Shadowy crypto companies think they can buy Arizona votes. So far, it’s working

Voters, beware: Crypto companies are throwing big money into elections in Arizona and other states in hopes of quashing any opposition to their industry.

Cryptocurrency advocates threw around some serious cash in Arizona’s primary election.

While their success at influencing outcomes is debatable, their commitment to being political players is not.

Crypto corporations have pumped an estimated $120 million into federal election races this year, primarily through nonpartisan super political action committees (PACs) devoted to electing pro-crypto candidates and defeating crypto skeptics.

All indications point to more of the same in the general election, and beyond.

Crypto backers gave Shah an ‘F’ rating

In Arizona, that likely will start with the Congressional District 1 race. In the primary, Protect Progress, one of three super PACs funded by crypto interests, spent more than $400,000 to support former White House aide and one-time Democratic state chair Andrei Cherny.

Cherny lost.

But crypto supporters were as much backing Cherny as they were opposing Amish Shah, who emerged victorious.

The advocacy group Stand With Crypto gave Shah, an ER physician and former state lawmaker, an F rating as “strongly against cryto.”

Shah faces incumbent David Schweikert, a Republican, in one of the most competitive congressional races nationally. The Cook Political Report rates it a toss-up.

Shah’s grassroots campaign: Helped him win over big money

Crypto interests might have spent more in the CD 1 primary, but Cherny and Shah were locked in a six-person field.

They poured even more money into District 3

In Congressional District 3, Protect Progress directed nearly $1.4 million in outside spending to support Yassamin Ansari, who won a narrow race against Raquel Terán.

Ansari is the odds-on favorite to capture the seat vacated by Ruben Gallego in a district where Democrats enjoy a 30 percentage point lead over Republicans in registered voters.

It’s plausible that crypto super PACs will also be active in the Congressional District 6 race between first-term U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, a Republican whom Stand With Crypto considers a strong supporter, and Democrat Kirsten Engel. The advocacy group has not given a rating on Engel.

Cook Political Report also has the CD 6 contest as a toss-up.

We won’t get the quarterly look at spending in the general election for a few weeks, but there’s no reason to believe crypto will turn off the spigot any time soon.

Crypto is using the cash to influence legislation

The crypto sector’s emergence as election influencers comes at a precarious time. Major crypto companies have been sued by federal regulators over trading practices and handling of customer assets, which have implications for the sector.

Flush with money from an upswing in crypto prices, advocates are seeking to install politicians who would help pass legislation that’ll settle the debate over how crypto should be classified and which regulatory rules should apply.

According to the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, crypto spending accounts for nearly half of all corporate money contributed during this year’s election.

The crypto-backed super PAC Fairshake has spent $10 million on ads attacking progressive Katie Porter, who’s in a runoff with U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff for the U.S. Senate.

Porter has raised questions about the energy required to “mine,” or create, cryptocurrency and its relationship to climate change.

Arizona Legislature seems the next likely target

Crypto advocates point to the defeat of New York U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman in the Democratic primary — Fairshake spent $2 million to take down Bowman — as a force that politicians must reckon with.

A more open question is if and when crypto may look to wield similar influence in Arizona’s state legislative races.

There has been a host of bills intended to help expand or encourage adoption of cryptocurrency, including allowing Arizonans to pay state fines and taxes using the currency and directing the state retirement system to look into investing in digital assets.

Some have gotten floor votes, and a few have been enacted.

The negative ratings that triggered the heavy spending for the opponents of Shah and Terán were based, in fact, on their opposition to as few as a single crypto-related bill.

This political spending reflects the existential threat that crypto naysayers and skeptics represent for a digital currency sector that’s still trying to find its footing.

Which means voters have extra cause to be wary of attack ads leading up to Nov. 5.

Reach Abe Kwok at akwok@azcentral.com. On X, formerly Twitter: @abekwok.