Rep. Jasmine Crockett, the flame-throwing Texas Dem now running for US Senate, has accepted campaign contributions from donors and PACs tied to traditionally Republican-leaning industries —including crypto, tech and defense.
The contributors include Marc Andreessen, the Silicon Valley billionaire who has poured tens of millions into crypto-focused, GOP-aligned Super PACs, as well as Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who donated directly to Crockett’s campaign while separately backing pro-Trump crypto causes, as the NOTUS news site first reported.
Crockett has also taken PAC money from Lockheed Martin, one of the nation’s largest defense contractors.
Andreessen donated $3,300 to Crockett’s campaign — the maximum amount allowed by the feds — after spending roughly $41 million during the 2023–24 cycle. The vast majority of those funds backed crypto-focused and Republican-aligned Super PACs including $33.5 million to Fairshake and $4.5 million to the pro-Trump Right for America PAC, according to campaign finance records cited by NOTUS.
The Winklevoss twins each gave $3,300 directly to Crockett’s campaign, even as they poured tens of millions of dollars into pro-MAGA and crypto-friendly efforts — including a $21 million bitcoin donation to a PAC backing Trump’s crypto agenda.
Since 2022, Crockett has also accepted $7,500 from the PAC for Lockheed Martin, the defense giant that has historically split its political giving between Democrats and Republicans and has donated to Trump-related committees in past cycles, NOTUS noted.
The Dem lawmaker has also received contributions from Ben Horowitz, Andreessen’s longtime business partner at Andreessen Horowitz, as well as a roster of crypto executives including Anatoly Yakovenko of Solana, Brian Armstrong of Coinbase and Hayden Adams of Uniswap.
Progressive groups warned that even modest contributions from that world risk undermining Crockett’s populist economic message by linking her campaign to an industries that have worked to weaken regulation and oppose key Democratic priorities.
“To call her in any way the progressive or leftist candidate is a misnomer,” Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, told NOTUS.
“She’s a somewhat effective anti-Trump troll and resistance liberal, but is not one of us when it comes to a progressive populist or anti-corporate warrior.”
Crockett, who is running for the US Senate seat currently held by outgoing GOP Sen. John Cornyn, has become one of the most polarizing figures in the Democratic Party.
Her Dem primary opponent is James Talarico, a younger state lawmaker backed by grassroots organizers and progressive activists.
During Talarico’s 2024 Texas House reelection race, he took about $59,000 from Texas Sands PAC, a pro-gambling committee described as heavily funded by casino billionaire Miriam Adelson — a famous Trump supporter.
Talarico’s campaign has said that his US Senate bid is powered mostly by small donors — logging 215,000 individual contributors, the majority of them coming in at $100 or less.
His campaign has said he won’t “unilaterally disarm” on fundraising as long as Republicans allegedly play by different rules.
Recent polling shows Talarico ahead of Crockett by around 9 points.
Talarico and the Winklevoss twins declined to comment.
The Post has sought comment from Crockett, Andreessen, Horowitz, Coinbase, Adams, Yakovenko and Lockheed Martin.
Credit: Source link
