Axios
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.
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