We Did it: Crypto's campaign year

Apr 11, 2022

FIRST IN SCORE: THE CRYPTO CAMPAIGN — A cryptocurrency executive is launching a new PAC, the latest in a string of crypto-linked political action committees popping up ahead of the midterms.

Cryptocurrency companies and executives are flexing some political muscle this cycle, assembling new groups and spending serious cash in states across the map. At the same time, individual candidates have embraced bitcoin on the campaign trail, as cryptocurrency goes mainstream and Congress eyes new regulations.

FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame will launch American Dream Federal Action today, a new PAC supporting "forward-looking Republican candidates who want to protect America's long-term economic and national security." Salame is putting an initial $4 million into the PAC, first reported in Score, which will have a broader focus on national and economic security, rather than just cryptocurrency.

"We look forward to supporting forward-looking conservative leaders who understand the urgency of advancing smart policies that set America up for success," Salame said in a statement announcing the PAC.

Salame isn't the only crypto executive launching a political group, and American Dream Federal Action PAC is not Salame's only political venture. A group of crypto financiers launched GMI PAC earlier this year, with aims to spend $20 million to boost congressional candidates. Salame is among the super PAC's early backers, along with CMS Holdings co-founder Dan Matuszewski and SkyBridge Capital, the hedge fund led by former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

Democrats are tapping into the crypto cash, too. A pair of PACs founded by cryptocurrency moguls have already poured millions into congressional primaries. Protect Our Future PAC and Web3 Forward, both super PACs, spent more than $2 million to boost Texas Democrat Jasmine Crockett in the March primary. FTX co-founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is involved in Protect Our Future, while Web3 Forward is linked to GMI PAC.

Protect Our Future has even waded into the member-vs-member primary between Rep. Lucy McBath and Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, giving McBath a $2 million boost. The group has endorsed Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) and Nikki Budzinski in IL-13, with plans to spend $10 million in Democratic primaries this year.

Good Monday morning! Email me at smurray@politico.com and follow me on Twitter at @stephanie_murr.

Email the rest of the POLITICO Campaigns team at sshepard@politico.com, zmontellaro@politico.com and amutnick@politico.com. Follow them on Twitter: @POLITICO_Steve, @ZachMontellaro and @allymutnick.

Days until the Indiana and Ohio primaries: 22

Days until the Nebraska and West Virginia primaries: 31

Days until the Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Oregon, Idaho and Kentucky primaries: 36

Days until the Texas runoff and the Alabama, Arkansas and Georgia primaries: 43

Days until the California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota primaries: 57

Days until the general election: 211

Days until the 2024 election: 939

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CAMPAIGN INTEL

TRUMP CARD — "Trump endorses Oz in key Senate race," by Holly Otterbein and Natalie Allison, POLITICO: "Dr. Mehmet Oz has won the race for Donald Trump's coveted endorsement in Pennsylvania's Senate GOP primary. In a key contest in the battle for the Senate majority this fall, the former president announced Saturday that he is backing Oz, praising the celebrity television doctor in a statement as 'Pro-Life, very strong on Crime, the Border, Election Fraud, our Great Military, and our Vets, Tax Cuts, and will always fight for and support our under-siege Second Amendment.'"

— "Trump's man in North Carolina makes a comeback," by Natalie Allison, POLITICO: "Donald Trump came to town at just the right moment — in time to witness his chosen candidate finally emerge as the front-runner in the state's contentious Senate primary. After struggling for months to take the lead, polls released last week show Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) has a commanding advantage, ending speculation that the former president badly miscalculated with his early and unexpected endorsement of the little known House member."

— "Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort becomes ground zero in the Republican race for Wisconsin governor," by Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "A third Republican eyeing the governor's office traveled to Donald Trump's Florida resort this week as Wisconsin's Democratic incumbent used his opponents' trips to see the former president to build a campaign war chest. A pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago has become a requisite for Wisconsin Republicans in 2022 and Rep. Tim Ramthun, a Republican from Campbellsport, arrived there Thursday as he crafts a campaign largely on the idea that President Joe Biden's 2020 victory is illegitimate."

FIRST IN SCORE: ENDORSEMENT ALERT — Senate Conservatives Fund endorsed Missouri Republican Eric Schmitt for Senate. "No one will pursue the truth more doggedly than Eric Schmitt. He will join Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, and others in uncovering the facts about how Joe Biden, the Democrats, and the media are trying to steal our freedom and destroy everything that made America great," Senate Conservatives Fund Executive Director Mary Vought wrote in an email sharing the endorsement.

JUST FINE — "Campaign finance watchdog issues massive fine for foreign national's Trump super PAC donation," by Zach Montellaro and Myah Ward, POLITICO: "The Federal Election Commission fined the companies of a Canadian billionaire nearly a million dollars for a contribution to a super PAC supporting then-President Donald Trump, after the agency found 'reason to believe' that the donations violated a federal law on foreign nationals contributing to American political committees or campaigns. Companies controlled by Barry Zekelman — a Canadian billionaire and the CEO, chair and owner of Zekelman Industries — agreed to pay $975,000 to close an investigation by the FEC into $1.75 million worth of donations made to America First Action, the pro-Trump super PAC, throughout 2018."

MIDTERM MESSAGING — "School Reopening Mess Drives Frustrated Parents Toward GOP," by Michael Bender, The Wall Street Journal: "Democrat Jennifer Loughran spent the pandemic's early days sewing face masks for neighbors. Last month, as a newly elected school-board member, she voted to lift the district's mask mandate. That came four months after she voted for the state's Republican candidate for governor."

FIRST IN SCORE: MONEY MOVES — Democrats Serve PAC will spend $600,000 to boost Democrat Kara Hahn in NY-01, the group announced. The direct mail and digital ad program will run for 10 weeks ahead of the June 28 Democratic primary.

E-MAIL MY HEART — "Gmail filters more likely to weed out GOP emails," by Lachlan Markay, Axios: "It turns out spam filters have their own partisan divide. New research shows Gmail was substantially more likely to mark Republican fundraising emails as spam during the heat of the 2020 campaign, while Yahoo and Outlook disproportionately flagged Democratic ones."

THE MAP LINES — "NY 2022 races to proceed, but judge can order backup maps," by Marina Villeneuve, Associated Press: "An appeals judge on Friday declined to slow down New York's primary elections amid a battle over the state's redistricting plan, but said he would allow a lower court judge to hire an expert to draw up alternative congressional district maps in case the disputed ones ultimately get tossed. The ruling by state Appellate Division Justice Stephen K. Lindley essentially hands the decision about the constitutionality of the redistricting plan over to a higher court, while creating one possible contingency for keeping the elections on schedule."

— "The politics of contempt: What the Ohio Supreme Court's showdown with the redistricting commission means for voters." by Andrew Tobias, Cleveland Plain Dealer: "Ohio's redistricting mess has set up a legal and political showdown between the court and the state's other two branches of government. But it's not entirely uncharted territory, even within Ohio. The Ohio Supreme Court is currently considering whether to issue a contempt of court finding against the Ohio Redistricting Commission, a panel of state elected officials that includes Gov. Mike DeWine and Republican and Democratic state legislative leaders, over failures in the ongoing process of redistricting."

GETTING IN — "Bobby Rush's exit sparks 20-candidate pileup in Illinois," by Shia Kapos, POLITICO Pro: "Bobby Rush has represented Chicago's South Side in Congress for three decades. He knows its shops, its people, its trouble spots and, he says, who should follow in his footsteps. But no one among the parade of political unknowns lining up to compete with the Illinois Democrat's hand-picked successor seems to care."

— "Head of state Department of Veterans Affairs Joel Kintsel announces run for governor," Barbara Hoberock, Tulsa World: "Saying that 'Oklahoma is in desperate need of a governor who will obey the law, set high ethical standards and do things by the book,' Joel Kintsel announced Thursday that he is seeking the Republican nomination for governor. Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, is seeking a second term."

DAY IN COURT — "Thomas Poses With Senate Candidate Walker in Supreme Court Photo," by Greg Stohr, Bloomberg: "Justice Clarence Thomas spent time at the U.S. Supreme Court this week with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker, posing for a photo tweeted out by the former football star's campaign spokesperson. The photo comes amid scrutiny of the conservative justice stemming from the political activities of his wife, Virginia Thomas, including text messages she sent urging then-President Donald Trump's chief of staff to do more to overturn Joe Biden's election victory."

THE BUCKEYE STATE — "Ohio GOP Senate hopeful: Middle class doesn't pay fair share," by Julie Carr Smyth, Associated Press: "Mike Gibbons, a leading Republican Senate candidate from Ohio, said at a media event last fall that middle-class Americans don't pay 'any kind of a fair share' of income taxes."

WHERE ARE THEY NOW— "Antigovernment activist Ammon Bundy gets jail term for 'making a mockery' of a prior sentence," CBS News: "Idaho gubernatorial candidate and antigovernment activist Ammon Bundy received a $3,000 fine and 10 days in jail Thursday for contempt of court. Bundy was immediately handcuffed in Fourth District Court in Boise and taken to the Ada County Jail. Judge Annie McDevitt ruled Bundy failed to perform 40 hours of community service following a 2020 trespassing conviction at the Idaho Statehouse. Bundy argued his work for his own campaign as governor counted toward the 40 hours of community service."

AS SEEN ON TV

— "Pennsylvania Republican candidates for governor are spending millions as the primary nears the final stretch," by Andrew Seidman, Philadelphia Inquirer: "It remains to be seen whether any amount of television ads can dislodge Mastriano, a state senator, and Barletta, a former congressman, from the top of the polls. Both staunch allies of former President Donald Trump, they have consistently led the field in surveys of Pennsylvania Republican primary voters, though most say they are undecided."

THE CASH DASH

— Campaign fundraising numbers keep coming in ahead of the FEC's filing deadline on Friday. The first quarter spanned from Jan. 1-March 31.

— FIRST IN SCORE: Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke raised $1.1 million for his MT-01 GOP primary bid, and ended the first quarter with $1.2 million in cash on hand.

— FIRST IN SCORE: Republican Karina Lipsman raised $60,000 in the first 40 days of her VA-08 campaign.

— Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) raised $1 million in the first quarter and had $3.7 million in cash on hand.

— Pennsylvania state Attorney General Josh Shapiro raised $4.5 million for his Democratic campaign for governor in the first quarter, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Julian Routh reported. On the Republican side, Dave White raised $1.8 million, Bill McSwain raised $1.4 million, Jake Corman raised $590,000, Lou Barletta raised $431,000 and Doug Mastriano raised $373,000.

— "DeSantis tops $100 million for Florida reelection race — and sends signal to 2024 Republican field," by Steve Contorno, CNN: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has raised more than $100 million for his reelection effort, the first gubernatorial candidate in the Sunshine State — and perhaps the entire country — to reach the nine-figure milestone solely through donations."

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POLL POSITION

— "Democrats turn to their Gen Z whisperer as youth support wobbles," by Elena Schneider, POLITICO: "Earlier this year, approval for President Joe Biden among people aged 18-30 hit depths no Democratic president had plumbed in decades: the mid- to low-30s in Gallup and other polls. (Barack Obama never dropped below 42 percent among that group in Gallup's surveys.) In some cases, the swing against Biden in 2021 totaled anywhere from 20 to 30 percentage points. He has since made gains in some polls but is still on unstable ground. An alienated youth vote is an existential threat for Democrats in 2022: They backed Biden by a 25-point margin in 2020, voting at all-time highs."

— "A sour and angry America poised to punish Dems this fall," by Ben White, POLITICO: "The professionals who track American attitudes toward the economy say they can see the trouble coming. Angry voters slammed by higher prices and scarred by two years of fighting the pandemic are poised to punish Democrats in midterm elections, according to some of the leading experts in consumer sentiment and behavior."

CODA — HEADLINE OF THE DAY — "The elite D.C. social scene sees a rash of covid cases, but parties on" — The Washington Post

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