Regulation
Winklevoss PAC moves into Texas Senate race with $81K ad buy
Oct 22, 2026, 19:29 UTC
Regulation
Oct 22, 2026, 19:29 UTC
Oct 22, 2026, 19:29 UTC3 min read
Digital Freedom Fund, the Super political action committee (PAC) launched by Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in 2025, announced additional expenditures for US Senate races in the 2026 midterm elections, attempting to influence voters in Texas, Iowa and Ohio.
In a Tuesday filing with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Digital Freedom Fund reported its first spending on ads to support Republican candidate Ken Paxton for one of Texas’ Senate seats. According to the PAC, it had spent more than $81,000 on direct mail media to support Paxton and oppose Democratic candidate James Talarico, with early voting having already begun in the state.
The Winklevoss-backed Super PAC, which reported raising about $34 million as of Sept. 30, did not limit its spending to Texas, reporting involvement in other key midterm election races using ads. Digital Freedom Fund disclosed additional expenditures in Ohio’s Senate race between Republican Jon Husted and Democrat Sherrod Brown, bringing the PAC’s total support for Husted to about $7 million.
The expenditures into candidates that could support crypto policies and laws come as event contracts on prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket heavily favored Democrats retaking majority control of the House of Representatives and Senate in 2027. Whichever party holds a majority in each chamber would have a significant impact on passing legislation like the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a market structure bill that failed to pass a procedural vote in the Senate last month.
Paxton already benefitted from $500,000 in supportive ads ahead of the May Republican primary, in which he defeated incumbent Senator John Cornyn. The ads, funded by the Anchorage Digital- and Cantor Fitzgerald-backed Fellowship PAC, went through the Nxum Group, a marketing company co-founded by Bo Hines, a former crypto adviser to US President Donald Trump who became CEO of Tether US after leaving the White House.
According to an October Wall Street Journal report, Nxum profited from Hines’ role in government, as he helped push a stablecoin bill while keeping a stake in the company. Nxum reportedly received $6.3 million as part of a deal with stablecoin issuer Tether, the first payment of which went through while Hines was still at the White House.
Early voting began in Texas on Oct. 19, with Election Day coming up on Nov. 3.
Fairshake, a separate PAC aligned with the interests of the crypto industry and largely funded by Ripple Labs, Coinbase and Andreessen Horowitz, reported more than $13 million combined in spending on a direct mail campaign to support what it considered to be “pro-crypto” candidates this week. The PAC’s latest FEC filing showed more than $4 million to oppose Independent candidate Dan Osborn in Nebraska’s Senate race and an additional $9 million to support Husted over Brown.
While the battle for Ohio’s Senate between Brown and Husted has seen significant spending by PACs — Fairshake had invested about $56 million as of Wednesday and Digital Freedom Fund reported $7 million in total media purchases — Texas races have also spawned interest from Republican donors looking to prevent the state potentially losing Senate and gubernatorial seats to Democrats for the first time in more than 30 years.
FEC filings showed that Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and founder of SpaceX, had poured more than $150 million into the Senate Leadership Fund. The PAC, supporting Republican Senate candidates, sent the same amount Musk donated to the Texas PAC, which has supported Paxton through ads.
