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Democratic candidates are scrambling for support in the growing crypto currency sphere, and many want their party’s leadership to change the perception that Democrats are hostile to the emerging financial technology.

But New Hampshire’s Rep. Chris Pappas (D-Manchester) isn’t one of them.

A group of congressional Democrats and candidates, including Maggie Goodlander and Colin Van Ostern, recently wrote to Democratic National Committee chair Jamie Harrison asking for changes to the party’s platform to make it more friendly to Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency. Crypto support could be vital in key swing states, they said in the letter.

“From an electoral standpoint, crypto and blockchain technologies have an outsized impact in ensuring victories up and down the ballot. Crypto is at the top of voters’ minds in swing states, and a balanced approach to crypto that spurs innovation while protecting consumers is a net positive for policymakers and candidates,” they wrote.

Pappas was the only major New Hampshire Democrat running for Congress this cycle who declined to sign.

Instead of embracing crypto, Pappas has amassed a record of supporting bills that would hurt the crypto industry. 

Pappas voted against Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act which proposed protections for crypto buyers. Pappas also voted against the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, which would block the Federal Reserve from creating its own digital currency, giving the powerful bank the ability to run surveillance on crypto users.

Pappas sponsored a bill targeting the use of crypto to purchase drugs on the so-called dark web, linking the use of crypto to criminal activity. His bill would create a task force to study the use of crypto in online crimes.

President Joe Biden’s administration, especially the Securities and Exchange Commission, has been aggressive toward the crypto industry, alienating many potential supporters and donors. With Vice President Kamala Harris leading the ticket, Democrats like Goodlander and Van Ostern hope to see change in the party’s stance. 

“We believe this previous hostility does not reflect our Party’s progressive, forward-looking, and inclusive values. A refreshed leader of the ticket represents an opportunity to change that perception,” their letter states. 

According to the Financial Times, Harris’ team is already working on a “reset” with crypto industry leaders, stressing that under her leadership the party will be “pro-business, responsible business.”

Harris needs to play catch up with former President Donald Trump. A one-time crypto skeptic who once called it a “disaster waiting to happen,” Trump is now firmly behind the industry. He gave a keynote speech over the weekend at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tenn., embracing the technology and calling for establishing a national Bitcoin stockpile before ending his speech in typically Trumpian manner.

“Have a good time with your Bitcoin and your crypto and everything else that you’re playing with,” Trump said.

Trump has also pledged to fire Biden’s anti-crypto Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler.

Crypto is popular among New Hampshire Libertarians, and libertarian-leaning Republicans. Nationally, key voters who are political independents are more engaged in crypto currency than either Republicans or Democrats. According to Goodlander and Van Ostern, the technology is gaining ground among those traditionally part of the Democratic coalition.

“Data shows that digital assets are being adopted at higher rates among Gen Z, Black, and Latino Americans, and immigrant communities–key constituencies of the Democratic party–compared to traditional financial products. These technologies are revolutionizing opportunities for these communities, reflecting their transformative potential,” their letter states.

Crypto support comes with potential drawbacks, as Pappas can attest. Last year he was dogged by the campaign money he took from disgraced fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange. 

Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy and ordered to repay $11 billion stolen from investors. During the investigation, it was uncovered that Bankman-Fried and his cohorts made 300 illegal political donations, including thousands to New Hampshire Democrats.

Pappas eventually gave his $2,900 FTX donation to a charity, while Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan gave up $30,000. 

At the trial of alleged FTX fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried on Monday, former executive Nishad Singh admitted to being a “straw donor” who helped SBF distribute millions of stolen dollars to Democratic candidates and committees across the country.

Among them: All four members of New Hampshire’s federal delegation and the state Democratic Party (NHDP).

And according to the available records at the OpenSecrets website, all four candidates still have stolen cash on hand.

“My role was to click a button,” Singh testified. Those “clicks” included $5,000 to the Granite State Democratic Party and $2,900 to each of New Hampshire’s four congressional Democrats last year. And SBF funneled thousands more to Hassan and the NHDP during the hotly-contested 2022 campaign.

In fact, Hassan accepted a total of $30,800 between her campaign and her PAC from Bankman-Fried, while the NHDP collected $20,000. That ranks the two as number five and six on the list of Democrats and Democratic organizations to total campaign cash from FTX and its affiliates.

And those aren’t the only problematic donations for New Hampshire Democrats. Hassan also received a $10,000 contribution last year from disgraced U.S. Senate Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), currently facing bribery charges after cash and gold bars were found in his home. Hassan has declined to return the money or answer any questions about it.

Not to be outdone, Shaheen’s PAC gave Menendez a $5,000 donation just three days before his more recent indictment. Her staff blames a “clerical error” but declines to say if she’s going to ask that the money be returned.

“It’s another colorful data point of the bigger picture that a culture of brazenness has taken hold,” says Dan McMillan with the campaign finance reform organization Save Democracy In America.

The fact Hassan and Shaheen haven’t made a greater effort to distance themselves from Menendez shows they are now part of a system that largely ignores voters and treats campaign donors and lobbyists as their real constituents, McMillan told NHJournal.

“‘We, the people,’ are now a nuisance, a necessary evil, an obstacle to [politicians] getting done what they need to get done.”

Bankman-Fried wanted to get things done, too. According to this week’s testimony, he saw donating to Democrats as a way to raise his profile, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Singh said the contributions, largely to center-left recipients, were made in his name for optics purposes. ‘It was useful for my name to be associated with some donations, even if the end recipient understood they were really coming from something else,’ he said.”

McMillan said these are all examples of a system that rewards politicians who can raise the most money. The money gives the politicians greater access to the levers of power, and it buys favorable treatment for the donors, he said. The lax federal regulation of the cryptocurrency market is, in part, a result of donations like the ones Bankman-Fried made, McMillan believes.

Save Democracy In America is promoting a taxpayer-funded campaign system, and McMillan argues it’s necessary because donors have too much power.

“Donors have become the gatekeepers, they are picking the candidates people are allowed to vote for,” McMillan said.

For example. Democratic donors are starving any candidate who might challenge President Joe Biden despite Biden’s deep unpopularity. “Donors all closed ranks and now Democratic voters are not going to have a choice this cycle on a presidential candidate,” McMillan said.

As long as politicians like  Menendez, Hassan, Shaheen, Kuster, and Pappas are incentivized to get money from donors, they will do just that. McMillan wants to use campaign money to leverage power back into the hands of voters. He’s hopeful it will work.

“We’re not a country like any other. This is the only country on Earth that stands for something. Being an American is about ideals,” McMillan said.

All four Democrats have declined to respond to repeated questions about these donations.