Hijacking Campaign 2022 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2022

Posted: April 12, 2022
Updated: September 4, 2023

Independent expenditures in the 2022 fall elections.

If there is a link, click on a candidate's name to see any independent expenditures reported as explicitly for or against that candidate. If no such spending has been reported, there will be no link.

Click on the office link to see all independent expenditures spent on that office if any.

Candidates

Hijacking Campaign 2022 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2022

Posted: April 12, 2022
Updated: March 25, 2024

Groups running “issue ads” in the 2022 fall elections.

Hijacking Campaign 2022 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2022

Posted: April 12, 2022
Updated: March 25, 2024

PACs and other committees making independent expenditures supporting or opposing candidates in the 2022 fall elections

Click on a committee's name for more information.

PDF Listing PACs by Total Spending | PDF Listing Offices by Total Independent Spending

Posted: April 12, 2022
Updated: March 25, 2024

A guide to independent expenditures and issue ads in the the 2022 fall elections.

For information about candidate financial activity see Campaign 2022.

Hijacking Campaign 2022 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2022

Posted: September 30, 2022
Updated: March 25, 2024

Oath • Spending

This committee is used by the Washington, D.C.-based Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), which helps elect GOP attorneys general throughout the country, to make independent expenditures in Wisconsin elections. Before 2022, this committee was first and last active in Wisconsin in 2018 when it unsuccessfully opposed the election of Democrat Josh Kaul to attorney general. Kaul defeated Republican incumbent Brad Schimel in that election.

At the end of September it reported its first independent expenditures in this year's attorney general's race, when it reported spending over a half million on television and online ads opposing Kaul and another $75,000 for mailers. Kaul faced challenger Republican Eric Toney, the district attorney for Fond du Lac county, in the November election.

Over the next couple of weeks it spent about $870,000 on televison ads and mailers opposing Kaul.

Three weeks before the Nov. 8 election, Wisconsin Freedom PAC reported spending nearly another $429,000 for television and online advertising against Kaul. One of the group's television ads accused Kaul of gutting the state prosecutor's office and cutting funds for new-officer training and the State Crime Lab.

In the next couple of weeks the committee reported spending another $442,000 for mailers, television ads and texts against Kaul.

A week before the election, the PAC sponsored two 15-second ads. One ad accused Kaul of being soft on crime. The other ad claimed Toney will crack down on crime. After the committee premiered the ads, it reported spending $600,800 for them.

Four days before the election, it reported spending over another $155,000 for text messages in the attorney general's race.

 Last active election: 2018

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.

Hijacking Campaign 2022 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2022

Posted: April 12, 2022
Updated: March 25, 2024

Oath • Spending

This committee is used by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), the state’s largest business group, to make independent expenditures to support Republican and conservative candidates for legislative and statewide offices.

WMC has spent an estimated $27.3 million on independent expenditures and phony issue ads between 2010 and 2020, making it one of the top spenders in Wisconsin state elections.

In March, the committee spent $24,998 to create and sponsor a digital ad endorsing GOP gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Kleefisch. The ad said Kleefisch had the leadership ability to tackle workforce shortages, crime, and inflation. Kleefisch lost in the Aug. 9 primary.

WMC spent much more substantial sums on phony issue ads in the 2022 election to support the eventual Republican nominee for Governor Tim Michels, who lost to Democratic incumbent Gov. Tony Evers, and to back GOP candidates in a couple of legislative races.

Last active election: 2020

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.

Hijacking Campaign 2022 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2022

Posted: April 12, 2022
Updated: March 22, 2024

Oath • Spending

This is a newly created Super PAC registered to make independent expenditures in Wisconsin on behalf of GOP candidate for governor Kevin Nicholson in the 2022 election.

Fighting for Wisconsin, which has an Austin, Tex. post office box for an address but is soley funded by Illinois based Uline founder Richard Uihlein, sponsored a television ad praising Nicholson from mid-March through early April 2022. In late May, the group released a second television ad narrated by former rightwing Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr., who praised Nicholson as someone who gets things done.

An early review of television advertising purchases by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign showed the group had spent or reserved $2.68 million in ads throughout the state from mid-March through early August.

The group filed it's first offical spending report with the State Ethics Commission on June 23 showing it had spent $925,000 on media costs in support of Nicholson. June 10 was the earliest date it was required to file such reports.

Later in July it reported it had spent about another $48,000 on television advertisements to support Nicholson on July 8, three days after Nicholson announced he was suspending his campaign.

In mid-July, the group reported that between mid-March and July it had spent over $4.3 million, largely on television ads, to support Nicholson's abortive campaign for governor.

The group’s treasurer is listed as Moses Ayala, a former lawyer for the Republican Governors Association.

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.

Hijacking Campaign 2022 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2022

Posted: June 20, 2022
Updated: March 25, 2024

Oath • Spending

This is an independent expenditure committee with a Pewaukee address that first sponsored electioneering activities in Wisconsin in 2021 when the group dropped $20,000 to successfully oppose one of five Republican candidates in a primary for the 89th Assembly special election. Earlier in the 2022 spring elections, the group spent about $28,500 on electioneering activities in numerous local races not monitored by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

During the August Republican primaries, the Wisconsinites for Liberty Fund reported spending over $187,000 to support Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and fellow GOP incumbents Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Tyler August in the 32nd Assembly and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu in the the 9th Senate, all of whom won their primaries.

Towards the end of the first week in October, the committee reported spending $150,000 for canvassing and phone calls to support Vos in the 63rd Assembly. Vos faced no challengers on the November ballot, but he did face two write-in candidates, Republican Adam Steen who challenged Vos in the August primary and Democrat Joel Jacobsen who ran against Vos in 2018 and 2020.

Twelve days before the November 8 election, it reported spending $70,000 for canvassing to support Vos.

Last active election: 2021

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.

Hijacking Campaign 2022 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2022

Posted: June 20, 2022
Updated: March 22, 2024

Oath • Spending

This is a new independent expenditure committee located in suburban Milwaukee.

The group sponsored its first electioneering activities in June on behalf of Roger Roth, a GOP state senator from Appleton who was running for lieutenant governor. Documents filed with the state by the group showed it spent $100,000 on mailings to support Roth in the eight-way Republican primary. Roth won the nomination.

In mid-July the committee reported spending $55,000 for radio ads and text messages to run in the days leading up to the Aug. 9 primary.

Speak Free or Die has the same address as a packing and shipping business in Bayside.

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.

Hijacking Campaign 2022 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2022

Posted: July 7, 2022
Updated: April 9, 2025

Oath • Spending

Freedom Wisconsin PAC, based in Middleton, is registered to make independent expenditures in Wisconsin and was created to support GOP candidate for governor Rebecca Kleefisch.

In 2021, the group reported raising $277,000 from just three contributors. Billionaire GOP megadonor Elizabeth Uihlein contributed $200,000 to Freedom Wisconsin last October. She contributed $1.5 million out of the $2.88 million the committee raised by the time it closed operations in January 2023, making her the single largest contributor to the committee.

Uihlein and her husband, Richard, of Lake Forest, Ill., founded Uiline, a shipping supply company. The Uihleins are among the leading contributors to GOP and conservative state and federal candidates and causes throughout the country.

In early July, the group reported first reported spending $303,000 on advertisements to oppose GOP candidate for governor Tim Michels. Subsequently the group reported spending another half a million dollars on television advertising to oppose his campaign. Before Michels entered the race, the group had already spent over $150,000 on radio advertisements to support former Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch in the Republican primary. That activity was not reported until mid-July.

Although the committee ended up spending over $2.5 million for television and radio ads to oppose Michels, he won the primary but lost the general election to Gov. Tony Evers.

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.