Hijacking Campaign 2024 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2024

Posted: June 14, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Note: October 6, 2025 update makes no changes to indpendent expenditure amounts. Rather, descriptions of committees and their activities have been rewritten with new links added.

PACs and other committees making independent expenditures supporting or opposing candidates in the 2024 fall legislative and the 4th State Senate District special elections. Spending in the fall election is listed on the left and spending in the special on the right.

Click on a committee's name for more information.

PDF Listing PACs in the Fall Election by Total Spending | PDF Listing Offices in the Fall Election by Total Independent Spending

Hijacking Campaign 2024 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2024

Posted: June 14, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Independent expenditures in the 2024 fall legislative elections and the July special election in the 4th Senate District. Candidates running in both the fall and special elections are listed twice. The last column indicates to which election the spending is assigned.

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

Party: Dem=Democrat, Ind=Independent or Third Party without ballot status, Rep=Republican

(2) Second candidate in our database by this name or candidate running with a second committee. As of 2015, candidates are allowed to have two active committees at a time to run for different state offices.

Hijacking Campaign 2024 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2024

Posted: June 14, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Reported independent expenditure activity in 2024 fall legislative and the 4th State Senate District special elections.

Click on the office listed below to see any and all independent spending on that office.

Hijacking Campaign 2024 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2024

June 14, 2024

Groups running “issue ads” in the 2024 fall legislative and the 4th State Senate District special elections. Let us know if you see any ads by groups not listed here or on the independent expenditure group page.

Posted: June 14, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

A guide to independent expenditures and issue ads in the the 2024 fall legislative elections and the 4th State Senate District special election.

For information about candidate financial activity see our  Campaign 2024 feature. Notify us about campaign ads from groups other the the candidates and parties.

Hijacking Campaign 2024 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2024

Posted: July 8, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Fall: Oath • Spending

Wisconsin Workers United first registered with the state to make independent expenditures in the fall state legislative elections in mid-June 2024. The organization's registration materials suggest that it is affiliated with North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters as it shares an address with that union's branch in Kaukauna and its treasurer, Michael Adamavich, is a business representative for the union. Indeed, the first ever recorded contribution received by the committee was $20,000 from that very union. The remainder of its $125,000 income in 2024 came from Wisconsin Infrastructure Investment Now, an organization formed in 2014 to lobby on transportation, energy, mining, and other infrastructure related issues.

The committee first reported spending at the beginning of July with more than $17,500 going for consulting fees and mailing lists to support first-term legislator Rep. Melissa Ratcliff in the 16th State Senate Democratic primary. Ratcliff faced two other incumbent Democratic representatives for the open seat. In the end, Wisconsin Workers United spent nearly $46,000 backing Ratcliff. She won the primary and was unopposed in November.

Eight days before the August 13th primary election, the group reported spending over $49,600 for mailers and online advertising in two other Democratic primaries, the 78th Assembly where it supported three-term redistricted incumbent Rep. Shelia Stubbs, formerly of the 77th, and the 19th Assembly where it backed first-term incumbent Ryan Clancy's challenger. Both Stubbs and Clancy won their respective primaries and, like Ratcliff, were unopposed in the general election.

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 2024 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2024

Posted: July 16, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Fall: Oath • Spending

This is an independent expenditure committee used by Citizen Action of Wisconsin to pay for electioneering activities to support Democratic candidates in legislative and statewide elections. The organization is a coalition of labor, environment, senior citizen, and other groups. Between 2010 and 2023 the group spent nearly $754,000 in Wisconsin elections, both partisan and nonpartisan.

Citizen Action first reported spending in mid-July to support Democratic candidates in five state assembly seats. By the time of the August 13th primary, the group's spending encompassed a total of seven assembly seats - the 9th, 11th, 19th, 85th, 89th, 93rd and 96th - with over $32,500 going towards canvassing, phone banks, and mailers.

All of the group's initial spending sought to influence Democratic primary elections except for the 85th and the 89th where there were no primaries. Only two candidates supported by the committee lost in th eprimaries, Deisy Espana in the 9th and Amilia Heredia in the 11th. The primary winners in those two races went on to win election in November. The primary candidates supported by Citizen Action that won November were Tara Johnson in the 96th, who defeated Republican incumbent Rep. Loren Oldenburg, Rep. Ryan Clancy of the 19th who was unopposed in November and Christian Phelps in the 93rd, where there was no incumbent.

In all, Citizen Action spent over $95,400 in the 2024 elections, mostly for canvassing and phone calls, to support Democrats in fourteen state assembly races. The seven additional races were the 14th, 15th, 21st, 61st, 71st, 91st, and 94th. Eight of the fourteen candidates supported by the committee won election. In addition to the ones already mentioned, they were Angelito Tenorio in the 14th, Vincent Miresse in the 71st, Ryan Spaude in the 89th, Jodi Emerson in the 91st and Steve Doyle in the 94th. The last two were incumbents, while the other three were running for open seats.

Last active election: 2023

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 2024 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2024

Posted: July 16, 2024
Updated: October, 6, 2025

Fall: 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. The group later spent over $407,000 in the 2022 fall elections where the bulk of its spending was devoted to defending Assembly Speaker Robin Vos against a challenger in the Republican primary.

All of the committee's 2024 income, over $294,000, came from Americans 4 Security, Inc., a major funder of two other independent expenditure committees active in the 2024 elections, Speak Free Or Die and the Stronger Wisconsin Fund. Little is known about Americans 4 Security. Its registered office address matches that of a UPS shipping center in Plover, Wis. and the registered corporate agent is Matthew M. Fernholz, a Waukesha attorney and former president of the Milwaukee Chapter of the Federalist Society, a national legal association that promotes conservative and libertarian legal theories. Fernholz was also listed as contact for the Stronger Wisconsin Fund in 2024.

In mid-July, the group reported it had spent over $98,000 for mailers, online advertising and canvassing in February to support Vos. Presumably, the February spending was intended to forestall unsuccessful efforts to initiate a recall election against Vos who then represented the 63rd State Assembly District. As new legislative district maps took effect in 2024, Vos ran for the 33rd Assembly in that year's fall elections.

Eight days before the November 5th general election, Wisconsinites for Liberty reported spending $25,000 for online advertising to oppose Vos's Independent opponent Kelly Clark. Vos won reelection with Clark placing third, behind the Democratic candidate.

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.

Hijacking Campaign 2024 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2024

Posted: July 24, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Fall: Oath • Spending

Stronger Wisconsin Fund first registered with the state in June 2024 to make independent expenditures in the fall state legislative elections. The organization’s registered address is a post office box in a commercial mailing service based in Eau Claire. The organization had a registered domain, strongerwisconsin.org, created in May 2024 but no website matching that domain has been found.

Stronger Wisconsin Fund raised $450,00 in 2024, all of that from Americans 4 Security, Inc, a shadowy corporation that has provided financing to two other independent expenditure committees active in 2024, Speak Free Or Die and Wisconsinites for Liberty Fund. Americans 4 Security’s registered office address matches that of a UPS shipping center in Plover, Wis. and its registered corporate agent is Matthew M. Fernholz, a Waukesha attorney and former president of the Milwaukee Chapter of the Federalist Society, a national legal association that promotes conservative and libertarian legal theories. Fernholz also serves as a registered contact for Stronger Wisconsin Fund.

Stronger Wisconsin spent over $408,000 for mailers, texts, radio, and online advertising in sixteen Republican primaries. It reported no further spending after the primaries concluded. All the primaries were in Republican districts and many included incumbent legislators running against each other or in districts new to them because of the 2024 passage of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’s legislative redistricting plan.

The districts were:

• 1st Assembly District where it supported incumbent Joel Kitchens.
• 4th Assembly District where it supported incumbent David Steffen.
• 6th Assembly District where it supported first-term incumbent Peter Schmidt against Rep. Elijah Behnke then representing 89th Assembly. Behnke had been placed into Schmidt’s district by the new legislative maps.
• 24th Assembly District where it supported Sen. Dan Knodl against Rep. Janel Brandtjen. This was a new district for both candidates. At the time, Knodl represented the 8th State Senate District but chose to run for the assembly rather than run against a more senior GOP senator that had been drawn into his district. This is rematch of the 2023 special election primary for the 8th State Senate District.
• 27th Assembly District where it supported Brian Hilbelink against Linda Rae Brill for a seat left open as the Republican incumbent had been redrawn into a new district, the 26th.
• 35th Assembly District where it supported two-term incumbent Rep. Calvin Callahan.
• 55th Assembly District where it supported Rep. Michael Schraa, then representing the 53rd, against the district's first term incumbent Nate Gustafson. Like Schmidt and Behnke, the two had been drawn into the same district.
• 57th Assembly District where it supported Rep. Kevin Petersen, nine-term incumbent of the 40th.
• 67th Assembly District where it supported Rep. David Armstrong, two-term incumbent in the 75th.
• 68th Assembly District where it supported Rep. Rob Summerfield, formerly of the 67th.
• 69th Assembly District where it supported Rep. Karen Hurd, formerly of the 68th.
• 74th Assembly District where it supported first-term incumbent Rep. Chanz Green.
• 87th Assembly District where it supported Brent Jacobson in a two-way primary for seat left open by the retirement of a GOP legislator.
• 88th Assembly District where it supported Ben Franklin in a two-way primary for another left open by the retirement of a GOP legislator.
• 98th Assembly District where it opposed former state Rep. Don Pridemore in a two-way primary for a seat left open when its Republican incumbent was placed in a new district.
• 20th Senate District where it opposed former Rep. Tim Ramthun. Ramthun, who left the legislature to run for governor in 2022, faced Sen. Dan Feyen, the two-term incumbent in the 18th State Senate.

All candidates backed by Stronger Wisconsin won their primaries except for Schmidt in the 6th, Hilbelink in the 27th and Schraa in the 55th. All the primary winners won election in November.

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 2024 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2024

Posted: July 31, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Fall: Oath • Spending

Based in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, Keep Polk County Rural first registered to make independent expenditures in Wisconsin state elections in January 2024. It subsequently spent about $10,000 in the 2024 spring elections. The group’s registered treasurer in 2024 was former state legislator and 2022 primary candidate for attorney general Adam Jarchow. The committee's largest contributor, at $15,000, was the campaign finance committee for retiring GOP legislator Gae Magnafici.

Two weeks before the August 13th primaries, the committee reported spending over $18,800 for mailers and digital ads to support Kevin “Duke” Tucker in the three-way Republican primary in the open 75th Assembly District. At the time, the district was represented by two-term GOP Rep. David Armstrong who was running in the 67th Assembly after being placed there by legislative district maps that took effect in 2024.

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.