US midterm election mirrors 2024 as crypto PACs move into Ohio races

Potential conflicts of interest in the state’s gubernatorial race and a pro-crypto Super PAC endorsing a Republican candidate for Senate could cloud the 2026 race.

Another political action committee (PAC) aligned with the cryptocurrency industry announced its endorsement for a candidate in Ohio’s Senate race, signaling a move that could mirror the 2024 US election.

In a Wednesday notice, Sentinel Action Fund, a group that claims to be the “only conservative Super PAC advancing pro-crypto candidates and supporting pro-crypto innovation,” said it would be supporting Republican Jon Husted in this year’s race to represent Ohio in the US Senate. 

Husted was appointed by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine in January 2025 to replace JD Vance, who was elected vice president alongside US President Donald Trump in his 2024 election win. He still faces a field of Republican candidates ahead of a May 5 primary in Ohio, where former Senator Sherrod Brown will also face off in the Democratic primary against Ron Kincaid.  

Sentinel Action Fund President Jessica Anderson specifically cited Brown as having “stood in the way of pro-innovation policies when it comes to digital assets” in the PAC’s endorsement of Husted. 

Although filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) as of Tuesday showed no disbursements supporting Husted in 2026, the PAC and its sister organization, Right Vote, pledged to spend more than $8 million in the Buckeye state. The Sentinel Action Fund reported about $9 million raised from January 2025 through March 2026, including $750,000 in contributions from the digital asset advocacy organization Solana Policy Institute and $250,000 from crypto investment company Multicoin Capital.

The PAC’s move into the Ohio race could serve as a bellwether for how money from crypto-aligned interest groups will respond to the upcoming US elections. In 2024, crypto-backed PACs spent more than $40 million in the US State to support Republican Bernie Moreno’s run to unseat Brown, who had made many public statements criticizing crypto.

Related: Coinbase-backed crypto advocacy group unveils 2026 election plan

Despite having lost his seat, Brown announced in August that he would run again for Senate. Moreno’s seat won’t be up for grabs until 2030.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican candidate for US President and one of the backers for Bitcoin (BTC) treasury company Strive, has also thrown his hat into Ohio’s gubernatorial race.

Launching his campaign in February 2025 following his departure from Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Ramaswamy supported efforts to create a strategic BTC reserve in Ohio.

However, many critics have pointed to the Republican candidate’s financial disclosures filed on April 6 as examples of conflicts of interest. 

Ramaswamy reported a 10% stake in Strive and could benefit from the value of the company’s Bitcoin holdings increasing in response to Ohio’s treasury investing in the cryptocurrency, which he would have significant influence over as governor. Strive reported holding about 13,768 Bitcoin as of Wednesday, worth more than $1 billion.

Disclosure: A member of the immediate family of Staff Editor Robert Lakin has contributed to the campaigns of Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton and Ohio Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown in amounts less than $200.

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Source: CoinTelegraph