Crypto Exchanges
By Julie Binoche
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A Campaign That Lost More Than a Primary. McKinney's win came with real institutional weight behind it.
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Fairshake's Reach Beyond Michigan. Michigan wasn't the only state on Fairshake's map. A separate affiliate, Defend American Jobs,…
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What November Looks Like. McKinney now heads into a general election contest against Republican Taras Nykoriak.
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Donavan McKinney won. And the crypto industry's money didn't save Shri Thanedar.
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McKinney, a Michigan State Representative, defeated the two-term incumbent Thanedar in the Democratic primary for Michigan's 13th Congressional District, taking 51.
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The PAC behind that spending is called Protect Progress. It's aligned with Fairshake, a political group that has pulled in serious money from crypto firms including Coinbase and…
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Thanedar was exactly that kind of candidate. He voted in favor of the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act, two pieces of legislation the crypto industry has pushed hard.
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McKinney's win came with real institutional weight behind it. His campaign picked up endorsements from both the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Socialists of…
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Thanedar's problems weren't only about the PAC money working against him. Reports say his campaign lost over $600,000 in the second quarter of 2026 after he put $3.
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McKinney's campaign hadn't issued a public comment on the primary win as of publication. Cointelegraph reached out and didn't get an immediate response.
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See also: XRP Ledgers Partial Payment Trap Puts New Crypto Projects at Financial Risk
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Michigan wasn't the only state on Fairshake's map. A separate affiliate, Defend American Jobs, spent over $65,000 in Washington's 4th Congressional District backing Republican…
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The pattern is pretty clear. Fairshake and its affiliates pick races where the crypto question is live — where one candidate is friendly and the other isn't — and they spend.
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It's a strategy that has worked in other races. But Michigan's 13th just handed it a loss.
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McKinney now heads into a general election contest against Republican Taras Nykoriak. That race will draw its own scrutiny, especially with crypto-aligned groups watching closely…
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