Despite nearly $11 million in donations from FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Democratic House candidate Carrick Flynn lost his Oregon primary race.
Early Wednesday, Flynn conceded to state Rep. Andrea Salinas, a three-term state lawmaker who is looking to become Oregon’s first Hispanic woman in Congress. The seat they were running for was in Oregon’s 6th Congressional district, which stretches from Salem to the Portland area. The area is leans Democratic, and a primary win is a good indicator for general election success in November — the district has a Democratic lean of 7 percentage points, according to FiveThirtyEight’s redistricting map.
Through his super PAC called Protect Our Future, Bankman-Fried spent money on TV ads, radio ads and direct mail services on Flynn’s behalf, making the Oregon-6 primary race the third most expensive House Democratic primary of this election cycle.
Bankman-Fried, who is 30 years old and worth almost $22 billion, donated to Flynn because of Flynn’s interest in pandemic preparedness, he told the New York Times — Flynn claims to have studied pandemics and disaster prevention at the University of Oxford.
Flynn received roughly 19% of the total vote, half of what winner Andrea Salinas received, according to the latest tally from the Washington Post. About 72% of the vote has been counted, but the race has already been called.
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As the crypto industry loomed over this primary, bitcoin BTCUSD, -3.68% prices fell 3.33% on Wednesday, and are down 37.22% since the beginning of the year. Similarly, ether ETHUSD, -5.00% prices were down 4.03% on Wednesday, and are down 46.61% since the start of the year. The S&P 500 SPX, -2.84% fell 1.8% on Wednesday, and is down 15.75% in 2022.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.