(Bloomberg) — In this year’s hotly contested race for New Jersey governor, some Democratic hopefuls are embracing a strategy that helped propel Republican Donald Trump back to the White House: They support crypto, and they’re not afraid to say it.
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At least half of the six candidates vying for the Democratic nomination have a history of backing efforts around cryptocurrencies, including US Representative Mikie Sherrill, who leads some polls in the primary race. Two others — Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and US Representative Josh Gottheimer — are actively talking up digital assets as part of their campaigns.
“Crypto is part of my platform,” Sherrill said in an interview. “It’s part of the economy, and we need to push into this space to understand how to move forward in the best possible way because it’s not going to go away.”
These Democrats are engaging with digital assets after an election year when Trump made supporting the industry a core part of his winning campaign and Republicans put crypto on the party platform. The industry is taking notice: Advocacy group Stand With Crypto is a sponsor of both Democratic and Republican primary debates later this month and is the exclusive sponsor of the events’ livestream, according to Meghan Pennington, communications director.
Digital-asset firms and related political action committees such as heavyweight Fairshake spent heavily in the 2024 cycle, with their efforts helping to turn certain races in favor of crypto-friendly candidates.
Trump made a number of crypto-specific promises ahead of his reelection — a contrast from the more combative stance taken by former President Joe Biden and prominent Democrats in Congress. Now, as crypto advocates gain more influence and the industry moves further into the mainstream, Democrats competing in the current round of big races have more incentive to show their credentials.
“The partisan divide in crypto has grown over the last couple of years, particularly in the last cycle, majorly as a reaction to what was happening in the Biden administration,” said Rashan A. Colbert, the Crypto Council for Innovation’s US policy director. “That opened up an opportunity for Republicans to take a leadership stance, but we’re seeing a bit of that level out in the coming cycle.”
From Sherrill’s perspective, crypto has become established enough that it can’t be ignored, despite what she called “bad aspects” around the largely unregulated industry, including potential conflicts of interest tied to Trump himself.
“That shouldn’t make Democrats say, ‘OK then, I’m anti-crypto,’” said Sherrill, who voted last year in favor of landmark legislation to help create a framework for setting crypto rules. “We should put more resources into the space to better regulate it.”
Big Field
New Jersey is one of only two states holding races for governor this year — Virginia is the other — and 11 candidates are now in the running to succeed Democratic Governor Phil Murphy, who is ineligible to seek reelection after serving two terms in the Garden State.
Crypto isn’t the only issue — or even the main one — in a race that will hinge more on mass transit and housing, as well as Trump. Still, it could serve as a differentiating factor for candidates as they make their case ahead of the June 10 primary. A spokesperson for Fairshake said the PAC hasn’t donated to any of the candidates’ gubernatorial campaigns.
With just weeks to go until the primary vote, the New Jersey race is relatively wide open, with a third of voters of either party still unsure of who they prefer, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released last month. Jack Ciattarelli, a former New Jersey state legislator and the GOP’s 2021 gubernatorial candidate, is leading on the Republican side, while among Democrats it’s more of a tossup, with Sherrill and Fulop ahead in a tight field, the poll, taken in early April, revealed.
Ciattarelli’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment on his views about crypto, nor did the campaigns of the three Democrats who are competing against Sherrill, Fulop and Gottheimer.
Fulop has been involved in crypto since around 2018 with personal investments in Bitcoin and Ether, he said in an interview. If elected governor, he would expose a portion of the state’s pension fund to crypto, as he did while mayor of Jersey City. Last July, Fulop, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker, announced that the Jersey City pension fund moved to update its paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to allocate a percentage of the fund to Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
For Gottheimer, crypto is part of a message about stoking economic growth in the state.
“New Jersey has a huge opportunity to be a leader in crypto,” said Gottheimer, who also backed crypto-friendly US legislation in the House and has received campaign funds from PACs tied to the industry. “I will be pushing very hard for us to both recruit more companies and jobs in the space.”
Gottheimer and Sherrill were two of 71 Democrats who voted in favor of last year’s Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act. The legislation, which 208 Republicans voted for and three against, would help create rules for crypto. Sherrill and Gottheimer also voted for H.J. Res. 25, a bill that was passed into law this year that repeals an Internal Revenue Service rule that requires decentralized crypto exchanges to report tax information.
Long History
Gottheimer in particular has a history of supporting cryptocurrency legislation in Congress, which can be traced back to his co-sponsorship of the Token Taxonomy Act of 2019. In 2022, the New Jersey representative also drafted the Stablecoins Innovation and Protection Act, which aimed to create standards and definitions around stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar or other asset.
Last month, Gottheimer helped introduce the bipartisan-backed Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy (STABLE) Act at a markup session for the bill. A similar bill in the Senate is facing headwinds after a group of Democrats threatened to block it unless changes were made.
“Stablecoins are a critical part of the growing digital asset ecosystem. We need rules to protect Jersey families as they invest in digital assets in America — instead of overseas,” Gottheimer said in a post on X earlier this year.
Gottheimer received $242,791 from crypto super PACs last election cycle, including from Fairshake, which spent $122,688 on Gottheimer’s run for the House in the 2024 cycle. Fairshake’s donors include Coinbase Global Inc., Ripple Labs, and Andreessen Horowitz.
Former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac, a Republican candidate who is a Trump supporter, said he facilitated numerous transactions dealing with blockchain during his prior career as a lawyer. He doesn’t plan on making cryptocurrencies a part of his platform, though he said he is supportive of digital assets.
“We’ll support President Trump in terms of how he wants to develop the crypto market,” Kranjac said. “In terms of crypto as a fiat currency, we’re definitely not there yet, but it’s something we’re watching develop.”
Fulop said that beyond New Jersey’s governor race, having cryptocurrencies as part of a candidate’s platform in future elections will be key to getting support from younger voters.
“If you’re pragmatic about young people, you need to understand that both financially and politically, it’s important to understand what the crypto space is about,” Fulop said. “When Democrats say that they don’t want to be receptive to this, I think that’s foolish.”
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