# Protect Progress Spends $362,000 Backing Wahab in House Rematch By Riza Dagoc Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/regulation/35293 Published: 2026-10-20T04:02:52.000Z Updated: 2026-10-20T04:02:52.000Z Section: Regulation > Wahab won an August special election against Melissa Hernandez, but their Nov. 3 contest will decide the next full term under new district boundaries. Protect Progress, a Fairshake affiliate, spent $362,000 on ads backing U.S. Rep. Aisha Wahab in a California House rematch that will decide the next full term under new district lines. The expenditure appeared in an Oct. 18 filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Wahab faces fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez in California’s 14th Congressional District for the second time this year. Wahab won more than 53% of the vote against Hernandez in an Aug. 18 special election. That victory gave Wahab the seat for the remainder of the current term, which ends in January 2027. The Nov. 3 election will determine who holds it for the next full term. The two elections also use different district maps. California voters approved Proposition 50 in 2025, and its new congressional boundaries apply to the November election. The revised map expands the 14th District beyond the boundaries used in August. Both candidates completed Stand With Crypto questionnaires before the special election. The organization rated Wahab and Hernandez as strong supporters of cryptocurrency. Protect Progress is backing Wahab despite the candidates receiving the same rating. Fairshake began in 2023 with backing from Coinbase, Ripple Labs and Andreessen Horowitz. Protect Progress is one of its affiliated political committees, and the $362,000 advertising expenditure is separate from a contribution to Wahab’s campaign. The California spending is smaller than the sums crypto-aligned groups have committed to Senate contests this cycle. In Ohio, [those groups have spent more than $52 million supporting Republican Sen. Jon Husted and opposing former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown](). Defend American Jobs, another Fairshake affiliate, accounts for more than $46 million of that total. Wahab and Hernandez will meet again on Nov. 3, when voters in the newly drawn 14th District choose their representative for the term beginning in January 2027. ## Links in this article - [those groups have spent more than $52 million supporting Republican Sen. Jon Husted and opposing former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown](https://www.tokenpost.com/news/regulation/33754)