for a seat in the upper house of the American legislature in June. He'll face Democrat Cheri Beasley in the November contest. Similarly, Blake Masters, a Peter Thiel-backed Republican, is competing against incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, in Arizona, while Ohio has Rep. Tim Ryan (D) facing challenger J.D. Vance (R).

Budd, a three-term congressman, has introduced or supported a number of crypto-friendly bills over his time in office. However,few have actually become law.

Seats in the House and Senate are up for grabs this November, and though a seemingly record number of crypto-friendly candidates ran for office it ultimately was not much of an election issue. Several crypto-friendly candidates – and several candidates supported by the crypto industry – lost their primary races over the course of the year.

Rather, the U.S. economy, gun policies, voting policies, healthcare and crime were at the top of voters' minds this year, according to a Pew Research Center poll published in August. Abortion, while not a major election issue at the start of the year, took on a fresh importance after the U.S. Supreme Court functionally overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade case this summer.