Crypto donor dead set on preventing the next global pandemic gave millions to Trump-backed candidates who opposed COVID regulations to court MAGA base
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- Crypto financier Ryan Salame has donated millions to Republican candidates.
- Salame's top issue is pandemic preparedness and staving off the next global outbreak.
- Three of the candidates Salame supported this year railed against COVID restrictions.
A rising crypto donor who's made it his mission to prop up candidates passionate about pandemic preparedness funneled millions towards three Trump-endorsed candidates who campaigned against COVID-19 public health regulations.
Ryan Salame, the CEO of cryptocurrency firm FTX Digital Markets and founder of the American Dream Federal Action super PAC, said that he spent $13.4 million in this year's Republican primary races to help ensure that the federal government will be better prepared to combat the next global contagion than it was for COVID-19.
"Living through and going through COVID, it became abundantly clear that we're not prepared for pandemics and not prepared for … future viral outbreaks," Salame told the Washington Examiner, adding that "it's one of the best things that we can do for future generations."
Salame supported Trump-backed candidates Rep. Ted Budd, who is running for North Carolina's open Senate seat, Katie Britt, who is running to replace her boss, retiring Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, and House hopeful Bo Hines, who is running for the open seat in North Carolina's 13th congressional district.
The three Republican candidates have all clashed with COVID restrictions in their attempts to woo the MAGA faithful to their side.
Britt, who got the Trump nod after the embattled former president dumped prior endorsee Rep. Mo Brooks for saying the party should move on from trying to overturn the 2020 election, led an effort to "Keep Alabama open" in November 2020, as infections spiked.
Budd pushed to rescind statewide pandemic protections in May 2021, demanding that Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper lift any COVID-related rules for schools, hospitals, prisons, child care providers, and public transit because Trump's Operation Warp Speed program had fixed everything. Budd recently opposed having vaccine mandates in place for federal workers.
Hines took to Twitter in August 2021 to lobby against vaccine mandates of any kind.
"Ban COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates in our workplaces, our children's schools, and throughout #NC13!" he wrote online to his more than 50,000 followers.
Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas is one of the 15 Republicans American Dream Federal Action bankrolled in recent months that actually seems to fit the bill Salame has in mind. Boozman promoted a get-the-vaccine drive in March 2021 — "This is important for the health of every resident and the eagerness we all share to return to normal as quickly as possible," he said in a release — and continues to seek accountability for pandemic-related spending.
Salame's GOP-backing effort is the ideological ying to the Democrat-supporting yang spearheaded by cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried.
Bankman-Fried's political arm, Protect Our Future, pumped more than $24 million into the coffers of 18 left-leaning, pandemic prevention-minded campaigns — 15 of which will be on the ballot this fall.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/qeK36yH
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