- Stand With Crypto, a group that advocates for pro-crypto politics, is kicking off a tour of several key states in the November US presidential election, kicking off in Arizona next week.
- The group says it hopes to gather more than one million online registrations from crypto-interested people and get them to the polls later this year.
Stand With Crypto, the political advocacy group for the crypto industry’s increasingly active effort to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election, is kicking off a multi-state tour on Sept. 4, aiming to turn its 1.3 million online subscribers into pro-crypto votes.
According to the group, its first stop in Arizona will include Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema and Republican state lawmaker and House Speaker Pro Tem Travis Grantham, along with cryptocurrency business leaders. After the event in Phoenix, the group plans to visit several other states with potentially close elections, holding similar events in Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
“There are a lot of people who are obsessed with cryptocurrencies,” Logan Dobson, the group’s executive director, said in an interview. “It’s our job to use a kind of campaign-like tool to motivate them to vote.”
“I think crypto voters are already pretty excited about this election,” Dobson added.
The company gained about 27,000 subscribers in Arizona.
The group’s website has collected about 27,000 registered crypto supporters in Arizona, and its research has found that more than 80% of them are likely registered voters. When President Joe Biden won the state in 2020, the margin of victory between former President Donald Trump and Biden was less than 11,000 votes.
Arizona is already a battleground for pro-crypto politics, with one of the industry’s top candidates, Yassamin Ansari, winning the Democratic primary by 39 votes over his opponent, who denounced support from crypto political groups and was endorsed by crypto critic Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Presidential polls currently show Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump neck and neck in Arizona, with most recent polls showing them within a single point of each other. Of the two, only Trump has publicly voiced his support for cryptocurrencies, but Harris’ team is reportedly more open to a more crypto-friendly stance than the Biden administration.
Criticism of cryptocurrency support from political groups
Fairshake, the crypto industry’s leading political action committee, announced it would spend $3 million each to support Rep. Ruben Gallego (Democrat) in his Arizona Senate race and Rep. Elisa Slotkin (Democrat) in his Michigan Senate race. The announcement drew complaints from pro-crypto Republicans, who also drew criticism from Democrats when Fairshake and an associated PAC spent $12 million to help crypto-loving Republican candidate Bernie Moreno win the election against Ohio’s influential Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown.
While Coinbase is a major backer of both groups and is working on Ohio’s plan, Stand With Crypto has no direct ties to FairShake, Dobson said. Ohio is “definitely a priority” for Stand With Crypto, he said.
| Translation and editing: Yuka Hirose
| Image: shutterstock
｜Original text:Advocates at Stand With Crypto Seek to Turn Crypto Enthusiasts Into Swing-State Voters
