Crypto PACs Back Ken Paxton and Christian Menefee in Texas Primary Runoffs

Crypto-backed political groups backed winning candidates in Texas primary runoffs on Tuesday, underscoring the digital asset industry’s growing role in US elections as Congress debates new rules for crypto markets.

Attorney General Ken Paxton won the Republican US Senate runoff against four-term Senator John Cornyn by a wide margin, and will face Democratic state Representative James Talarico in November, according to Texas primary runoff results.

CoinDesk

In Houston’s 18th Congressional District, Democrat Christian Menefee unseated fellow Democrat representative Al Green in a decisive win after Republican-led redistricting forced the two incumbents into the same district.

Protect Progress, an affiliate of the Fairshake super PAC backed by firms including Ripple and Coinbase, reported spending about $5 million to support Menefee and a further $2.8 million on advertising opposing Green in the Houston race.

Fellowship PAC, funded in part by financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald and crypto custodian Anchorage Digital, reported roughly $500,000 in spending to boost Paxton over Cornyn in the Senate runoff.

Fairshake spokesperson Geoff Vetter told CoinDesk that “Fairshake was the difference-maker in this race, and we will continue to aggressively back leaders like Rep. Menefee across the country.”

CoinDesk also noted that Green had earned an “F” from crypto advocacy group Stand With Crypto after opposing key industry-backed legislation and warning that cryptocurrency could erode U.S. financial leverage abroad.

Cointelegraph

Stand With Crypto assigned Al Green an "F" rating, while Menefee is rated as supportive of digital asset innovation, according to Cryptonews.net.

Prediction markets had strongly favored the crypto-aligned challengers heading into election day, with contracts implying odds of over 90% that both Paxton and Menefee would prevail, and nearly $15 million reportedly traded on markets tied specifically to the Paxton vs Cornyn runoff.

In the Republican Senate primary, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton toppled longtime Sen. John Cornyn, while the Houston race produced an incumbent-on-incumbent showdown shaped by Republican-led redistricting, as described by CoinDesk.

The crypto PAC spending and the resulting primary outcomes are framed as positioning for the 2026 midterms, when CoinDesk says Democrats are favored—by a slim margin—to sweep both the House and Senate.

Cointelegraph reported that the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) records showed more than $10 million combined was spent on supportive media and ads by crypto-aligned PACs for six candidates, and that the Fairshake PAC alone reported more than $193 million in its war chest as of January.

Cointelegraph also said Fairshake spokesperson Geoff Vetter argued that “Rep. Green’s defeat proves that anti-crypto hostility carries real electoral consequences,” and that Fairshake would continue backing pro-crypto candidates.

Looking ahead to June 2, Cointelegraph said California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota will hold primaries for US House and Senate seats as well as several gubernatorial races.

In those states, Cointelegraph reported that as of Wednesday FEC records showed about $500,000 on spending by Protect Progress to support Democrats across the six US states, including $163,000 for Rob Menendez in New Jersey’s 8th congressional district.