The three US public affairs campaigns that moved policy furthest in 2025 and 2026 were the crypto industry's Fairshake super PAC network, TikTok's fight against its divest-or-ban law, and the still-unresolved battle over whether states can regulate AI. Each shows a different lever: money and candidate targeting, public and creator-led advocacy, and a coalition fight that is currently being won by the side with less money.
How Did the Crypto Industry Build the Best-Funded Super PAC Network in US History?
Fairshake, a super PAC formed in March 2023 and funded primarily by Coinbase, Ripple, and venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, raised more than $202 million ahead of the 2024 election and spent over $131 million across 71 congressional races, according to Wikipedia's FEC-sourced summary and a Washington Post analysis published October 18, 2024. Coinbase alone contributed more than $37 million through the cycle. None of Fairshake's ads mention crypto directly; the Washington Post found the spots instead target down-ballot House and Senate races where a single friendly or hostile vote on digital-asset regulation could swing committee control.
Fairshake's most visible strike was a $10 million ad campaign against Rep. Katie Porter in the March 2024 California Senate primary, which Porter lost. The network kept operating into the 2026 midterm cycle, raising $52 million in the first half of 2025 alone, according to CB Insights. For how election-year spending is shifting now, see 2026 midterm campaign communications.
Why it works: By avoiding crypto-specific messaging and instead running generic attack or support ads tied to a candidate's other positions, Fairshake keeps the actual policy fight invisible to voters while still rewarding or punishing lawmakers on crypto votes specifically, a mechanism the Washington Post's ad-content review was able to document only by cross-referencing spending data against each targeted lawmaker's committee assignments.
How Did TikTok Fight Its 2024 Divest-or-Ban Law?
TikTok and parent company ByteDance spent more than $7 million on lobbying and advertising in the first four months of 2024 alone, on top of $8 million in lobbying spent in 2023, according to CNBC and Forbes reporting on federal disclosure filings. The company ran a $4.8 million television ad campaign under the tagline "TikTok changed my life," targeting small businesses, veterans, and creators, according to Bloomberg's July 2024 account of the fight. Separately, TikTok flew creators with millions of followers to Washington for a two-day lobbying event ahead of the House floor vote, an effort AP reported drew visible unease even from some lawmakers who supported the bill.
The law passed anyway; President Biden signed it in April 2024, and the Supreme Court upheld it in January 2025. The campaign nonetheless kept the fight alive through a full legislative cycle and into ongoing litigation and divestiture negotiations.
Why it works: TikTok's creator-lobbying tactic converts a corporate lobbying problem into a constituent-services problem for individual members of Congress, since a creator with a large home-district following registers as a voter concern rather than a company talking point, which is why AP found the tactic generated visible discomfort even among supporters of the bill. For more digital campaign examples, see 25 political digital campaigns.
Who Is Winning the Fight Over State AI Regulation?
The tech industry built two well-funded vehicles to stop state AI laws in 2025: Leading the Future, an August 2025 super PAC network backed by roughly $100 million from Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI president Greg Brockman, and Meta's own American Technology Excellence Project, launched in September 2025, according to Forbes and an industry-tracking report published in 2026. Congress rejected a proposed ten-year moratorium on state AI laws in 2025 after opposition from governors, attorneys general, and state lawmakers, and a second attempt to attach preemption language to defense legislation also failed, per TechCrunch's November 2025 reporting.
The counter-coalition ran on a fraction of that budget. A bipartisan group of 36 state attorneys general sent Congress a joint letter opposing federal preemption on November 25, 2025, according to the National Association of Attorneys General. A grassroots petition campaign at DefendAISafeguards.org, backed by Americans for Responsible Innovation, Accountable Tech, and Public Citizen, gathered more than 25,000 signatures in its first two weeks. By September 2026, PYMNTS reported that states were passing AI legislation at a faster pace than in late 2025, with New York Assembly member Alex Bores, an early target of the industry-backed PACs, winning reelection and reviving a stalled child-safety AI bill.
Why it works: The states-rights and bipartisan-federalism framing let the attorneys general coalition recruit Republican and Democratic officials who disagreed on AI policy specifics but agreed on the preemption question itself, a coalition structure the $150 million industry campaign could not counter with money alone because it was arguing against the states' authority to legislate at all, not against any single policy outcome. EPR maps the state laws in The State AI Law Map for Brands, the lobbying money in Who Is Lobbying on AI Regulation, and the brand-side picture in AI Regulation for Brands 2026.
What These Three Campaigns Show
Money wins the messaging fight but not always the vote. Fairshake's spending shaped individual races. TikTok's ad spending and creator lobbying did not stop its law from passing or from being upheld by the Supreme Court. The AI preemption fight shows a $150 million industry campaign losing ground through 2026 against a coalition built on legal authority and bipartisan framing rather than matching spend. The throughline across all three: the campaigns that lasted longest paired money with a structural argument, committee leverage, a constitutional claim, or a federalism argument, that did not depend on the ad budget to keep working. Organizations planning a similar fight can compare the firms in the ranking of top public affairs and political PR firms.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much did the crypto industry spend on the 2024 election?
Fairshake and its affiliated super PACs raised more than $202 million and spent over $131 million across 71 congressional races in the 2024 cycle, funded primarily by Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen Horowitz.
How much did TikTok spend fighting its US ban?
TikTok and ByteDance spent over $7 million on lobbying and advertising in the first four months of 2024, including a $4.8 million television ad campaign, on top of $8 million in lobbying spent in 2023. The law passed anyway and was upheld by the Supreme Court in January 2025.
Who is funding the campaign against state AI regulation?
Leading the Future, backed by roughly $100 million from Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI president Greg Brockman, and Meta's American Technology Excellence Project, both launched in 2025 to support candidates opposed to state AI laws and challenge incumbents who sponsored AI regulation.
Is the state AI regulation fight over?
No. Congress rejected a federal moratorium on state AI laws twice in 2025. As of September 2026, states were passing AI legislation faster than in late 2025, and at least one lawmaker targeted by industry-backed PACs won reelection and revived a stalled AI safety bill.
The Public Affairs & Political Communications Cluster
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Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team is the staff byline for news, analysis and features on communications, reputation, AI visibility and digital discovery. Everything-PR has published since 2009. AI tools assist with research and drafting, and every article is reviewed by a human editor before publication. Coverage follows the Editorial Policy, and substantive corrections are noted on the article under the Corrections Policy.
