“Make Bitcoin Great Again” hats displayed for sale at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, US, on Saturday, July 27, 2024. Former US President Trump used to be a crypto critic but in recent weeks adopted a much friendlier stance alongside the sector’s emergence as an influential player in the 2024 presidential election through big donations to a political action committee.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
With the 2024 election hitting its homestretch, the leading pro-crypto super PAC has funneled a big chunk of its final donations to close House races as part of an effort to push candidates favorable to the group’s agenda over the top.
Fairshake, which has been one of the top spenders across any industry this election cycle, doled out nearly $29 million in September, according to Federal Election commission data released to the public on Sunday. Of that sum, $20 million went to two affiliated PACs — $15 million to the Defend American Jobs PAC, a single-issue committee focused on cryptocurrency and blockchain policy that’s favored Republicans, and $5 million to Protect Progress, which has only supported Democrats.
The remaining $8.8 million spent by Fairshake last month mostly went to House races in New York, Nevada and California, according to FEC data compiled by crypto market and blockchain analyst James Delmore and verified by CNBC.
Several of those races are considered toss-ups by the Cook Political Report. Among the recipients were Southern California Republicans David G. Valadao and Michael Garcia, who are both in tights contests to keep their seats. They’ve received $1.3 million and $1 million, respectively.
“The Fairshake donations to the California candidates in toss-up districts are important not only to get pro-crypto candidates elected in House seats that could go either way, but also because a lot of crypto companies are still located in California,” Delmore said. “California needs all of the pro-crypto politicians they can get.”
Additionally, Fairshake gave more than $1.9 million to Rep. Patrick Ryan (D-NY), over $1.7 million to Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) and almost $1 million to Rep. Angela Dawn Craig (D-Minn.). The remaining cash went to a mix of candidates in Illinois, Colorado, Oregon, Iowa and Arkansas.
Of the House donations, $6.2 million went to Democratic candidates and $2.3 million to Republicans. In the September window, Protect Progress gave more than $10 million apiece to Democrats running for Senate in Arizona and Michigan.
For the 2024 cycle, political donations from or supporting the crypto industry reached around $190 million, with contributions coming from some of the biggest names in the sector. A report from Public Citizen in August found that crypto companies have accounted for nearly half of all donations made by corporations this election cycle.
Crypto groups have spent over $130 million in congressional races for this year’s election, including the primaries, according to FEC data.
Delmore told CNBC that donations to Fairshake have been tepid the last few months.
In September, the group added around $1.1 million, with $800,000 coming from crypto firm Consensys, which was sued by the SEC in June, and $1,000 from Moonsong Labs CEO Derek Yoo.
In total, Fairshake has raised more than $160 million and disbursed over $37 million to support House candidates and to run ads opposing Democrat Katie Porter, who lost in the California Senate primary. More than $84 million was transferred to Fairshake’s affiliate PACs.
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss our GMC Sierra EV Denali first drive, Hyundai Ioniq 9 unveiling, Jaguar’s rebranding, and more.
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It’s official: Chrysler will finally launch an electric Pacifica minivan. The company is developing clever storage ideas that could make it even more functional than Volkswagen’s recently introduced ID.Buzz. But you’ll have to wait a little longer to get your hands on one.
Chrysler confirms plans to launch an electric Pacifica
Chrysler has yet to release its first fully electric vehicle. Although the nearly 100-year-old automaker has teased several EV concepts, we have yet to see one come to fruition. That will change soon.
Earlier this year, the company revealed its Halcyon Concept, a futuristic sports car-like EV drastically different from Chrysler vehicles currently on the road. The model builds on previous concepts, like the Airflow crossover introduced in 2022.
Chrysler’s CEO, Christine Feuell, said the Halycon would be brought to life with advanced new tech from parent company Stellantis, sleek new styling, and a software-defined connected cockpit.
The radical design will be used in future Chrysler vehicles, including the electric Pacifica. At the LA Auto Show this week, Feuell confirmed to GreenCarReports that the Pacifica is due for an overhaul in 2026. The refresh will lay the groundwork for the first electric Pacifica, which is expected to launch the following year.
Chrysler’s CEO hinted the upcoming Pacifica EV could challenge Volkswagen’s ID.Buzz, the first electric minivan to arrive in the US.
While you’ll need to remove the seats for that open-air space in the ID.Buzz, Chrysler is working on more functional solutions. According to Feuell, the company is developing a system like its patented Stow ‘N Go Seating to open up space in the rear.
Although nothing is set in stone, one option is adjustable front seats, enabling the second row to be stored underneath.
Electrek’s Take
As Chrysler’s only production model in 2024, it only makes sense to launch an electric Pacifica. The Pacifica hybrid was the fourth best-selling plug-in hybrid in the US in Q3. It also accounted for 14% (3,009) of the 21,504 Pacifica models sold last quarter.
Meanwhile, the company is quickly losing market share in the US. Pacifica sales crashed 44% in Q3 and are down 18% through September.
Several new larger electric SUVs, like the Kia EV9, are already hitting the market, and more are on the way, including the recently unveiled Hyundai IONIQ 9. With the electric Pacifica not due out until 2027 (at the earliest), Chrysler will likely continue losing ground as new, more advanced competitors roll out.
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Tesla has converted an entire Shell gas station into a Supercharger station for electric vehicles in Spain, and it looks fantastic.
One of the favorite arguments of electric vehicle naysayers is that there are not as many charging stations as gas stations – making EVs less convenient.
The argument is flawed since most EVs are charged overnight when parked, and they can be charged literally anywhere there’s an electric outlet, which is not the case with gas-powered vehicles.
Most of the time, charging electric vehicles is more convenient than refueling a gas-powered car, and that’s going to become more widespread as time goes on because there are more charging stations being deployed, and many gas stations are going away.
In some cases, EV charging stations are directly replacing some.
Today, we get to see a beautiful example in Cordoba, Spain, where Tesla took over a Shell gas station and converted it into (hat tip to Aland≡Bru on X):
While it is not completed, it’s particularly interesting to see that Tesla has kept a similar design to the classic gas station setup.
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