By Jim Ellis — Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Crypto
Cryptocurrency financial sector leaders are going to make their presence felt in the 2026 election cycle, but you might not see direct evidence of such.
Through Super PACs and messages not involving the cryptocurrency issue priorities, the industry is attempting to elect some of its most staunch advocates. In the early primaries, an influx of campaign activity in several campaigns is being traced to crypto sources. The Super PACs sponsoring the various media ads have innocuous names and the messages are targeted to the particular candidate’s political situation. At this point, it appears the industry has a strong strategy and implementation plan.
In the early March primaries, the candidates receiving backing from the crypto financial sources are former Illinois Democratic congressional members Jesse Jackson Jr. and Melissa Bean, sophomore North Carolina Congresswoman Valerie Foushee (D-Hillsborough/Chapel Hill), new Democratic Rep. Christian Menefee (D-TX), and Republican challenger Laurie Buckhout, also from the Tar Heel State.
Jesse Jackson Jr. is making a political comeback after serving time in prison for misusing government and campaign funds. His father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a civil rights icon, died yesterday at the age 84.
Jesse Jackson Jr. is returning to active politics with the goal of recapturing the Chicago-anchored 2nd Congressional District from which he resigned soon after the 2012 election for health reasons and negotiating a plea deal to the criminal charges.
In the 2026 race, Jackson faces nine Democratic opponents including two state Senators and a Cook County Commissioner, so his nomination on March 17 is not secure. Therefore, an influx of support from the crypto industry will likely be a major part of the Jackson inside-and-outside campaign effort. Should he win re-election, he will join his brother, Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Chicago) who represents Illinois’ 1st District, in Congress. Both are sons of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson. “Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement.
Former Congresswoman Melissa Bean served three terms from Illinois’ 8th District, which lies west of Chicago and contains several of the city’s outer suburbs. Bean was defeated for re-election in 2010. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Schaumburg), now running for the Senate, returned the seat to the Democratic column in 2012.
Like Jackson, Bean faces a crowded and competitive primary. In her case, she has seven Democratic opponents, including a Cook County Commissioner and a local official. In a plurality primary election, which is the case in Illinois, Bean’s candidacy appears strong, and she may be considered the favorite to claim the party nomination. The large crypto expenditure on her behalf certainly helps increase her chances of returning to Congress.
Rep. Foushee won her seat in 2022 after serving 11 years in the North Carolina state legislature. In that year, the candidate finishing second and nine points behind Foushee was Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam. This year, Allam returns to force a re-match.
While North Carolina is a runoff state, the victory threshold is only 30 percent, thus it is almost guaranteed that we will see a primary night winner projected here among the three candidates, which is likely to be Rep. Foushee. Crypto organization-backed ads will help the Congresswoman’s quest for a third term.
A cryptocurrency funded Super PAC entitled Fairshake created a sub-entity called Protect Progress that funded a media wave of positive spots for new Rep. Christian Menefee (D-Houston). He won the Jan. 31 special election in Texas’ 18th Congressional District. Rep. Menefee must already run for nomination to a full term against Rep. Al Green (D-Houston) in a newly configured 18th District.
The new seat favors Rep. Green because 65 percent of the new constituency comes from his former 9th CD as compared to just 26 percent from the district that just elected Menefee. Polling, however, suggests that Menefee is leading the race in another of the now many Democratic primaries that pits a young challenger against a veteran incumbent in his late seventies.
Returning to North Carolina, according to a Fox News report, crypto funding to the tune of $500,000 is being spent to help Republican challenger Laurie Buckhout. She came within less than two percentage points of unseating Rep. Don Davis (D-Snow Hill) in 2024 and now finds herself in a crowded Republican primary as she returns for a second chance.
The new redistricting clearly favors Republicans here, and the eventual party nominee will have a strong chance of unseating Rep. Davis in a newly configured 1st District where President Trump would have recorded a 55-44 percent victory margin in 2024. In Texas and North Carolina, the primary election is scheduled for March 3.
Cryptocurrency political action will be a factor in the 2026 election cycle. The industry political managers are running a sophisticated operation, targeting competitive races in the primary election, and as previously mentioned crafting their message not on cryptocurrency but rather issues that affect the particular district or state. The crypto industry promises to attract a great deal of political attention in the midterm election cycle.