The swamp takes crypto
Here is a bipartisan achievement you will never see in a campaign ad: the Republicans who promised to drain the swamp and the Democrats who promised to stand up to billionaires just landed on the same donor list.
On Monday, Fairshake, the crypto industry’s biggest super PAC, said it is backing 32 House incumbents, 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats, per CNBC. Six of them get $1 million apiece in support, three from each party. Spokesman Geoff Vetter told Roll Call the group backs “pro-crypto candidates who support American innovation in both parties.”
Both parties. Finally, something Washington agrees on. It just is not you.
The Daily Caller’s headline promised checks in the mail. Super PACs do not mail candidates checks. They buy ads near them.
The list
The six $1 million names, per The Hill and CNBC: Republicans French Hill of Arkansas, Bill Huizenga of Michigan, and Bryan Steil of Wisconsin. Democrats Janelle Bynum of Oregon, Steven Horsford of Nevada, and Derek Tran of California.
Now look at where they sit. Hill chairs the House Financial Services Committee, Huizenga is its vice chair, and Steil chairs its digital assets subcommittee, per Roll Call. That committee oversees crypto policy, as the Daily Caller puts it. On the blue side, CoinDesk reports Horsford helped move a bipartisan crypto tax bill through the House tax committee, and all three Democrats hold an “A” rating from the industry’s Stand With Crypto.
The industry did not pick 32 random strangers. It picked the people who write its rules.
The rest of the roster reads like a leadership directory, per Roll Call. Majority Whip Tom Emmer. GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain. Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith. Agriculture Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson. Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, No. 3 in House Democratic leadership. Budget ranking member Brendan Boyle, who would take the gavel if Democrats win the House.
Every one of the 32 voted for the CLARITY Act when it passed the House 294 to 134 in July 2025, per CNBC. No Republican voted against it. Democrats split 78 to 134, and all 13 Fairshake Democrats were in the 78, per Roll Call.
They are not exactly endangered, either. CoinDesk says the picks “tend to be safe bets to return to Congress.” This is not a rescue mission. It is a loyalty program.
How much for the other 26? Fairshake would not say.
Who signs the checks
Fairshake’s largest donors are tied to Coinbase, Ripple, and the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, per Roll Call. The Tech Influence Watch tally of FEC filings shows Ripple Labs at $48 million, Coinbase at about $56.1 million counting a $23 million bitcoin gift in December 2024, and $11.9 million apiece from the firm’s cofounders, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
Fairshake and its two affiliates, Defend American Jobs for Republicans and Protect Progress for Democrats, entered September with about $120.4 million in cash, per CNBC. Fairshake alone reported $137.9 million in receipts this cycle and $108.3 million on hand as of August 31, per its FEC summary. The network already spent $71 million across 57 primaries and special elections and won 53.
Vetter calls Fairshake “an issue-focused organization.” True. The issue is whatever its donors need from the next Congress.
The red costume: drain
Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.), official portrait. House Creative Services, public domain.
the swamp, fill the pool
“Drain the swamp” usually means cutting the influence of special interests and lobbyists, per Wikipedia’s history of the phrase. Donald Trump tweeted it 79 times in the three weeks before the 2016 election. In February 2025, at CPAC, he announced, “We are draining the swamp.”
So here is your swamp report. Nineteen Republicans, including the whip, the conference chair, and two committee chairmen, made a special interest’s shopping list. So did Rep. Brian Jack of Georgia, Trump’s former White House political director, who sits on the Oversight subcommittee literally named Delivering on Government Efficiency.
The money also runs straight to the top. Andreessen and Horowitz each gave $3 million to MAGA Inc., Trump’s super PAC, in the first half of 2025, and the president held a $1.5 million-per-plate event for crypto and AI investors, per Bloomberg via the Boston Herald.
Then the Senate. On September 15, the CLARITY Act failed 49 to 50, far short of the 60 it needed, per CBS News. The fight was over ethics. According to financial disclosures CBS cites, Trump made $1.4 billion in crypto-related income last year, including from his meme coin business and his family’s crypto firm.
The ethics language that went to the floor, per a DLA Piper analysis, applied mainly to new tokens issued or sponsored by officials, expressly let officials hold and trade crypto, and was set to expire January 20, 2029, the end of the current presidential term.
An ethics rule that expires the day the president moves out. That is not draining the swamp. That is putting a timer on the hot tub.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune called the bill “a shared priority, for Republicans, Democrats and President Trump.” He is not wrong. That is the problem.
The blue costume: billionaires first, unless
Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), official portrait. House Creative Services, public domain.
they buy the ads
Now the party of tax-the-rich.
On June 30, Aguilar said, “Trump and Republicans may always put billionaires first, but House Democrats will always put you first,” per a House Democrats transcript. On July 16, he said Republicans “consistently put billionaires’ interests over the needs of hardworking Americans,” per a House Democrats release.
On Tax Day, Horsford called it “a win for the millionaires and billionaires who secured permanent tax breaks,” per his own office.
Lovely speeches. Here is who is paying for the help. Forbes put Andreessen’s net worth at $1.9 billion as of June 2026, per his Wikipedia page, which also notes he came out against Joe Biden’s reelection saying he feared higher taxes on billionaires.
The billionaire who opposed your last president over billionaire taxes is now a mega-donor to the PAC backing your caucus chair.
And look at what else this PAC does with the money. Fairshake’s network has already spent nearly $30 million this cycle trying to defeat Sherrod Brown, the Democratic Senate nominee in Ohio, per CNBC. It spent about $40 million to beat him in 2024, when he chaired Senate Banking.
The flagship committee’s own direct ads this cycle, about $13 million, all targeted Democrats, per Tech Influence Watch. That includes roughly $9.7 million against Juliana Stratton, who went on to win Illinois’s Democratic Senate nomination, per FactCheck.org.
The same PAC is spending to beat your party’s Senate nominees in Ohio and Illinois while it backs your House caucus chair. Thirteen House Democrats are on the list anyway.
Then there is Bynum. Two years ago she beat Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer, whom Fairshake backed, per CoinDesk. Now Bynum is a $1 million name. Fairshake does not hold grudges. It holds seats.
Who runs this operation? FactCheck.org says Fairshake’s treasurer worked on Barack Obama’s 2012 and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaigns, and that Josh Vlasto, whom it lists as the group’s spokesman, was once press secretary to Chuck Schumer. The PAC that spends to beat Democrats has a very Democratic résumé.
The ads never say crypto
Here is the part worth taping to your fridge. Fairshake’s money goes into independent ad buys, and per CoinDesk, “The super PAC doesn’t mention crypto as an issue in those ads.” It runs whatever topic is most likely to move you.
So if you live in one of these 32 districts, you may see a nice ad this month. It will not say the industry wants a bill that would shift oversight of many digital assets from the SEC to the CFTC and “reduce the risk of securities-law enforcement,” which is how CNBC describes what crypto companies want. That is the product. The ad about your grocery bill is the packaging.
One more wrinkle for anyone who thinks this is Main Street versus Wall Street. JPMorgan Chase and banking trade groups lobbied against the bill, per the Daily Caller. It is not the people versus Wall Street. It is old Wall Street versus new Wall Street, and you are the ad audience.
We have seen this movie
In the site rant Review & Repeal Citizens United, we walked through the 5 to 4 ruling that freed unlimited independent spending. Fairshake is what that ruling looks like with a crypto wallet. In Integrity for Thee, Recurring for Me, the FEC records told a different story than the speeches. In They Designed It to Fail, both parties found a way to keep beating the market. Same pattern every time: the speech is for you. The spreadsheet is for them.
Both costumes
Fair is fair. Wanting clear crypto rules is not corrupt. Some of these members may truly believe in the bill, and the 13 Democrats broke with most of their caucus to vote for it. Super PAC spending is legal, and Fairshake’s ads run independently of the campaigns. None of this is a crime. That is the problem.
The red costume is “drain the swamp” stitched onto a list with the whip, the conference chair, and Trump’s former political director, plus an ethics rule set to expire the day the president leaves. The blue costume is “billionaires first” stitched onto a caucus chair backed by a billionaire-funded PAC that is spending to beat the party’s own Senate nominees.
Even the slogan is bipartisan. Nancy Pelosi promised to drain the Republican “swamp” back in 2006. Pat Buchanan called it in 2000: “Neither Beltway party is going to drain this swamp: it’s a protected wetland; they breed in it, they spawn in it.”
Thirty-two seats. Two parties. One list. You do not have to pick a costume. Just check who paid for the ad before you believe it.
Receipts
- CNBC, October 5, 2026. The 32 names, 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats, the six $1 million picks, $120.4 million network cash, backers Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen Horowitz, the 294 to 134 House vote, $71 million across 57 races and 53 wins, nearly $30 million against Brown this cycle and about $40 million in 2024, and what crypto firms want from the bill.
- Roll Call, October 5, 2026. Vetter’s statement, committee titles for Hill, Huizenga, and Steil, the leadership names, the Democrats’ 78 to 134 split, and the largest donors.
- The Hill, October 5, 2026. The full list of 32 and the six $1 million candidates, confirmed by Vetter.
- Daily Caller, October 5, 2026. The “checks” headline, Financial Services’ crypto oversight role, and the banks that lobbied against the bill.
- CoinDesk, October 5, 2026. Safe seats, Horsford’s crypto tax work, the Stand With Crypto “A” ratings, Bynum’s 2024 race, and the ads that never mention crypto.
- FEC, Fairshake committee summary. Super PAC status, $137.9 million in receipts, $108.3 million on hand through August 31, 2026.
- Tech Influence Watch, Fairshake donors. Ripple’s $48 million, Coinbase’s roughly $56.1 million, Andreessen and Horowitz at $11.9 million each, and the direct spending against Stratton.
- FactCheck.org, August 7, 2026. Stratton’s nomination, Fairshake’s treasurer and spokesman backgrounds, and its largest contributors.
- Wikipedia, Drain the swamp. The phrase’s meaning, Trump’s 79 tweets and CPAC line, Pelosi in 2006, and Buchanan’s quote.
- Wikipedia, Brian Jack. His White House political director job and Oversight subcommittee seat.
- Wikipedia, Marc Andreessen. The Forbes net worth estimate and his stated fear of higher taxes on billionaires.
- Bloomberg via the Boston Herald, August 3, 2025. Andreessen’s and Horowitz’s $3 million each to MAGA Inc. and the $1.5 million-per-plate crypto and AI event.
- CBS News, September 15, 2026. The 49 to 50 vote, Trump’s $1.4 billion in crypto-related income, and Thune’s “shared priority” line.
- DLA Piper, September 22, 2026. What the ethics provision covered and its January 20, 2029 expiration.
- House Democrats, June 30, 2026. Aguilar’s “billionaires first” line.
- House Democrats via EIN Presswire, July 16, 2026. Aguilar’s “billionaires’ interests” line.
- Rep. Steven Horsford, April 15, 2026. His Tax Day “millionaires and billionaires” statement.
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Originally published on Substack.