Republican

Chair

Tyler

Bernie Moreno, the Republican Party candidate for the United States Senate race in Ohio, reportedly claimed to have sold his Bitcoin (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price">BTC</a>) holdings in an apparent attempt to push back against potential conflicts of interest with support from the cryptocurrency industry.
According to an Oct. 28 Cleveland.com report, Moreno <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.cleveland.com/news/2024/10/us-senate-hopeful-bernie-moreno-praises-crypto-in-campaign-stop-as-industry-floods-ohio-with-ads.html" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="null" text="null" title="null">said</a> he was “proud” to have the support of the crypto industry in his race to unseat Senator Sherrod Brown.
The Senate candidate has received more than $40 million in support through media buys from the political action committee (PAC) Defend American Jobs, an affiliate of Fairshake that primarily helps Republican candidates.&nbsp;
“I’m proud that the industry supports me,” said Moreno. “And by the way, the reason they supported me is because they agree with me, not because I agree with them.”&nbsp;
Related: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/senate-banking-committee-stablecoin-bill" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="null" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/news/senate-banking-committee-stablecoin-bill">Senate Banking Committee chair wants to combine stablecoin bill to boost chance of passage</a>
The Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Brown has served in the US Senate since 2007 and has been one of Congress’s most vocal skeptics of digital assets. Many polls from October <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/senate/2024/ohio/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="null" text="null" title="null">suggested</a> that Moreno and Brown were within the margin of error for victory in the 2024 election in a seat that could determine whether Republicans take majority control of the Senate.
Even if Senator Brown wins against Moreno, but Republicans win a majority in the Senate, he would likely have to relinquish his chairmanship of the Senate Banking Committee starting in January 2025.
<figure><img alt="Politics, Senate, Hodl, US Elections 2024" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-10/0192d509-1ee5-71f7-a32d-d3b4f8edb266" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Source: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/berniemoreno/status/1765052856573239400" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank" text="null" title="https://x.com/berniemoreno/status/1765052856573239400">Bernie Moreno</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
In addition to supportive PAC money, several high-profile crypto executives, including Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, have contributed directly to Moreno’s campaign.
Ron Conway, previously one of Fairshake’s most prominent donors, reportedly <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-super-pac-fairshake-loses-top-democrat-donor" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="null" text="null" title="null">pulled his support</a> for the crypto PAC after learning of its intentions to support Moreno.&nbsp;
<h2 id="different-crypto-visions-for-the-us-senate">Different crypto visions for the US Senate</h2>
Moreno has never held elected office. As a businessman based in Ohio, he pushed for the state to <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/ohio-bill-cryptocurrency-tax-payments-investment" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="null" text="null" title="null">accept tax payments in BTC</a> in 2018, but the proposal failed to get approval from the State Board of Deposits.
According to the Cleveland.com report, Moreno claimed to want to provide “regulatory certainty” for the industry if elected to the Senate. He has released tweets criticizing Senator Brown and Senator Elizabeth Warren for their crypto policies in 2024, but none of the 16 priorities on his campaign website included support for digital assets or blockchain technology.
<figure><img alt="Politics, Senate, Hodl, US Elections 2024" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-10/0192d516-d889-71c0-a0ee-cd39841a4f3e" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Source: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/SenSherrodBrown/status/1624174572705554433" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank" text="null" title="https://x.com/SenSherrodBrown/status/1624174572705554433">Senate Banking and Housing Democrats</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
The congressional run between Senator Brown and Moreno could be one of the most expensive in the 2024 US election, except the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Reports <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/ohio-race-for-u-s-senate-this-year-rated-as-most-expensive-in-the-country" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="null" text="null" title="null">suggested</a> that candidates and PACs spent more than $400 million on campaigning and media ads for the Ohio Senate race.
Magazine: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/crypto-voters-are-already-affecting-the-2024-presidential-election/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="null" text="null" title="null">Crypto voters are already disrupting the 2024 election — and it’s set to continue</a>

Republican seeking to unseat Sherrod Brown said he sold all his Bitcoin

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