Bernie Moreno
Republican US senator for Ohio since January 2025; sits on the Senate Banking Committee.
The crypto network that spent $40m on Bernie Moreno's 2024 win is back in Ohio: in The Week to 30 September 2026 its Defend American Jobs Arm led outside spending in the race for the state's other Senate seat.
Last refreshed: 1 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Should a senator whose election was funded by crypto be writing crypto legislation?
Timeline for Bernie Moreno
Mentioned in: Ohio's Brown outraises Husted 6 to 1
US Midterms 2026Mentioned in: Ohio Senate race draws $44.1m in a week
US Midterms 2026Background
Moreno has been the Republican senator for Ohio since January 2025, after defeating the Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown in 2024. His term runs to January 2031, so he is not on the 2026 ballot.
Born in Colombia, he worked at General Motors before building a car-dealership business, and in 2019 sold some dealerships to fund a blockchain start-up. That background, and the crypto industry's heavy spending for him in 2024, make him one of the Senate's most closely watched voices on digital-asset law.
He sits on the Senate Banking Committee, which handles the CLARITY Act, the crypto market-structure bill. In April 2026 he said the bill had to reach the Senate floor by May or miss the window before the midterms.
Moreno's backers return to Ohio
Moreno owes part of his Senate seat to crypto money. By this point in the 2024 cycle, Defend American Jobs had spent $40m backing him against Sherrod Brown, who lost.
Two years on, Moreno is not on the ballot, but Brown is, running for Ohio's other seat against Jon Husted. Between 24 and 30 September 2026, Defend American Jobs reported $11.46m there, the most of any outside group, split between supporting Husted and attacking Brown. The Washington Times places the group in the Fairshake network, and its new adverts, like the ones that helped Moreno, avoid mentioning crypto. A second Brown defeat would hand the industry a repeat of the result it bought in Moreno's race.
Did crypto PAC money help elect Bernie Moreno?
Is Bernie Moreno up for re-election in 2026?
Which Senate committees is Bernie Moreno on?
Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Updated 1 October 2026. Editorial standards.