Fairshake is devoting almost $56 million to keeping Sherrod Brown out of the Senate, making the Ohio Senate race one of the most expensive fights the crypto industry has ever waged around one name. The spending comes as Brown remains competitive in polls and as Tuesday's Ohio vote moves into the final stretch.
The new buy is only part of the pressure on Brown. The crypto industry has now spent more than $100 million against him over the past two years, including $7.2 million from Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss' own PAC this year, after roughly $40 million was spent two years ago to help Bernie Moreno beat him.
That scale matters because Brown was not just another critic. He spent years atop the committee that had to consent to crypto legislation, and while he held that post he refused to pick it up. Since he lost that seat, the Senate has passed a major stablecoin bill and came within sight of finishing a market structure bill, both signs that the industry now sees his return as a threat to progress it could not make while he was in charge.
The money, though, has not settled the race. Polling puts the Ohio vote in this year's heap of Senate tossups, and Brown still holds a slight lead over Jon Husted in most polls. Kalshi gives Brown a 68% chance of a Senate comeback, even after the industry's spending surge, and it gives the wider Democratic Party the same 68% chance of retaking the Senate.
If Brown does come back and Democrats control the chamber, the question is not whether crypto will notice. Political analysts expect him to be handed a prominent role, and some think he could be given the Senate Agriculture Committee chair, where he once led a subcommittee. Brown's seniority was broken by his previous loss, but a return would put him back in position to shape what comes next, not just for Ohio, but for the fight over crypto legislation itself.
