Hijacking Campaign 2023 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Campaign 2023
Posted: February 2, 2023
Updated: March 26, 2024
This corporation is run by the Republican State Leadership Committee to make independent expenditures in support of Republican legislative candidates in Wisconsin and throughout the country.
The organization spent over $6.5 million between 2010 and 2022 on independent expenditures and phony issue ads in Wisconsin legislative and statewide races, making it one of the top interest group spenders on Badger State elections.
A special election was held in April 2023 to fill a vacancy in the 8th State Senate district. The suburban Milwaukee district was left vacant late in 2022 when long-time GOP Sen. Alberta Darling resigned.
A three-way Republican primary was held on Feb. 21 featuring Rep. Dan Knodl of Germantown, Rep. Janel Brandtjen, and Van Mobley, a former primary candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2009. Brandtjen, an Assembly Republican from Menomonee Falls since 2014, is a supporter of Trump and his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
The PAC spent over $163,500 for mailers, texts, and television ads to support Knodl in the primary.
Knodl won the primary and defeated Democrat Jodi Habush Synikin in the April 4 election.
After the primary, the committee reported spending $40,000 for television ads backing Knodl against Habush Sinykin.
Last active election: 2022
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.