French Hill Wins Reelection but Is Set to Lose House Financial Services Chair

Republican French Hill won another term representing Arkansas' 2nd Congressional District, a race the Associated Press called on Thursday, roughly 40 hours after polls closed. With all eight counties reporting, Hill's campaign led by more than 4,000 votes, the congressman said in a statement KATV published. The same report put the totals at 127,000 votes for Hill and 123,032 for Democrat Chris Jones.

Hill's victory does not come with the same power he has held in the last Congress. He is expected to lose leadership of the House Financial Services Committee when Democrats take control in January, Cointelegraph reported. Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections, the report said, leaving the future of US crypto legislation uncertain. California Democrat Maxine Waters, the committee's current ranking member, is the leading contender to replace Hill as chair, according to Reuters reporting cited by Cointelegraph.

Hill has been one of the crypto industry's most useful allies in the House. He sponsored the CLARITY Act, voted for the GENIUS Act, and holds an A rating from the advocacy group Stand With Crypto, which classifies him as strongly supportive of cryptocurrency, per Cointelegraph. Fairshake, the industry-backed super PAC, pledged $1 million to support his reelection campaign in October as part of a broader effort to keep crypto-friendly lawmakers in Congress. Crypto-backed super PACs spent more than $176 million during the election cycle, the report said.

The Arkansas race itself dragged on well past election night. Arkansas Secretary of State Cole Jester told KATV the results were actually final on election night, with a gap of about 4,000 votes already in place. What delayed the call was provisional ballots, which county election commissions vote on the week after the election, Jester said; the number is generally less than 1% of the vote. "We basically knew the outcome the night of the election," Jester said, adding that about 2,000 ballots remained outstanding when the polls closed. Jester said he found it odd that the AP did not call the race faster, noting the agency has its own proprietary decision points for calling races.

Hill, first elected to the district in 2014, worked in banking and founded Community Bank in Little Rock before entering Congress, according to KATV. The district covers central Arkansas, including Pulaski County, and the count drew on returns from Pulaski, Saline, Faulkner, White, Perry, Conway, Cleburne and Van Buren counties.

Jones, a physicist and ordained minister who was the Democratic nominee for governor in 2022, conceded the race. He said more than 123,000 people voted for his campaign and called it the closest anyone has come to beating Hill. He congratulated Hill but also pressed him to take seriously his responsibility to serve every family in the district, and he called on the new congressional majority to restore the Voting Rights Act, saying he would not get to cast that vote in January himself.

Hill said the election "was about lowering costs for families, growing the economy, and keeping America strong" and thanked volunteers and election officials across the district's eight counties. He said he was confident in the lead once the AP called the race and looked forward to being sworn in for another term.

The leadership change carries direct consequences for crypto policy. The House Financial Services Committee writes federal financial services law and oversees the banking, housing finance and capital markets agencies, KATV notes, so the chair sets the schedule for any market-structure bill the next Congress takes up. Hill sponsored the CLARITY Act; whether that bill returns, and in what form, now depends on a Democratic majority and on who holds the gavel.