MADISON, Wis. — Campaign finance reports reveal that over the last year and a half, right-wing Illinois billionaires Richard (Dick) and Elizabeth (Liz) Uihlein and Wisconsin billionaire Diane Hendricks have invested nearly $35 million dollars into right-wing candidates and political operations in Wisconsin, seemingly in an effort to buy themselves a friendly state government.
A review from A Better Wisconsin Together found that Hendricks and the Uihleins are responsible for nearly 85% of funds raised by the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, over 80% for the Campaign to Elect a Republican Senate, and nearly 88% for the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
The latest round of billionaires pouring money into Wisconsin Republicans’ pockets comes after recent reporting raised a potential correlation between GOP lawmakers receiving significant campaign support from party bosses and right-wing special interests and then voting against the best interests of their constituents.
“Wisconsin Republicans have repeatedly made it clear their loyalty lies with the highest bidder, not their constituents,” said A Better Wisconsin Together Communications Director Lucy Ripp. “It certainly begs the question: What would Wisconsin GOP’s billionaire benefactors demand from a bought-and-paid for state government?”
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Based on their past political dealings, here’s just a taste of what could be on these billionaires’ extreme MAGA wish list this midterm season:
Tax breaks for the mega-wealthy
- Diane Hendricks, who famously asked then-Gov. Scott Walker if Wisconsin could become a “completely red state,” paid no state income taxes for three consecutive years during Walker’s first term as governor. Hendricks also had her 8,500 square foot mansion taxed as a 1,663 square foot ranch house for years.
- The Uihleins and Hendricks collectively invested $20 million in groups supporting U.S. Senator Ron Johnson’s 2016 re-election campaign. Then in 2018, Johnson forced the passage of an expanded tax cut that reportedly saved them $215 million that year alone.
Abortion restrictions
- Dick and Liz Uihlein have a long track-record of anti-abortion extremism. In 2018, Dick put $2.5 million into defeating a GOP politician who crossed him on the issue of abortion.
- In 2023, the two spent millions to try to stop a constitutional amendment on abortion rights in Ohio.
- In 2024, they poured half a million dollars into supporting an Alabama supreme court candidate who held fringe views in support of adding an amendment to state constitutions that would outlaw all abortions with no exceptions, ban most common forms of birth control and even end IVF.
Election denialism
- Dick Uihlein has been a huge funder of the MAGA disinformation distribution machine including underwriting groups involved in the violent and deadly January 6th insurrection.
School privatization
- Diane Hendricks is a long-time school privatization advocate, spending millions to support pro-voucher and pro-charter school candidates and efforts, and even creating her own charter school in Beloit. Unfortunately for area residents, this has led to a steep decline in public school enrollment and in turn appears to be paving the way for financial woes for the district.
