Crypto investors and companies have spent more than $38 million to boost Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno’s Senate run, The Washington Post reported Monday.
Moreno, a car salesman-turned-politician who recently said women’s focus on abortion rights is “a little crazy,” is a vocal supporter of cryptocurrency. A former currency owner himself, Moreno has promised to be a defender of the industry if elected to the Senate.
“Forever politicians like Sherrod Brown and Joe Biden don't understand the first thing about crypto and are totally unqualified to regulate it. They are obsessed with destroying crypto because they hate American innovation,” Moreno wrote in a post on X. “I'll lead the fight to defend crypto in the US Senate."
In August, the super PAC Defend American Jobs flooded Ohio with ads positioning Moreno as a candidate who would defend jobs and protect communities. Earlier this month, Rolling Stone reported that Defend American Jobs is a subsidiary of Fairshake, a super PAC funded primarily by three crypto giants: Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and Ripple.
Crypto executives and investors see Moreno’s election as an opportunity to flip the Senate in their favor and oust one of the industry’s strongest critics, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
Brown is the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and is deeply skeptical of cryptocurrency. He supported efforts by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to highlight crypto’s connection to terrorist financing, giving the industry all the more reason to support Moreno.
“Big crypto companies are looking to make big profits. They are desperate to reach as many Americans as they can,” Brown said in a speech to the Senate Banking Committee following the 2022 SuperBowl, which featured a variety of cryptocurrency ads. “They brought in celebrities and gimmicks to make crypto sound exciting and daring and profitable, but the ads left a few things out. They didn’t mention the fraud, the scams, and the outright theft."
Brown and Moreno are in a tight race, which will likely prove to be crucial in deciding who controls the Senate after November. A recent poll conducted by ActiVote shows Moreno leads Brown by 2 points, the first time the Republican has taken the lead this election season.
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