The cryptocurrency industry has chosen its first big target of the midterm elections.
Representative Al Green, an 11-term Democrat from Houston whose district was upended by redistricting, is being challenged by a crypto-backed super PAC in its first major negative advertising campaign of the midterm cycle. The super PAC, which is part of the industry’s main political organization, Fairshake, said it would spend $1.5 million to try to defeat Mr. Green in his Democratic primary race next month.
The effort is the opening salvo of what is expected to be heavy spending by the crypto industry in the midterms. Fairshake, which began the year armed with $193 million, is making a new push after its 2024 spending helped elect a more pro-crypto Congress, which has passed crypto-friendly legislation that President Trump signed.
Mr. Green is a member of the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees financial assets like crypto.
“As a member of the Financial Services Committee, Representative Al Green has decided to try and stop American innovation in its tracks,” said Josh Vlasto, a spokesman for Fairshake. “Texas voters can no longer sit by and have representation in Congress that is actively hostile towards a growing Texas crypto community.”
Mr. Green is running against Representative Christian Menefee, who won a special election late last month for the Houston-area 18th District, replacing a lawmaker who died in office last year.
Mr. Menefee appears to have completed a questionnaire from Stand With Crypto, an industry group that gave him an “A rating.” The group gave Mr. Green an “F.”
“I’m concerned about how cryptocurrency can impact the dollar as the currency of choice,” Mr. Green said at a hearing last year, expressing worries that the rise of crypto could undermine the United States’ ability to impose financial penalties on other countries.
An aide to Mr. Green did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fairshake, which is funded by leading crypto firms, has sought to make an example of Democrats whom it sees as unfriendly in hopes of pressuring or persuading the rest of the party to line up with the industry.
In 2024, the crypto industry made its first big bet with a $10 million attack on Katie Porter, then a congresswoman running for Senate in California. She lost the primary contest to Adam Schiff, who is now a senator.
Mr. Green is an outspoken progressive who has called for Mr. Trump’s impeachment. He is perhaps best known for waving his cane at Mr. Trump during the president’s national address to Congress last year and being ejected from the chamber.
Mr. Green’s current district, the Ninth Congressional, was transformed into a safely Republican seat in the party’s redistricting gambit last year. So he is running instead in the redrawn 18th District.
The race is an example of the generational clashes in Democratic primary contests across the country. Mr. Green is 78 and Mr. Menefee, the former Harris County attorney, is 37.
Fairshake and allied groups have engaged in a few special elections recently, and they announced a $5 million campaign to help Representative Barry Moore, an Alabama Republican running for the Senate.
Theodore Schleifer is a Times reporter covering billionaires and their impact on the world.
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