WisDems: Round up: Transportation special interests bankrolling Sec. Sean Duffy’s son-in-law, Congressional candidate Michael Alfonso

MADISON, Wis. — National reporting last week reveals how wealthy donors are bankrolling Michael Alfonso’s congressional campaign in WI-07, many of whom have business interests with his father-in-law, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. The reporting details how Alfonso’s campaign appears to ride on the backs of generous donors, who also benefit by gaining federal contracts and favors from Duffy, raising questions about possible ethics violations.

Read more below about Alfonso’s wealthy donors with business interests with his father-in-law, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy:

Daily Beast: MAGA Nepo Candidate’s Eyebrow-Raising Payday Revealed

• Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s son-in-law has raked in tens of thousands of dollars from campaign donors with no connection to the congressional seat he’s running to fill, but who have business interests pending before Duffy’s department.
• Michael Alfonso, 26, is the Republican candidate for Wisconsin’s 7thcongressional district after receiving President Donald Trump’s endorsement and benefiting from Duffy’s Cabinet role during a bruising primary contest. 
• Despite never having held office or worked in the transportation industry, Alfonso has received generous donations over the past year from business leaders, corporate PACs, and lobbyists whose interests are tied to the Department of Transportation, according to an investigation by The Bulwark. 
• The donors include Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines, which are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration; shipping companies such as UPS and DHL, which are regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration; and the trade groups connected to the Federal Highway Administration, including the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association and National Asphalt Pavement Association. 
• Out-of-state business leaders and lobbyists have also opened up their wallets for Alfonso’s campaign, with at least 25 individuals who have lobbied the DOT during Duffy’s tenure giving a combined $41,750. 
• The campaign has raised $1.35 million since launching, The Bulwark found. Duffy’s own dormant congressional campaign committee also funneled another $1.5 million to Alfonso’s campaign through a pro-Alfonso super PAC. 
• Alfonso appears on Duffy’s latest reality TV show The Great American Road Trip, a six-part YouTube series that aired last month. 
• The show was funded by millions of dollars in corporate sponsorships from companies that Duffy’s department regulates, including Boeing, Toyota, United Airlines, Shell, Royal Caribbean, Enterprise, and Lyft, raising questions about possible ethics violations.
   

The New Republic: Donors to Sean Duffy’s Son-in-Law See Huge Industry Boosts

• Republican donors with no ties to Wisconsin are pouring their money into a random House candidate there—who happens to be Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s son-in-law. 
• Michael Alfonso, a 26-year-old running for Wisconsin’s 7th district, has collected money from at least 25 transportation executives, industry lobbyists, and corporate PACS, The Bulwark reported Friday. So far, his campaign has managed to raise $1.3 million, despite the fact that Alfonso has never held public office. If elected, he would be the youngest person in Congress. 
• These donors aren’t mad Alfonso-heads—they’re transportation industry figures who appear to be seeking federal contracts and favors. 
• When questioned about the donation, a spokesperson for Parker declined to comment. But, separately, he’s gushed over the “great things” Duffy’s doing at the DOT. 
• The Bulwark identified multiple situations in which transportation companies and industry figures donated to Alfonso—and either won big federal contracts or had vested interest in staying on Duffy’s good side. 
• Duffy has also poured $1 million from his dormant campaign committee toward Alfonso’s campaign.  

The Bulwark: Wanna Influence Sean Duffy? Try His Son-in-Law’s Campaign.

• David Parker, the chairman and CEO of the trucking company Covenant Logistics, has been a reliable Republican donor for decades. Over the years, he’s opened his wallet to most GOP presidential campaigns, as well as congressional candidates in Tennessee, where Covenant is based, and Georgia, where Parker has a home.1
• But this cycle, Parker and his wife decided to give a combined $10,000 to one House candidate in a far-off state. That candidate was Michael Alfonso, a 26-year-old running in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, who, if elected, will be the youngest member of Congress.
• Alfonso has no special ties to Tennessee or Georgia. Nor does he have any prior political experience that would logically place him on Parker’s radar. What he does possess, however, is a key familial connection.
• Alfonso is the son-in-law of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. And Parker has clear business before that department. Covenant has engaged the department for years, through its membership in the American Trucking Associations trade group.2 Covenant has also pushed for the department to relax requirements that a driver possessing only a commercial learner’s permit must be accompanied in the front of the vehicle by a driver with a commercial driver’s license. To the chagrin of trucker-safety groups, Covenant Logistics (like a handful of other companies) won a two-year exemption from that requirement in 2024. Weeks after the Parkers donated to Alfonso, the Trump Department of Transportation renewed that exemption for another five years.3
• Parker isn’t the only transportation-industry figure to have donated to Alfonso’s campaign over the last year. Corporate PACs, business leaders, and lobbyists with business interests before Alfonso’s father-in-law’s department have also given generously.
• These donors include airlines regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration, such as Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines; trade associations connected to the Federal Highway Administration, like the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association and the National Asphalt Pavement Association; and shipping companies regulated by the FMCSA like UPS and DHL.⁴ Out-of-state business leaders—some of whom have previously only donated to Democrats or made few itemized political donations at all— and lobbyists with business before the DOT have also given to Alfonso. Occasionally, these donations have overlapped with regulatory decisions made by the DOT. 
• In May 2025, for example, Duffy signed new FMCSA enforcement guidance requiring English-language proficiency for truck drivers—in response to an April 2025 executive order. 
• Among the entities that supported the new guidance was the American Trucking Associations, the trucking industry’s largest national association. Its affiliated political action committee, Truck PAC, donated $2,000 to Alfonso’s campaign in June 2026. 
• Alfonso was previously a producer for Dan Bongino’s podcast and claims to have worked in construction. When criticized during the Republican primary for his thin résumé, he revealed in March that he was a part-time employee of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Hayward, Wisconsin, in the accounting department. 
• It’s little wonder that Alfonso could not commit to full-time employment at the church. For the past year, he has been busy filming the Department of Transportation’s reality-TV show, The Great American Road Trip. 
• Duffy faced heavy criticism over the show due to the fact that companies with business interests before his department helped sponsor it. But the secretary dismissed those complaints, just as he has scoffed at the idea that he has boosted the candidacy of his daughter’s “middle school sweetheart.” 
• But the arrangement has, reportedly, rankled the Trump White House. And Alfonso’s profile has clearly benefited from his ties to Duffy, who previously held the congressional seat he is seeking.
• Among those big donors are Sharad and Mahinder Tak of Bethesda, Maryland. They made a combined contribution of $7,500 to Alfonso on December 19, 2025.⁵ As reported by ProPublica, that same day Sharad Tak traveled nearly nine hundred miles to a fundraiser for Alfonso in Green Bay, Wisconsin—where Duffy himself appeared.
• Sharad Tak is the founder and CEO of ST LNG, LLC, a liquefied natural gas export company that currently has a deepwater port license application to build a floating LNG export terminal off the coast of Texas awaiting approval from Duffy’s department. 
• While Sharad Tak has a history of bipartisan contributions, this is his only reported, itemized donation to Republicans this cycle. Days after donating to Alfonso’s campaign, he gave $3,500 to Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi in his unsuccessful primary campaign to replace retiring Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin. 
• Another out-of-state executive, Sundar Vaidyanathan of Herndon, Virginia donated $2,602.54 to Alfonso. Vaidyanathan also has extensive financial interests before the Department of Transportation. He is the cofounder of Karsun Solutions, a privately held government-IT modernization contractor, which holds over $100 million in contractswith the FAA. A joint venture involving Karsun Solutions is also one of fourteen companies awarded a combined $2.4 billion in contracts as part of an IT procurement project. 
• Vaidyanathan’s donation to Alfonso stands out because it is his only itemized political donation this cycle. It was also his first itemized donation to a Republican ever, having previously only donated to Virginia Democrats Rep. Gerry Connolly and Rep. Suhas Subramanyam. 
• Joshua Dominic of Costa Mesa, California maxed out his contribution to Alfonso’s campaign, donating $7,000. Dominic is the cofounder and CEO of Dreamstar Lines, a new passenger-rail startup proposing a luxury overnight sleeper train from Los Angeles to San Francisco set to launch in 2028. Once operational, Dominic’s business will be regulated by the Federal Railroad Administration, an agency within the Department of Transportation. 
• If it weren’t already apparent that Dominic has a commercial interest in developing a positive relationship with Duffy’s Department of Transportation, Dominic penned an op-ed for Railway Gazette International in May 2025 about how private rail services can “work in partnership with government agencies like the Federal Railroad Administration and state departments of transportation to establish new routes and services.” 
• Some anecdotal evidence suggests a correlation between donations to Alfonso’s campaign and positive outcomes before the DOT. 
• Peter Cipriano, the Brooklyn-based executive vice president of Halmar International, which describes itself as building “the future of transportation infrastructure,” donated $2,602.54 to Alfonso on March 31, 2026. Ten weeks earlier, Amtrak named Penn Transformation Partners—a joint venture between Halmar and construction firm Skanska with Cipriano as CEO—as one of three finalists to be the master developer of a multibillion-dollar Penn Station renovation. No individuals from either of the two other finalists’ firms donated to Alfonso’s campaign. 
• On May 20, less than two months after Cipriano donated to Alfonso, Duffy personally announced that Penn Transformation Partners had been selected as the master developer. In a press release, Cipriano thanked “our strong partnership with the Trump Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, and Amtrak” for “moving this once-in-ageneration project from vision to reality.” 
• A similar sequence took place involving the corporate PAC of Air Space Intelligence, an air traffic software startup based in Boston. Air Space Intelligence’s PAC gave Alfonso $2,500 in March 2026. On June 22, 2026, Duffy announced that the company won an $875 million contract from the FAA to build the “new technological backbone of the FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center.” 
• Comparing Alfonso’s donors to lobbying reports yields striking results: At least twenty-five individuals who gave itemized donations of $500 ormore to Alfonso have lobbied the Department of Transportation during Duffy’s tenure.⁷ In total, these lobbyists gave $41,750 to Alfonso’s campaign. 
• One example is Sean Joyce, founder and CEO of Atlas Crossing, a D.C.based lobbying firm, who donated $2,000 to Alfonso’s campaign. Lobbying reports show Joyce was a lobbyist for Southern Airways Express, a commuter airline. In this role, Joyce and his firm lobbied the Department of Transportation and the FAA on “Issues related to Essential Air Service,” “Issues relating to the electrification of the aviation sector,” and “Issues related to modernizing the Air Traffic Control system.” 
• Joyce and his firm also lobbied the White House and Department of Transportation on behalf of Halmar International on “Issues relating to redevelopment and modernization of large scale landmarks,” such as New York’s Penn Station. 
• At least three lobbyists at Miller Strategies LLC, which lobbies the Department of Transportation and the FAA on behalf of multiple clients, have donated a combined $14,500 to Alfonso’s campaign. 
• As first reported by ProPublica, the firm’s founder and CEO, Jeff Miller maxed out contributions to Alfonso’s campaign across two donations totaling $7,000. 
• James Min, chief operating officer of Miller Strategies, also donated $6,000 to Alfonso’s campaign. According to lobbying forms, Min lobbied the Department of Transportation in 2025 on behalf of Boom Technology, a company developing a supersonic airliner, for aviationpermitting. In June 2026, Duffy announced that the FAA was moving to enable supersonic flights over the continental United States. 
• Miller Strategies’ principal Jonathan Hiler also donated $1,500 to Alfonso. Hiler is listed as a lobbyist for Zipline International Inc., a drone delivery company lobbying the FAA and Department of Transportation on “issues related to transportation logistics and foreign aid.” 
• This all seems like a lot of activity, yet no firm appears to have offered more financial support to Alfonso than BGR Group, where at least a dozen different lobbyists involved in lobbying Duffy’s department have donated a combined $16,000 to Alfonso’s campaign. 
• BGR Group founder and co-chairman Ed Rogers donated $2,500 to Alfonso’s campaign in November 2025. That year, Rogers was listed as a lobbyist for Canadian National Railroad on issues related to “Rail and transportation security; mergers and acquisitions; [and] issues related to safety and infrastructure.” 
• BGR Group CEO Robert Wood has donated $3,500 to Alfonso’s campaign. Last quarter, Wood was listed as a lobbyist for HNTB Corporation, an architecture and infrastructural design firm, in a role focused on the Department of Transportation and Amtrak. During Duffy’s tenure at DOT, Wood also lobbied the Department of Transportation on behalf of Delta Air Lines—along with fellow BGR Group lobbyists Joseph Lai and Steven Pfrang, both of whom also donated to Alfonso’s campaign. 
• In addition, BGR Group’s client list includes companies that have donated to Alfonso’s campaign. Among them is Sharad Tak’s ST Energy, for which BGR Group lobbied the DOT in 2025 for “issues related to permitting offshore LNG,” such as the ST LNG project off the coast of Texas currently awaiting approval from Duffy’s DOT.
• The lobbying firm also represented Sundar Vaidyanathan’s Karsun Solutions in the second quarter of 2026. According to lobbying reports, this work involved providing “strategic counsel and [advocating] on issues related to aviation and transportation” to the Department of Transportation. 
• But even if these PACs, individuals, and lobbyists donated to Alfonso without any interest in courting his father-in-law, Alfonso’s campaign has benefited directly from his relationship to the secretary of transportation. In addition to Duffy’s appearance at fundraisers for Alfonso, the secretary has made sizable financial contributions to help Alfonso’s bid for Congress through his dormant congressional campaign committee. Duffy for Wisconsin has transferred $1.5 million to Northwoods Future PAC, a super PAC supporting Alfonso. That’s more than Alfonso’s entire campaign has raised alone and roughly half of the $3.125 million that Northwoods Future has raised since registering with the FEC in October 2025. 
• Michael Alfonso’s campaign did not respond to The Bulwark’s request for comment.