# Defend the Vote FEC committee **C00764233**, treasurer **Brian Lemek**, registered at **600 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington DC 20003**. On 2026-10-02 it disclosed the largest single buy against [[Jon Husted]] recorded in this vault. ## What is on the record | Item | Detail | |---|---| | FEC committee ID | **C00764233** | | Treasurer | **Brian Lemek** | | Address | 600 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington, DC 20003 | | Notice recorded here | **Form 24, F24N, file 2016395**, received **2026-10-02** | | That notice | **$7,055,990.46**, 2 Schedule E lines, both **oppose [[Jon Husted]]**, expenditure date 2026-10-01, election code G2026 | | Vendors | Waterfront Strategies Inc. $7,047,241.09 · Declaration Media LLC $8,749.37 | ## Why it matters **It is below the §7 single-buy threshold and it is still the day's second-largest notice.** At $7,055,990.46 it sits under the $10M bar that creates a Deal page, but it is 13.5% of the entire $52,412,667.67 Schedule E tranche for its receipt date. **It made Ohio the most expensive seat of the day, from the opposite direction.** On the same receipt date SLF PAC placed $9,967,064.46 against [[Sherrod Brown]] — see [[SLF 22.5M Senate IE October 2026]]. The two filings put **$17,023,054.92** into [[OH-Sen-2026-Special]] in one day, pointed at each other. **Waterfront Strategies took 99.9% of it.** The same buyer took $1,159,920.00 on House Majority PAC's notice of the same receipt date (file 2016509), which makes it the day's most-used Democratic-side media buyer across committees. > [!warning] Aggregate column > The Schedule E rows carry an aggregate of **$7,055,990.46**, equal to the notice. That match > is the signal this is new money; it is not an Ohio race total. > [!note] Open questions > - Who funds it, and whether it is tied to the Democratic Senate campaign apparatus or to an outside > donor group. No Form 3X has been read. > - Whether the committee has prior cycle activity under this ID — C00764233 is not a 2026 registration > number. ## See Also - [[OH-Sen-2026-Special]] · [[Jon Husted]] · [[Sherrod Brown]] - [[SLF 22.5M Senate IE October 2026]] · [[Defend American Jobs 12.1M Ohio Senate IE]] - [[Independent Expenditure]] · [[Super PACs]] - [[Organizations Hub]]