Big crypto loss: In Wisconsin District 1, Democrat Mitchell Berman beats incumbent Bryan Steil, who chairs the House Financial Services subcommittee on digital assets. Fairshake spent $1M on Steil, Crypto.com spent $880K on attack ads against Berman via a PAC created solely to oppose him.
AI-focused Public First super PAC network spent $512,000 to support Brian Poindexter in Ohio District 7’s Democratic primary, though not in the general. Poindexter has just beaten Republican incumbent Max Miller.
In Texas District 35, AI and crypto succeeded in boosting Republican Carlos De La Cruz through his primary only to see him defeated by Democrat Johnny Garcia. AI’s Public First network spent $1.5 million in the primary and primary runoff; crypto’s Fairshake contributed $616K in the primary.
Another loss for crypto and AI: Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has beaten Mike Rogers in Michigan’s Senate race. Crypto PACs spent $811,000 backing Rogers and an AI group added just over $1 million. El-Sayed has been an outspoken advocate for strong AI and data center regulation.
The conservative AI group Alliance for a Better Future, whose advisory council includes members of the Heritage Foundation, the anti-porn group NCOSE, the Institute for Family Studies, and the effective altruist-aligned Future of Life Institute, is officially 0 for 4 after its candidates lost in Maine, Iowa, Kansas, and Michigan.
Crypto secures its first win in a competitive race as Nebraska Senate is called for Pete Ricketts (R) over independent Dan Osborn. Ricketts sits on the Senate Banking Committee, likely why the industry wanted him over Osborn (who has also spoken positively of crypto). $14.1M in spending.
Looks like this is more or less all we’ll get for a while and it’s 4am for me, so I’m going to call it a night and check back in in the morning (and send out a quick recap of tonight’s events for my newsletter subscribers: www.citationneeded.news/signup/)
All I can say is: what a wipeout for crypto & AI.
