Fairshake Plans $30 Million Campaign Against Sherrod Brown in Ohio
The crypto-backed super PAC moved after the Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. Blockchain Association also announced a CEO transition next month.
Fairshake plans to spend $30 million opposing former Sen. Sherrod Brown’s 2026 Ohio Senate bid, linking the crypto industry’s stalled legislative agenda to the next U.S. election cycle.
The crypto-backed super PAC’s planned spending follows the Senate’s failure to advance H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. The Senate voted 49-50 against cloture on the motion to proceed at 2:19 p.m. ET (18:19 UTC) on Sept. 15.
The vote was procedural and did not amount to final passage or final rejection of the market-structure bill. Fairshake’s planned Ohio campaign puts congressional contests at the center of the industry’s response to the setback.
The Blockchain Association is also changing leadership as it expands its policy work in Washington. CEO Summer Mersinger will step down Oct. 16, remain an adviser through the end of the year and hand the interim CEO role to Kristin Smith on Oct. 17.
“Leading Blockchain Association has been one of the great privileges of my career,” Mersinger said. She added that “Kristin built this Association from the ground up, and BA is in good hands.”
Smith was the association’s first employee when it launched in 2018 and served as CEO through 2025. “Summer took the helm of Blockchain Association at the most consequential moment in the history of crypto policy, and she met it,” Smith said.
The association said it held more than 300 meetings with congressional and agency staff during 2026 and organized seven member fly-ins. Those efforts come as crypto policy groups continue pressing for legislation and regulatory engagement across Washington.
Mersinger will leave the CEO post Oct. 16, with Smith scheduled to return as interim CEO the following day.
