Scoop: GOP called Howard Lutnick to reverse crypto PAC's Texas move

Senior Republican officials called Commerce Secretary https://www.axios.com/2026/04/06/howard-lutnick-jeffrey-epstein-house-oversight" target="_blank">Howard Lutnick on Tuesday after a new crypto super PAC seeded by his former firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00915181/1970572/se" target="_blank">indicated in a FEC filing that it planned to spend $1.75 million backing Ken Paxton in Texas, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: GOP leaders were alarmed that the new group, Fellowship PAC, was wading into a contentious primary runoff in which President Trump has famously dithered about taking a side between Paxton and Sen. John Cornyn.

• While Lutnick's sons now run Cantor Fitzgerald, from which Lutnick https://www.cantor.com/cantor-fitzgerald-announces-next-generation-of-ownership/" target="_blank">divested last year, senior Republican officials appealed to the Commerce secretary to help reverse what they viewed as a silly political blunder, according to three people familiar with the matter.
• It was unclear to people familiar with the matter if Lutnick followed up on those phone calls.
• Chris LaCivita — Trump's former campaign manager and a key figure in Cornyn's allied super PAC — gave a public voice to the private frustration, https://x.com/ChrisLaCivita/status/2046714394713747597" target="_blank">posting on X: "This was not a smart move."

Zoom in: The National Republican Senatorial Committee blasted the news of the FEC report on Tuesday.

• "Backing the guy who came in second place [in the GOP state primary] and risks handing Democrats the Senate is pure political malpractice," NRSC spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez said.

What we're hearing: The PAC never placed the ad buy that https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00915181/1970572/se" target="_blank">showed up on its FEC report, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

• By Wednesday midday, Republican leaders were assuaged that the new PAC had not aired any pro-Paxton advertisements and was not preparing to do so, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
• That account is backed up by media trackers: Neither Fellowship PAC nor Nxum — the advertising firm it is working with — has aired political ads this cycle, according to AdImpact.
• Jesse Spiro, the chair of Fellowship PAC, as well as Tether's head of government affairs, did not respond to a request for a comment on the record.

Zoom out: The crypto industry played an outsized role in the 2024 elections, spending roughly $120 million to $130 million, https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/14/sherrod-brown-comeback-crypto-cash-00508625?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank">including about $40 million from its main PAC, Fairshake, to help defeat then-Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio.

• Fairshake — backed by Coinbase, Ripple and Andreessen Horowitz — https://www.axios.com/2026/01/28/crypto-coinbase-fairshake-pac?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank">entered 2026 with nearly $200 million on hand.
• Fellowship PAC, which is associated with Tether, said in January it planned to raise $100 million for the 2026 cycle.
• By mid-April, https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00915181/1963591/sa/ALL" target="_blank">it had reported raising $11 million, including $10 million from Cantor Fitzgerald and $1 million from Anchor Labs Inc., a crypto infrastructure firm that works with Cantor.