Two Republican candidates, who collectively secured $1.5 million from a crypto-funded political action committee, are set to join the US House following their victories in special elections held in Florida.
Republican Jimmy Patronis claimed the open seat in Florida’s 1st Congressional District, previously held by Matt Gaetz, winning with 57% of the votes against Democrat Gay Valimont, according to AP News data.
Meanwhile, Randy Fine won Florida’s 6th Congressional District with 56.7% of the vote, defeating his Democratic opponent, public school teacher Josh Weil, to fill the seat vacated by Mike Waltz, who accepted a role as White House national security adviser.
For approximately 30 years, Florida’s 1st and 6th Congressional Districts—located in the state’s western panhandle and northeast coast—have been under Republican control, although their dominance has become less pronounced in recent years.
The PAC, supported by major figures in the crypto sector such as Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen Horowitz, invested around $1.16 million in advertising for Fine and contributed $347,000 to Patronis’s campaign.
Both candidates have voiced their support for the crypto industry, with Fine declaring in a January 14 post on X that “Floridians want crypto innovation!”
The PAC and its partners invested about $170 million in the 2024 US presidential and congressional elections to back candidates committed to advancing the interests of the crypto industry.
The victories of Patronis and Fine have expanded Republican representation in the House to 220 seats, while Democrats hold 213 seats.
There remain two empty seats following the deaths of Texas Democrat Sylvester Turner and Arizona Democrat Raúl Grijalva on March 5 and March 13, respectively.
Florida Anticipates a Crypto-Friendly Regulatory Framework
The wins by Patronis and Fine suggest that support for crypto legislation will persist in Washington, D.C.
Even if the Republican Party had lost both Florida seats, it would have retained its House majority; however, this could have complicated the passage of some recent Republican-sponsored crypto bills within the House and Senate.
At the Digital Assets Summit on March 18, Congressman Ro Khanna expressed confidence that Congress should be able to advance both a stablecoin bill and a framework for crypto markets this year.
Legislation that may soon reach the House includes the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which was approved by the Senate Banking Committee in an 18-6 vote on March 13.
Additionally, Senator Cynthia Lummis reintroduced a Bitcoin reserve bill shortly after the Trump administration announced plans for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve on March 6, with the bill referred to the Senate Banking Committee on March 11.