Crypto comes to Washington. Will the millions buy influence?

Houchin, R-Salem, left, speaks with Sen. Eric Koch, R-Bedford during a legislative hearing at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis on Aug. 21, 2021. American Dream Federal Action, a super PAC financed by a cryptocurrency CEO, saturated the district with ads promoting Houchin as a ‘Trump Tough’ conservative who would ‘stop the socialists in Washington’. That push helped secure her win last week in a Republican primary. — AP

WASHINGTON: Erin Houchin braced for the worst when a mysterious, well-financed group started buying television ads last month in her highly competitive southern Indiana congressional race.

Houchin assumed she would face a negative blitz, like the one that crushed her in 2016 when she ran for the same seat. But, in fact, the opposite happened.