Is Candidate Crypto The Guy To Take Orange Country From Red To Blue?

Political newcomer Brian Forde has dazzled marquee crypto investors, who hope he can be the Washington friend they desperately need

- Joshua Green

Over the past year, Bitcoin’s meteoric rise—and recent plunge—has captivated the financial world. The political world? Not so much. Washington remains stubbornly ignorant of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. But that may soon change. A roster of prominent crypto investors has piled in to support a first-time Democratic congressional candidate, Brian Forde, who’s looking to unseat the incumbent Republican in a pivotal Orange County, Calif., race that could determine which party controls the House of Representatives after November’s midterm elections.

Forde’s appeal isn’t hard to discern. Before running for Congress, the 37-year-old coder was director of digital currency at MIT’s Media Lab and a technology adviser in Barack Obama’s White House. Forde says his tech and business background is a good match for California’s 45th District, an historically GOP area currently represented by Republican Mimi Walters, but one whose well-educated, minority-rich populace also chose Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by 5 percentage points. “Tech is one of the fastest-growing economic sectors in the district,” Forde says. “In addition to our fair share of unicorns—from Broadcom to Blizzard Entertainment—Amazon, Google, and others have offices here, too.”