GOP Leaders Press Commerce Secretary Lutnick Over Crypto PAC's $1.75M Texas Political Spend

Gate News message, April 24 — Senior Republican officials contacted Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick this week after Fellowship PAC, a crypto super PAC seeded by Cantor Fitzgerald (the firm Lutnick previously ran), signaled in a federal filing that it planned to spend $1.75 million backing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the state's contentious Republican runoff against Sen. John Cornyn.

GOP leaders viewed the planned spend as a political misstep, particularly because Trump has notably avoided taking sides in the Texas race. Republican officials reportedly expressed concerns to Lutnick about the PAC's involvement. However, the planned ad buy never materialized; by Wednesday, party leaders were reassured that Fellowship PAC had not aired and was not preparing to air pro-Paxton ads. Media-tracking data confirmed that neither Fellowship PAC nor its ad firm ran political ads this cycle.

Lutnick divested his interests in Cantor Fitzgerald last year, with his sons now running the firm; he was confirmed as U.S. Commerce Secretary in 2025. On April 15, The Block reported that Cantor Fitzgerald had donated $10 million to Fellowship PAC, led by Jesse Spiro, Tether's head of government affairs. The donation made Fellowship PAC one of the more closely watched vehicles in crypto politics heading into the 2026 midterm cycle. The group has aimed to raise $100 million and had brought in $11 million by mid-April, including the $10 million from Cantor and $1 million from Anchor Labs, a crypto infrastructure firm.