Protect Progress, an affiliate of the crypto-aligned Fairshake political network, has reported $362,000 in advertising to support Democratic Rep. The spending targets a November rematch with fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez, even though Wahab defeated Hernandez in an August special election.
The special election filled the vacancy created when former Rep. Eric Swalwell resigned; Wahab will serve the remainder of his term, which ends in January 2027.
The November contest is a separate election for a full two-year term. It will take place under congressional boundaries redrawn after California voters approved Proposition 50 in 2025.
Outside spending has already made the district one of the more heavily financed House contests in California. Before the August election, groups affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent millions supporting Hernandez or opposing Wahab. Wahab criticized Hernandez during an October debate for not denouncing corporate political spending aligned with those groups, saying it had damaged democracy.
The crypto industry’s involvement reflects Fairshake’s broader strategy of using affiliated super PACs to support candidates it considers favorable to digital-asset policy. Protect Progress is registered as an independent-expenditure-only committee, meaning its reported spending is separate from money received or controlled by Wahab’s campaign.
Both Wahab and Hernandez had been classified as strongly supportive of cryptocurrency after completing questionnaires for a digital-asset advocacy group before the August election. The new expenditure therefore supports a candidate who already prevailed over the same opponent and whose November race will determine only the next full term, not the remainder of the current one.