Pro-Crypto U.S. Lawmaker Abandons Bid for House Speaker

• Tom Emmer has been one of the biggest crypto supporters in the past year.
• The crypto community reacted warmly to Emmer’s candidacy.
• Donald Trump called on other Republicans to boycott Emmer’s candidacy.

The cryptocurrency community was ecstatic to hear on Tuesday that Representative Tom Emmer, a vocal supporter of the crypto industry, had won the Republican nomination for Speaker of the House. However, that excitement was short-lived as the Minnesota representative abandoned his bid after realizing the lack of support to secure the required vote for the job.

BREAKING: Rep. Tom Emmer withdraws from the race for speaker, just hours after he was nominated by House Republicans.

— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 24, 2023

Earlier on, Emmer secured 117 votes in a closed-door vote conducted among the House’s 221 Republicans. He first expressed his intention to run for the position of Speaker last week, describing himself as a tech-savvy lawmaker who considered cryptocurrency to be a non-partisan topic in Congress.

The crypto community reacted positively to Emmer’s shortlived nomination as a number of well-known cryptocurrency influencers and utives voiced their support for his candidacy on X. Many of these utives were excited about the prospect of having a crypto ally climb to a position of power in the US.

Tom Emmer is one of crypto’s strongest allies in congress.

He believes in open, peer-to-peer money. He’s against digital authoritarianism. He understands crypto.

He was just nominated as speaker of the house.

Bullish.

— RYAN SΞAN ADAMS – rsa.eth (@RyanSAdams) October 24, 2023

Reacting to Emmer’s nomination, Ron Hammond, the Blockchain Association’s director of government relations, said:

Emmer brings a fresh perspective and a lot of energy to his personality. For the industry, it’s a great thing to have someone who understands these technologies.

Emmer’s candidacy hit a roadblock following strong opposition from former US President Donald Trump. Trump called on other Republicans to thwart Emmer’s candidacy. He wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social,

I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great warriors. RINO (Republican in name only) Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them. Voting for a globalist RINO like Tom Emmer would be a tragic mistake.

Over the last few months, Emmer has solidified his status as one of the United States’ most passionate and unwavering supporters of cryptocurrency. The Republican lawmaker has criticized federal agencies for restricting privacy-focused cryptocurrency tools and stood up for the industry even during the politically explosive fall of FTX in November 2022. Emmer popularly drafted a bill that would legally require the dismissal of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler.