Community Trust ScoreVerified
A super PAC with deep crypto ties has now crossed $2 million in spending inside a single Michigan congressional district. The money is moving fast, and the August 4 Democratic primary is basically days away.
Protect Progress, the PAC in question, is backing Democratic incumbent Shri Thanedar in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District while spending to knock out his challenger, Donavan McKinney. The latest FEC disclosures — dropped just before the primary — show an additional $884,240 in media buys supporting Thanedar and more than $150,000 in spending aimed at opposing McKinney. That’s pretty much a doubling of the PAC’s footprint in the district within a single week. Protect Progress sits inside the Fairshake network, a broader political operation that has pulled in major funding from crypto companies including Coinbase and Ripple. It’s registered with the FEC as an independent expenditure-only committee, meaning it can’t coordinate directly with candidates — it just spends on its own to support or oppose them.
The $2 million figure is big.
Thanedar, McKinney, and the Crypto Vote
To put the money in perspective: McKinney’s own campaign had disbursed $1.23 million as of mid-July. So the outside spending by Protect Progress alone has already eclipsed what the challenger spent running his entire operation. The comparison isn’t apples-to-apples — different reporting periods, different types of political activity — but the gap is hard to ignore.
Thanedar supported both the GENIUS Act and the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. He sees those bills as moves toward cleaner regulations and stronger consumer protections for the digital asset space. Protect Progress generally throws its weight behind candidates who favor digital asset legislation, though it hasn’t publicly tied any specific expenditure to a specific vote.
McKinney’s camp isn’t buying it. He’s called out Thanedar for taking backing from what he describes as the “crypto lobby,” framing it as a reward for votes aligned with Donald Trump’s digital asset agenda. FEC records do confirm the independent expenditures by Protect Progress. But those same records don’t back up McKinney’s claim that there’s any coordination between the PAC and Thanedar’s campaign. No evidence of that has surfaced.
The $189 Million Picture Behind One District
Michigan’s 13th isn’t an isolated play. It’s one piece of a much larger operation.
Fairshake-linked groups have collectively spent over $82 million during the 2026 election cycle, per watchdog group Public Citizen. That $82 million sits inside a broader figure — Public Citizen estimates crypto companies have contributed roughly $189 million across various races in the cycle. Worth noting: those are the watchdog’s numbers, not an official FEC finding. But even with that caveat, the scale is striking.
The strategy is pretty consistent across races: find candidates who are friendly to digital asset legislation, spend heavily to get them through primaries, and build a more crypto-sympathetic Congress. Protect Progress’s Michigan spending fits that mold exactly.
As of July 31, more than 1.03 million Michigan residents had already cast ballots, with early voting running through August 2. Turnout that high before primary day suggests voters are engaged, though whether that engagement breaks for or against the candidate with the PAC money behind him is unclear.
Not all of Protect Progress’s last-minute buys may show up immediately in the FEC’s independent expenditure table. The agency excludes certain notices from that database, so the full financial picture in Michigan might not be visible until post-election amendments and disclosures come through. More filings are expected after the official canvass confirms the Democratic nominee.
No notable reaction from crypto markets has been tied to the Michigan race. That’s probably not surprising — a single House primary, even a well-funded one, isn’t the kind of event that moves Bitcoin prices. Industry stakeholders seem to be watching quietly.
What happens after the primary matters too. If Thanedar wins, it’ll be read as a validation of the Fairshake model — spend big in primaries, shape the field before the general election even starts. If McKinney pulls off an upset despite the financial disparity, it complicates that playbook in ways the industry probably doesn’t want to think about right now.
The FEC will keep releasing data. Amendments will follow. And the final tally of what Protect Progress actually dropped in Michigan’s 13th will probably look different — likely higher — once all the late-cycle notices get processed.
Over $82 million from Fairshake-linked groups. Roughly $189 million from the broader crypto industry, per Public Citizen. And more than $2 million of it landed in one congressional district in Michigan.
Hub: XRP price, news, and analysis
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Protect Progress and what is its connection to Coinbase and Ripple?
Protect Progress is a super PAC affiliated with the Fairshake network, which has received substantial funding from crypto companies including Coinbase and Ripple. It operates as an independent expenditure-only committee registered with the FEC.
How much has the crypto industry spent in the 2026 election cycle overall?
Per watchdog group Public Citizen, crypto companies contributed roughly $189 million across various races in the 2026 cycle, with Fairshake-linked groups accounting for over $82 million of that total.
