Crypto PAC Spends $362K on California Race Already Decided in August

Protect Progress, a political action committee affiliated with the cryptocurrency-aligned Fairshake super PAC, disclosed spending $362,000 on media advertisements supporting incumbent Democrat Aisha Wahab in California's 14th congressional district — weeks after she had already defeated the same opponent in a special election. According to an October 19 filing with the US Federal Election Commission, the funds backed ads for Wahab against fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez in the Bay Area district ahead of the November 2026 midterms. Wahab won the August 18 special election with more than 53% of the vote, filling the seat vacated by former Representative Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April amid sexual assault allegations.

Both candidates were ranked as "strongly supports crypto" by Stand With Crypto after completing the digital asset organization's questionnaires ahead of the August race. Fairshake, launched in 2023 and backed primarily by Coinbase, Ripple Labs, and Andreessen Horowitz, has spent tens of millions of dollars since the 2024 US elections on candidates it considers favorable to the digital asset industry. The continued spending on a race Wahab already won has raised questions about the PAC's strategy, particularly given Wahab's criticism during an October 7 debate of Hernandez for failing to denounce expenditures from corporate PACs aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

The spending environment will shift between the August and November contests due to redistricting under California's Proposition 50, passed in 2025. The new maps will expand the 14th district, which currently covers parts of San Francisco's East Bay. Fairshake reported $193 million in cash on hand in January ahead of the elections, and the PAC has ramped up expenditures in other competitive races, including those in Ohio and Nebraska, signaling an aggressive push to influence the composition of the next Congress on digital asset policy.