{"id":97603,"date":"2024-10-25T00:40:31","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T04:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/?p=97603"},"modified":"2024-10-25T00:42:34","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T04:42:34","slug":"us-lawmakers-claims-crypto-pacs-stifles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/us-lawmakers-claims-crypto-pacs-stifles\/","title":{"rendered":"US Lawmakers Claims Crypto PACs Stifles\u00a0‘Important Voices in Congress’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Representative Summer Lee criticized crypto-backed Super PACs<\/a> funding media Buys that may have contributed to the loss of two Democratic lawmakers in their\u00a0primaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"US<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pennsylvania Representative Summer Lee strongly criticized crypto-backed political action committees (PACs) for financing ads that \u201cdemonize\u201d candidates in the 2024 primaries, often unrelated to digital assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During an Oct. 24 virtual event hosted by Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform, Rep. Lee condemned the \u201cinfluence and control\u201d exerted by crypto Super PACs on lawmakers seeking reelection in 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She claimed that funds from the digital asset sector were being used to \u201csilence the few representatives actually fighting to hold them accountable.\u201d Lee said, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201c[Y]ou can distort the conversation if you have enough money,\u201d pointing to how crypto PACs spent more than $3 million to try and unseat Representatives Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman. She described both Bush, a nurse, and Bowman, a principal, as \u201csome of the most important voices in Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

She continued: \u201cIt\u2019s about keeping regular people out and letting the big players take over, and crypto knows this. They know regular people can\u2019t go up, against, over $134 million in spending in one cycle. They\u2019re exploiting the system, and they\u2019re obscuring what their actual interests are in these races.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Lee referenced actions by the Fairshake PAC<\/a>, which funded media campaigns opposing Bowman and Bush. Both lost their primaries in June and August after the crypto PAC funneled over $3 million combined into the races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fairshake PAC\u2019s reported expenditures from January 2023 to September 2024. Source:\u00a0<\/em>FEC<\/em>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/g>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/clipPath>\r\n <\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After Rep. Bush\u2019s primary loss in August, Fairshake\u2019s Josh Vlasto labeled her as an \u201canti-crypto, Elizabeth Warren-endorsed lawmaker,\u201d hinting that the crypto industry would back candidates who support its interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWhat we\u2019re arguing is not that folks, industries, interests shouldn\u2019t have a say in our democracy,\u201d Rep. Lee said about crypto and other interest groups. \u201cWhat we\u2019re saying is that they shouldn\u2019t have the loudest say. They shouldn\u2019t have an outsized say.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

At the Permissionless conference on Oct. 10, Texas Blockchain Council President Lee Bratcher remarked to Cointelegraph<\/em> that crypto PACs and industry leaders funding campaigns is just \u201ca function of how democracy works.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained, \u201cIf you want to educate someone, you have to have time to do that. To get time to do that, you have to be a big part of their campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the U.S. election draws near, crypto Super PACs continue to report significant expenditures. Fairshake and its affiliate Defend American Jobs disclosed to the Federal Election Commission on Oct. 17 that they spent $1.3 million supporting candidates in five U.S. states, with Election Day approaching on Nov. 5. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, Fairshake has spent over $1.8 million to back California Representative Young Kim and more than $800,000 supporting Texas Representative Monica De La Cruz Hernandez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Protect Progress, another Fairshake affiliate, has funded media campaigns supporting Virginia Representative Suhas Subramanyam and California Representative Rohit Khanna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although these media buys mainly focus on congressional races, the U.S. presidential contest between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump is not off-limits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, the Bitcoin Voter PAC ran ads endorsing Trump and Senate candidates in Texas and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Representative Summer Lee criticized crypto-backed Super PACs funding media Buys that may have contributed to the loss of two Democratic lawmakers in their\u00a0primaries. Pennsylvania Representative Summer Lee strongly criticized crypto-backed political action committees (PACs) for financing ads that \u201cdemonize\u201d candidates in the 2024 primaries, often unrelated to digital assets. During an Oct. 24 virtual event […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":97610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[376,12724,1502,1305,21718,2044],"class_list":["post-97603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cryptocurrencies","tag-politics-2","tag-regulation","tag-united-states","tag-us-elections-2024","tag-voting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/US-Lawmakers-Alleges-Crypto-PACs-Stifles-Important-Voices-in-Congress.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}