Crypto PAC spends $500K in support of Indiana candidate ahead of primary

Defend American Jobs, the cryptocurrency-backed political action committee (PAC) affiliated with Fairshake, reported spending more than $500,000 on media to support a Republican incumbent representative in Indiana.

According to a Saturday filing with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Defend American Jobs PAC spent about $514,000 on media in support of James Baird, a Republican House member running for reelection in Indiana’s 4th Congressional District. The spending was the latest in Fairshake’s spending on the 2026 US elections ahead of today’s Indiana primary elections.

Source: FEC

Baird, who assumed office in January 2019, voted in favor of the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin payments bill, and the CLARITY Act, legislation aimed at creating digital asset market structure that has been stalled in the US Senate for months.

The Coinbase-aligned digital asset advocacy organization Stand With Crypto rated the Republican as “strongly supports crypto.”

Fairshake and its affiliates, Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress, are expected to spend millions of dollars in support of candidates they consider “pro-crypto” in this year’s US midterm elections.

In 2024, the PAC reported more than $130 million in expenditures for media supporting such candidates, including $40 million for Ohio’s US Senate race, in which voters rejected three-term Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown. He is running this year to unseat Senator Jon Husted, a Republican appointed to fill Vice President JD Vance’s old seat.

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Today’s Indiana primary pits Baird against Indiana state representative Craig Haggard. Fairshake‘s backers include crypto companies Coinbase and Ripple Labs. Cointelegraph requested a comment from Fairshake but did not receive an immediate response.

Six months until US midterms with crypto bill hanging in the balance

All 435 seats in the US House of Representatives and 33 seats in the US Senate are up for grabs in the November’s midterm elections, with money from crypto lobbyists and PACs expected to potentially influence voters.

Fairshake reported holding $193 million in its coffers as of January, and said it will “oppose anti-crypto politicians and support pro-crypto leaders” in 2026. The PAC has already spent about $8.6 million in Illinois races for the state‘s governor and Senate and House members, and more than $1 million in Texas races.

The spending reports come as the US Senate is expected to schedule a markup on the CLARITY Act. The digital asset market structure legislation, passed by the House in July 2025, has been stalled in the Senate for months largely over concerns on ethics and stablecoin yield, but may be progressing after lawmakers announced a compromise last week.

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