Senior Republican officials called Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday after a new crypto super PAC seeded by his former firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, indicated in a FEC filing that it planned to spend $1.75 million backing Ken Paxton in Texas, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: GOP leaders were alarmed that the new group, Fellowship PAC, was wading into a contentious primary runoff in which President Trump has famously dithered about taking a side between Paxton and Sen. John Cornyn.
- While Lutnick's sons now run Cantor Fitzgerald, from which Lutnick divested last year, senior Republican officials appealed to the Commerce secretary to help reverse what they viewed as a silly political blunder, according to three people familiar with the matter.
- It was unclear to people familiar with the matter if Lutnick followed up on those phone calls.
- Chris LaCivita — Trump's former campaign manager and a key figure in Cornyn's allied super PAC — gave a public voice to the private frustration, posting on X: "This was not a smart move."
Zoom in: The National Republican Senatorial Committee blasted the news of the FEC report on Tuesday.
- "Backing the guy who came in second place [in the GOP state primary] and risks handing Democrats the Senate is pure political malpractice," NRSC spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez said.
What we're hearing: The PAC never placed the ad buy that showed up on its FEC report, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
- By Wednesday midday, Republican leaders were assuaged that the new PAC had not aired any pro-Paxton advertisements and was not preparing to do so, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
- That account is backed up by media trackers: Neither Fellowship PAC nor Nxum — the advertising firm it is working with — has aired political ads this cycle, according to AdImpact.
- Jesse Spiro, the chair of Fellowship PAC, as well as Tether's head of government affairs, did not respond to a request for a comment on the record.
Zoom out: The crypto industry played an outsized role in the 2024 elections, spending roughly $120 million to $130 million, including about $40 million from its main PAC, Fairshake, to help defeat then-Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio.
- Fairshake — backed by Coinbase, Ripple and Andreessen Horowitz — entered 2026 with nearly $200 million on hand.
- Fellowship PAC, which is associated with Tether, said in January it planned to raise $100 million for the 2026 cycle.
- By mid-April, it had reported raising $11 million, including $10 million from Cantor Fitzgerald and $1 million from Anchor Labs Inc., a crypto infrastructure firm that works with Cantor.
