MADISON, Wis. — The latest round of state campaign finance reports reveal three MAGA billionaires – Dick Uihlein, Elizabeth Uihlein and Diane Hendricks – are continuing their bid to buy a Wisconsin state government to serve their interests.
Between July 15 and September 23 of this year, the three doled out $32.6 million to the Republican Party of Wisconsin (RPW), $5.5 million to the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee (RACC), $1.75 million to the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate (CERS), and $10 million to the MAGA Republican aligned Restoration of America PAC.
“These billionaires are spending unprecedented tens of millions of dollars to elect MAGA Republicans who will be beholden to them to run our state government,” commented A Better Wisconsin Together spokesperson Mike Browne. “And we’ve already seen the consequences, as Congressman Tiffany and MAGA politicians have voted in lock-step for more tax giveaways to the ultra-rich while sticking Wisconsin families with higher costs.”
Since January 1, 2025 the Uihleins and Hendricks together have pumped nearly $92 million in contributions into their efforts to elect right-wing candidates in Wisconsin, representing the vast majority of all funds raised by Republicans’ campaign organizations.
The three billionaires’ bucks are then able to be doled out to MAGA politicians, using a loophole enacted by state Republicans in 2015. Under that law, unlimited contributions are allowed from the ultra-wealthy to the state party and legislative campaign committees that are then in turn allowed to make unlimited transfers to candidates.
Congressman Tom Tiffany, who voted for the law when he was in the state legislature, has been the premier exploiter of the loophole, grabbing over $24 million in transfers from the Republican Party of Wisconsin to his campaign between July and September. MAGA Republican candidates for state legislature are similarly benefitting from unlimited transfers from, and massive billionaire fueled spending by, the respective Senate and Assembly campaign committees.
Browne concluded, “MAGA Republican campaigns in Wisconsin are being nearly entirely funded by a handful of billionaires with an extreme agenda. Make no mistake, their money comes with a cost to the rest of us, as they get more tax giveaways and we get stuck with higher costs.”
