By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews
Adrian Boafo is running for Congress on a platform of accountability. He’s also the only candidate in Maryland’s 5th Congressional District race who spent the better part of four years on a corporate lobbying payroll while simultaneously making state law — and is now the beneficiary of $4.5 million in outside spending from some of the same industries his legislation served.
That is not an accusation. It is a documented pattern.
Maryland state records list Boafo as a delegate representing Prince George’s County since January 2023. Federal lobbying disclosures list him as a registered lobbyist for Oracle Corporation — where his title was Senior Director of Government Affairs — during that same period. His official Maryland General Assembly biography still reads “Oracle Corporation, Senior Director of Government Affairs, 2021-present.”
Both jobs. At once. For four years.
The Legislative Record
While drawing Oracle’s paycheck, Boafo co-sponsored House Bill 470, which established Maryland’s Digital Asset and Blockchain Technology Task Force to study cryptocurrency use cases and regulatory frameworks. Governor Wes Moore signed it into law in May 2026. Boafo promoted the bill on LinkedIn: “Blockchain is the future. Let’s make Maryland the national leader of blockchain technology and crypto.”
Oracle, the company paying him, has deep and ongoing financial interests in blockchain infrastructure and digital asset technology. That connection is not speculative — it is the basis of the company’s product line.
Boafo also convened a legislative hearing at which Coinbase and other crypto industry advocates testified in support of his legislation, using what Baker’s campaign described as the industry’s standard “regulatory clarity” talking points. Coinbase is a primary funder of Protect Progress, the super PAC now spending millions on Boafo’s congressional campaign.
Federal lobbying disclosure records reviewed by OpenSecrets show Boafo on Oracle’s filings tied to data center issues, including a 2025 Trump executive order to expedite federal permitting for data center development.
The Disclosure Problem
Maryland law requires elected officials to disclose financial interests that could create conflicts. According to Baker’s campaign and reporting by The Lever, Boafo failed to disclose Oracle stock compensation and Oracle state contracts on his required Maryland financial disclosure forms. He amended those filings shortly before announcing his congressional campaign.
The timing of that amendment — correcting omissions only after a higher-profile race was on the horizon — is a concrete, checkable fact that ethics observers say matters independent of any legal determination.
Craig Holman of Public Citizen, who has spent two decades tracking and drafting congressional ethics laws, warned that the dual role creates serious structural conflicts. “The lack of clear safeguards and restrictions in these situations can create serious conflicts of interest and ethical concerns,” Holman said.
Boafo has not addressed the disclosure amendment timing directly. His campaign did not respond to requests for comment from multiple outlets covering the story.
The Money
Protect Progress — an affiliate of the Fairshake PAC network, which has raised $193 million to spend in the 2026 midterms — has spent $4.5 million supporting Boafo’s campaign as of early June, according to U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen, who raised the issue at a June 4 press conference. The network’s primary funders include Coinbase and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), both of which have poured tens of millions into crypto-aligned political operations nationwide.
Van Hollen, who has not endorsed in the race, offered a pointed framing of what that spending represents: “Voters need to understand that these groups are not investing in this race out of charity. They are spending because they believe the beneficiary of their spending, in this case, one candidate, Adrian Boafo, will be a dependable vote in support of their special interests. That is my warning. And my warning is ‘voters beware.'”
Van Hollen previously endorsed Baker in his 2022 gubernatorial bid and has not ruled out endorsing him in this race — context worth noting when weighing his remarks.
Boafo’s response to questions about the Oracle overlap was characteristically oblique. “My job was to make sure that Black and brown communities, folks who look like me, have access to coding information,” he told The Baltimore Banner last month. “I know they’ve got to run their race and they’ve got to do whatever they have to do, but my job is to be focused on voters while they’re focused on talking about me.”
That framing sidesteps the structural question entirely. The issue isn’t what Boafo says his lobbying was for. The issue is what Oracle was paying him to do, what legislation he sponsored while it was paying him, and what he left off his disclosure forms until it was no longer convenient to leave it off.
What the Record Shows
The individual elements here are each, on their own, arguable. Dual employment is not prohibited. Blockchain legislation can be defended on public interest grounds. Amended disclosures happen.
But the pattern — Oracle paycheck, crypto-friendly legislation, industry hearing, omitted disclosures corrected pre-announcement, $4.5 million in crypto PAC support — is something voters in the 5th District are entitled to assess before June 23.
Boafo’s campaign has not offered a full accounting of the overlap. The Maryland State Ethics Commission filings are public record. So are his federal lobbying disclosures. So are the bills he sponsored, the hearings he convened, and the dates on which his amended disclosures were filed.
Maryland’s 5th District is deciding who replaces Steny Hoyer. That is not a small decision. The question of who a candidate already works for — and how thoroughly they’ve disclosed it — is a reasonable one to ask before the answer becomes moot.
Sources: Maryland General Assembly member records; OpenSecrets revolving door database; federal lobbying disclosure records (SOPR); The Baltimore Banner; The Lever/Jacobin; Rushern Baker campaign statement, June 4, 2026; GlobeNewsWire/Maryland Blockchain Association.
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