Key Takeaways
- Following a failed Senate vote on the CLARITY Act, Stand With Crypto has unveiled a larger slate of midterm endorsements.
- Coinbase-backed SWC endorsed over 30 House members who voted for digital asset framework legislation.
- SWC plans to fund ads across 6 House races ahead of upcoming midterms to back pro-crypto candidates.
Stand With Crypto Endorses Bipartisan Candidates Ahead of Midterm Elections
Stand With Crypto (SWC), an American crypto advocacy organization, has said it is endorsing dozens of bipartisan incumbents and candidates who supported key pro-crypto bills in the upcoming midterm elections.
Among the candidates it endorsed is Republican Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio, who is running against crypto skeptic and former Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown. The Coinbase-backed organisation also said it will back Senate candidates Ashley Hinson, a Republican in Iowa, and Chris Pappas, a Democrat running in New Hampshire.
Stand With Crypto has also endorsed more than 30 sitting House members based on their recorded votes passing comprehensive digital asset framework bills through the House. The organization’s latest House endorsements include U.S. Representatives Shomari Figures (D-AL-02) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA-01), along with candidates Derek Merrin (R-OH-09) and Janelle Stelson (D-PA-10).
The organization’s move to name its preferred candidates came just weeks after the U.S. Senate failed to pass the CLARITY Act, the long-debated crypto market structure bill. As reported by Bitcoin.com News, the bill, which was described as crypto’s marquee legislation this year, received 49 yes votes versus the 60 needed. Many Democratic senators voted against the bill despite getting several concessions from their Republican counterparts.
“Following the Senate’s recent failure to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, Stand With Crypto’s more than three million advocates are shifting their energy and focus fully to ensuring we have pro-crypto champions in office who will carry forward our fight for clear rules of the road,” said Mason Lynaugh, executive director of Stand With Crypto, in a statement.
The organization, meanwhile, said it would spend more on advertising in six House races, including for North Carolina Democratic Rep. Don Davis. It added that all of its new House endorsements voted in support of the CLARITY Act when the bill passed the House last year.
Overall, SWC’s endorsed candidate pool is split roughly equally between Democrats and Republicans. Dozens of sitting Democratic House members who voted across party lines in favor of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) and the CLARITY Act earned the organization’s backing. Incumbents who have taken public positions in committee hearings, press releases, or the media regarding digital assets and Web3 innovation have also won its support.