Protect Progress, an affiliate of the cryptocurrency-aligned Fairshake super PAC, has reported spending $362,000 on advertising supporting Democratic Representative Aisha Wahab in California’s 14th Congressional District, even though she defeated the same Democratic challenger in an August special election.
The spending was disclosed in a Sunday filing with the US Federal Election Commission. The ads back Wahab in her contest against fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections.
According to Cointelegraph, Wahab won the August 18 special election with more than 53% of the vote. That result has raised questions about why a crypto-focused political organization is continuing to spend money on her behalf only weeks after the special election concluded.
Why the California race is being contested again
The August vote was held to decide who would complete the term of Democrat Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April amid sexual assault allegations. The winner’s term runs through January 2027, meaning the November midterms involve a separate election cycle and a changed political setting.
The district’s boundaries will also be different. California’s 14th District, which currently includes parts of the San Francisco East Bay, is scheduled to expand under new maps required after voters passed Proposition 50 in 2025. Those revised boundaries will apply to the midterm elections.
Both Wahab and Hernandez had been classified as “strongly supports crypto” by Stand With Crypto, a digital-asset organization, after completing questionnaires before the August special election. That designation helps explain why the candidates have attracted attention from a political network focused on electing lawmakers viewed as favorable to the cryptocurrency industry.
Protect Progress’s reported expenditure is separate from direct campaign spending by a candidate. Super PACs can raise and spend money to influence elections, while operating independently from candidate campaigns under US election rules. The filing does not, by itself, explain the precise advertising strategy behind the latest spending.
In an October 7 debate, Wahab criticized Hernandez for not denouncing spending by corporate PACs associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Wahab said such spending had “really deteriorated our democracy.” Cointelegraph reported that it contacted the Wahab and Hernandez campaigns and Fairshake for comment, but did not receive immediate responses.
Fairshake expands activity beyond California
Fairshake was launched in 2023 and has received major backing from Coinbase, Ripple Labs and Andreessen Horowitz. Since the 2024 US elections, the super PAC has spent tens of millions of dollars supporting candidates from both major parties whom it considers pro-crypto.
The group said in January that it had $193 million in cash on hand ahead of the elections. Its spending has included support for candidates in primary contests and special elections, as well as advertising in the 2026 midterms.
Two other Senate races have recently drawn substantial spending from Fairshake affiliates. Defend American Jobs, an affiliate that largely supports Republican candidates, reported more than $6.7 million in advertising opposing independent candidate Dan Osborn in Nebraska.
In Ohio, the affiliate reported $8 million in media supporting Republican incumbent Jon Husted against Democrat Sherrod Brown. The PAC has spent more than $46 million in that contest so far.
Brown’s campaign is being closely watched as another test of the crypto industry’s influence in the 2026 elections. Brown lost his Senate seat to Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024 after Fairshake and other interest groups spent a combined hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising opposing him.
The California spending therefore fits into a broader effort by crypto-aligned political groups to shape congressional races, rather than representing an isolated advertisement buy. In the 14th District, however, the immediate political context is unusual: the beneficiary already secured victory over the same opponent in the August special election, while the November contest will be held under different district boundaries.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar data at 22:08-22:09 on October 19, 2026, showed mixed performance among the selected digital assets:
- Filecoin (FIL) was priced at $1.0106493069, down 1.44% over 24 hours and 9.26% over seven days.
- Celestia (TIA) stood at $0.6173982138, up 2.66% in 24 hours and 15.16% over seven days.
- Sentient (SENT) traded at $0.0224443835, gaining 0.5% over 24 hours and 8.31% over seven days.
- AKEDO (AKE) was priced at $0.0298587516, down 0.65% over 24 hours but up 25.78% over seven days.
These market figures describe recent price movements and do not indicate how investors may respond to political spending or election-related developments.
