New York, Maryland and Utah to hold primaries with crypto PAC money hanging over voters

Crypto-backed PACs disclosed spending more than $8 million on media to support candidates in three US states, as some Maryland Democrats have called on one candidate to reject “outside spending from crypto billionaires.”

Political action committees (PACs) backed by cryptocurrency companies and aligned interest groups have bet more than $8 million to support candidates in Tuesday’s primaries across three US states, which could impact the makeup of the country’s Congress in 2027.

As of Monday, the Protect Progress PAC, an affiliate of Fairshake that supports Democratic candidates, reported spending more than $516,000 on media for April McClain Delaney, running in Maryland’s 6th congressional district. However, much of the PAC’s attention has been focused on two races in Maryland and New York, where it reported combined expenditures of more than $5.5 million and $1.4 million, respectively, for primary races in the states’ 5th and 15th congressional districts, for Adrian Boafo and Ritchie Torres.

Filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) showed that Protect Progress had spent about $24,000 on ads to oppose Quincy Bareebe and $74,000 for media opposing Harry Dunn, both running against Boafo in Maryland’s 5th district. Dunn and Bareebe, along with Rushern Baker, who is running in the same primary, issued a statement on June 15 against what they called the “influence of dark money and special interests” in the race: “We are calling on Governor Moore, Senator Alsobrooks, and Congressman Hoyer to answer directly: Do you support nearly $8 million in outside spending from crypto billionaires and AIPAC in a Maryland Democratic primary? If not, they should say so publicly and call on Adrian Boafo to reject it.”

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