The crypto industry’s primary political action committee, Fairshake, flooded support to Republican candidates in the U.S. House of Representatives special elections this week in Florida that aimed to fill vacant seats in Congress. Both candidates won, further reinforcing the party’s narrow national majority.
The two seats in Florida had been vacated when President Donald Trump tapped the previous members to join his administration, including his national security advisor, Michael Waltz, and the congressman Trump initially picked as attorney general, Matt Gaetz, who quickly bowed out under the pressure of accusations that he’d had sex with a minor and was linked to illegal drug use.
Florida voters elected state Senator Randy Fine to take Waltz’s former seat and picked the state’s chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis, to replace Gaetz. The races drew a high level of attention and money from both parties, because of every seat’s importance to the tight majority in the House. While Democrats failed to steer the conservative districts onto their side, they did win much more support in both districts than they had in the recent 2024 elections.
An affiliate of the Fairshake PAC had paid for advertising supporting the pro-crypto candidates, Patronis and Fine, in the primary and general elections in Florida, including a last-minute $1.5 million to help ensure their victory.
“We are thrilled to see two strong champions of innovation headed to Washington,” said Fairshake spokesman Josh Vlasto, in a statement. “Both leaders have shown a deep commitment to advancing pro-growth policies and ensuring the United States leads the world in crypto and digital assets innovation.”
The arrival of both in the House leaves just two vacancies there because of deaths of Democrat members from Texas and Arizona.