How the Unrig Washington Message Beat $10 Million in Super PAC Spending
Juliana Stratton defeated super PACS
This week, Illinois Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, defeating Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Rep. Robin Kelly. In deep-blue Illinois, the primary win is tantamount to election: Lt. Gov. Stratton will almost certainly be the state’s next U.S. Senator.
Lt. Gov. Stratton’s victory came despite an overwhelming financial disadvantage against Rep. Krishnamoorthi, who raised $30.5 million – second only to Sen. Jon Ossoff among Democrats this cycle – and went on TV early. In addition to that, the crypto industry’s main super PAC, Fairshake, spent $9.9 million explicitly to stop Lt. Gov. Stratton, making its single largest investment in the 2026 cycle.
End Citizens United endorsed Lt. Gov. Stratton in November 2025 and worked with her throughout the race, including through ECU’s Unrig Washington program, a public commitment to refuse corporate PAC money, ban congressional stock trading, and end dark money in politics. That platform became a major part of her campaign. Lt. Gov. Stratton ran on a message voters couldn’t ignore: She was the only major candidate in the race who refused to take money from the special interests she was running against.
Every dollar spent to defeat her became proof of exactly the problem she was running to fix. Voters moved to her camp in the final weeks and gave her the surge of momentum she needed to win, despite trailing in the polls for most of the campaign and being considered an underdog on Election Day, because the race ended up being fundamentally litigated on money in politics.
The Illinois Senate Race: A $35 Million Battlefield
The open-seat race to replace retiring Sen. Dick Durbin was among the most expensive Democratic primaries in modern Illinois history. More than $92 million in TV ad spending flowed into Illinois’s contested primaries overall, and the Senate race alone accounted for more than $55 million, according to AdImpact.
In the Senate race, Rep. Krishnamoorthi built a commanding financial advantage and led in virtually every public poll from the start of the race. The crypto industry had an obvious interest in the outcome: Retiring Sen. Durbin was one of Washington’s leading critics of cryptocurrency, and Fairshake’s parent groups, backed by Coinbase, Ripple Labs, and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz (who also gave $6 million to MAGA Inc.), wanted a friendlier replacement.
Lt. Gov. Stratton was outspent 7.5 to 1 on the campaign side, but from the start, she had something her opponents couldn’t match: a clear, authentic reform message grounded in her refusal to take corporate PAC money and her commitment to the Unrig Washington platform.
In all, more than $10.3 million in outside spending was directed against Lt. Gov. Stratton’s candidacy, per FEC filings. Fairshake accounted for nearly $9.9 million of that total, the crypto PAC’s single largest investment of the 2026 cycle. Progressive Values Illinois spent an additional $197,726 opposing Lt. Gov. Stratton, The Impact Fund spent $183,622, and Protect Progress spent $119,644. Every dollar of it failed.
End Citizens United’s Support
ECU’s involvement in this race wasn’t a single moment, it was a through-line. ECU made an early bet on Lt. Gov. Stratton before the race took shape, worked with her campaign on the reform platform that defined the contest, connected her with the grassroots network that fuels reform politics nationally, and stood with her on the ground in Chicago when the crypto PACs were spending at full volume.
The Early Bet: ECU Endorses in 2025
ECU endorsed Lt. Gov. Stratton in November 2025 before most major players had made a decision in the race.
The timing was intentional. By endorsing early, ECU established Lt. Gov. Stratton’s reform credibility at the exact moment when donors, activists, and journalists were first sizing up the candidates. It signaled to the reform community: this is our candidate. That signal held through despite the more than $10 million in crypto PAC attacks.
The Platform: Unrig Washington Gave Voters a Clear Choice
An endorsement alone doesn’t win races. What turned ECU’s early bet into a major part of a winning campaign was the Unrig Washington platform that Lt. Gov. Stratton became an early member of and ran on throughout the race. Candidate that join Unrig Washington:
Refuse Corporate PAC Money: Reject all contributions from corporate PACs. Elected officials’ priorities must be the people, not powerful corporations or special interests.
Ban Congressional Stock Trading: Support legislation to prohibit Members of Congress from trading individual stocks. Public office is a place to serve, not to profit.
Crack Down on Dark Money: Fight to end undisclosed political spending by supporting legislation to expose secret donors, increase transparency, and fix the FEC.
Lt. Gov. Stratton’s refusal to take corporate PAC money wasn’t just a talking point, it was a verifiable fact that voters, journalists, and opponents could check. That made the contrast with her opponents impossible to ignore.
Building the Case: ECU Substack Conversation, February 2026
In February, with the primary six weeks out, ECU hosted a Substack conversation with Lt. Gov. Stratton that gave her a direct line to 135,000+ members of ECU’s grassroots donor and activist network on Democracy.News. Lt. Gov. Stratton used it to make the case in her own words about why dark money corrupts democracy, what Unrig Washington means in practice, and what she would fight for in the Senate. For ECU’s donors and supporters, people who give specifically because they believe reform candidates can win, the conversation was evidence that Lt. Gov. Stratton was the real thing: A candidate who had lived these issues as Lieutenant Governor and could make the argument compellingly to voters. It brought ECU’s national donor network into the race at a moment when Lt. Gov. Stratton needed both resources and visibility.
Closing Strong: The Chicago Rally with Sen. Warren, March 16
Two days before the election, ECU President Tiffany Muller took the stage at a GOTV rally in Chicago alongside Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Fairshake’s ads were running at full volume. Muller’s message to the crowd was direct: Lt. Gov. Stratton was the only candidate in the race not taking a dime from corporate PACs, and the PACs pouring money in to stop her were doing so to protect their own power. She asked voters if they were going to let special interests buy the race. They answered on Election Day.
Later in the rally, Sen. Warren framed the stakes for the crowd, and for the country: “Right now, Illinois is the test ground for whether or not our democracy survives. They are the test case for whether or not they get to buy the candidate they want. I’m here because I’m hoping you will say: ‘Illinois is not for sale!’”
How $10 Million in PAC Attacks Became a Campaign Asset
Fairshake’s strategy backfired specifically because of the Unrig Washington model. Lt. Gov. Stratton had spent months building a clear, public record: no corporate PAC money, no exceptions. That made every attack ad a demonstration of the problem she was running to fix. The PAC spent $9.9 million opposing Lt. Gov. Stratton.
But a second, more subtle strategy emerged alongside the direct attacks: Fairshake’s affiliated PAC, Protect Progress, also spent money supporting Rep. Robin Kelly, a calculated attempt to boost Kelly’s vote share and split the Black vote between the two Black women in the race. That strategy also failed.
The result: every dollar Fairshake spent became evidence for Lt. Gov. Stratton’s central argument. The crypto industry had entered the race because Dick Durbin had been its chief critic in the Senate. Voters understood exactly what was at stake.
Why It Matters: The Unrig Washington Proof of Concept
The 2026 Illinois Senate primary is more than one race. It is proof that the Unrig Washington model works. An early endorsement, an anti-corruption platform, and a grassroots reform infrastructure can power a candidate past even the most lavishly funded opposition.
The American Prospect summed up the night bluntly: an “absurd $92 million” was spent across Illinois’s contested primaries. Money did not fully dictate results. The crypto industry, which claims to have not lost a single primary race in 2024, lost two on Tuesday. Its biggest loss was Lt. Gov. Stratton’s victory.
As Fairshake itself acknowledged in defeat, the industry still has $221 million to spend in upcoming 2026 races. ECU is already engaged in those fights.
What Comes Next
Lt. Gov. Stratton is a heavy favorite in the November general election in deep-blue Illinois. If she wins, she will become the third Black woman concurrently serving in the Senate, a historic milestone that Lt. Gov. Stratton herself wove into her reform argument throughout the campaign.
End Citizens United will continue to stand with Lt. Gov. Stratton through November and into the Senate. More broadly, this race is a model for the 2026 cycle and beyond. Voters across the political spectrum, especially Independents and swing voters, are hungry for candidates who will actually do something about a rigged system. Illinois proved that the Unrig Washington platform is not just good policy. It is winning politics.