Rep. Katie Porter, left, and Rep. Adam Schiff participate in a debate on stage with other Democrats running to succeed Sen. Feinstein at Westing Bonaventure Hotel on Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023, in Los Angeles. Porter was targeted by a crypto-funded super PAC as she campaigned against Schiff in the California Senate primary. In the days before the California Senate primary, political ads calling Rep. Katie Porter a fake, an actor and a hypocrite inundated social media platforms and television programs.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has asserted in court that cryptocurrency should be regulated like stocks and bonds, which would require trading firms to follow a wide range of disclosure and investor protection laws. The industry has lobbied forin the Senate primary, but to what extent it moved the needle is a matter of debate.
Sawyer Hackett, a spokesman for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which backed Porter, said the $10-million ad buy “probably contributed a significant amount” to Porter’s loss. In California’s costly media markets, he said, $10 million doesn’t win or lose a race, but “it’s certainly a major factor, especially when you’re talking about the final weeks of the election when Democratic voters are considering the options in front of them.
Coinbase, which has the highest trading volume of any crypto exchange in the U.S., is working this year to make sure that “candidates and incumbents continue to think about crypto as an opportunity to really make a difference to change, to protect jobs, to protect national security,” said Kara Calvert, the company’s head of U.S. policy.
Inside, as guests ate sliders and drank Sofia Coppola wine, Armstrong told the crowd that they needed to vote to send a “very clear message” for the November election that “you’ve got to understand innovation, you’ve got to be pro-tech, pro-innovation, pro-crypto, to get elected and be representing our values in California.