The Republican Party will keep the U.S. House of Representatives for the next two years, raising hopes for comprehensive crypto legislation in the next Congress and securing a Republican trifecta for at least the next two years.
Republicans already won the White House with Donald Trump’s reelection, and flipped several Senate seats for a majority in the chamber of Congress during last week’s election. The Associated Press projected that the party secured at least 218 seats late Wednesday.
The House of Representatives has been the legislative body to move most crypto legislation at the federal level, particularly in the last year after multiple crypto-focused bills were passed by a majority of the body’s 435 lawmakers. Republicans held a slim majority in the House during that time, but Democrats were expected to flip it during the 2024 election.
However, Republicans clinched it with the election of Juan Ciscomani in Arizona, giving the party enough seats for a majority. Republicans lead in a handful of other races as well as of press time, and may hold up to 222 seats if current results hold. The party is about to lose a few lawmakers, with Trump naming Representatives Matt Gaetz, Elise Stefanik and Mike Waltz to executive branch roles, meaning they’ll have to resign their seats. Gaetz, who Trump said would be his nominee for Attorney General, already sent his resignation letter “effective immediately.”
The Fairshake super political action committee and its affiliated PACs, Protect Progress and Defend American Jobs, provided financial backing to nearly 60 House and Senate candidates in the 2024 election, with the vast majority winning their races.
Fairshake largely backed candidates in safe districts during the primary season, ensuring that the candidates they backed would coast to wins in the general election.
The handful of races their candidates were unsuccessful include seats in Colorado, where a Republican defeated Democrat Yadira Caraveio, and California, where a Democrat defeated Republican Mike Garcia.
Fairshake candidates trailed in at least two other races as of press time, but the PACs have notched over 50 wins, perhaps most notably in Ohio’s Senate race. Sen. Sherrod Brown lost to Republican challenger Bernie Moreno, a car salesman and entrepreneur who received $40 million worth of backing from Fairshake.
Retiring Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who chaired the House Financial Services Committee, spearheaded the passage of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), a market structure bill that would have defined how different types of crypto assets should be regulated by U.S. agencies. The House also passed an overturn of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, a controversial policy dictating how financial institutions must report any digital assets they hold for customers.
The SAB 121 resolution was passed through the Senate but later vetoed by President Joe Biden. The FIT21 bill did not receive a vote in the Senate.
California Democrat Maxine Waters remains the ranking member of the Financial Services Committee, while Republicans have to choose who will lead their caucus on the committee. Reps. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), French Hill (R-Ark.) and Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) are some of the lawmakers vying for that role.
Waters has been working on a stablecoin bill with Patrick McHenry, the retiring chair of the committee, for the last few years. It’s unclear if that bill will be reintroduced during the lame duck session later this year, or if it will be introduced next year when the new Congress takes over.
