Hijacking Campaign 2024 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2024
Posted: September 27, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025
Main Street Action PAC first registered with the state in late August 2024 to make independent expenditures in the fall elections for the state legislature. It is sponsored by the Main Street Alliance, a “network of small business owners that support left-of-center policies” that was first formed in 2006. In 2024 the committee had but two sources of income, a $200,000 contribution from the Wisconsin Initiative IE, another independent expenditure committee active in Wisconsin state elections that year, and $10,000 from Movement Voter PAC, a federally registered committee based in Massachusetts. Movement Voter PAC also provided funding for another group making independent expenditures in 2024, Leaders We Trust.
Less than six weeks before the November 5th general election, Main Street Action first reported spending with $131,000 for mailers, phone banks, and online advertising to support Democratic challengers in three races, the 14th State Senate and the 51st and 96th Assembly districts. All three districts were considered more favorable to Democrats after the passage of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers's legislative redistricting plan earlier in 2024.
About two weeks later, Main Street Action revised its earlier report, increasing overall spending in the previously reported races by about $4,700. It also reported spending nearly $22,000 for online advertising and mailers to support Rep. Robyn Vining in the 13th Assembly. A Democrat then representing the 14th Assembly, she was running as a challenger against the 13th's incumbent after new legislative maps passed earlier in 2024 put the two in the same district.
In all, Main Street Action spent about $177,000 in the four districts with three flipping from Republican to Democratic representation. Todd Novak, in the 51st, was the only Republican targeted by the group who held on to his seat.
This organization is registered with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission as an independent expenditure committee following the January 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC.