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Regulation & Policy · 1 min read

Crypto PAC Protect Progress Spends $362,000 on California House Race

The Fairshake affiliate disclosed media buys for Democrat Aisha Wahab in California's 14th district alongside multimillion-dollar Senate expenditures.

Editorial oversight: Julian Mercer, Chief Editor
Neutral

At a glance

What happened
Crypto PAC Protect Progress reported spending $362,000 to back Democrat Aisha Wahab in California's 14th congressional district.
Why it matters
The outlay demonstrates ongoing aggressive deployment of Fairshake's $193 million war chest across both House and high-stakes Senate races.
Who is affected
Aisha Wahab, Melissa Hernandez, Jon Husted, Sherrod Brown, and Fairshake donors.
What's next
Voters will decide California's 14th congressional district and targeted Senate seats in the November 2026 midterm elections.
Primary source
cointelegraph.com: Crypto PAC pours $362K into California race voters essentially decided in August

Key points

  • Protect Progress reported $362,000 in media spending supporting Democrat Aisha Wahab in California's 14th congressional district.
  • Both Wahab and opponent Melissa Hernandez hold 'strongly supports crypto' ratings from Stand With Crypto.
  • Fairshake affiliates also deployed $8 million in Ohio and over $6.7 million in Nebraska Senate campaigns.

Cryptocurrency super PAC affiliate Protect Progress reported spending $362,000 on media buys to support incumbent Democrat Aisha Wahab in California's 14th congressional district, according to an Oct. 18 filing with the US Federal Election Commission 1. Wahab faces fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez in the Bay Area district after previously defeating her with over 53% of the vote in an Aug. 18 special election 1. The special election filled the remainder of former Representative Eric Swalwell's term through January 2027 following his April resignation 1.

Both candidates were designated as "strongly supports crypto" by advocacy group Stand With Crypto ahead of the August contest 1. The rematch occurs under expanded district boundaries in San Francisco's East Bay, following the 2025 passage of California's Proposition 50 requiring redrawn maps for the 2026 midterms 1. Wahab previously criticized Hernandez during an Oct. 7 debate for accepting support from corporate committees aligned with AIPAC, arguing such spending damaged democratic processes 1.

Senate Outlays Expand in Ohio and Nebraska

Protect Progress operates as an affiliate of Fairshake, the digital asset political action committee backed by Coinbase, Ripple Labs, and Andreessen Horowitz 1. Fairshake reported holding $193 million in cash reserves in January and has directed tens of millions toward federal contests in the 2026 midterm cycle 1.

The committee also filed multi-million-dollar expenditures across two key US Senate contests 1. Defend American Jobs, another Fairshake affiliate focused primarily on Republican contenders, spent more than $6.7 million opposing Independent candidate Dan Osborn in Nebraska 1. In Ohio, the network deployed $8 million on media supporting incumbent Republican Jon Husted against Democrat Sherrod Brown, bringing Fairshake's cumulative spending on that Senate contest to more than $46 million 1. Brown previously lost a Senate race to Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024 following extensive advertising from Fairshake and affiliated committees 1.

Sources

  1. [1] Crypto PAC pours $362K into California race voters essentially decided in August — cointelegraph.com, October 19, 2026

Written by Basis Desk's newsroom system from the primary sources above and machine-verified against them before publication. Market figures marked "at the time of writing" come from live exchange data. Report an error: corrections@basisdesk.news · corrections policy.

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