Hijacking Campaign 2024

Hijacking Campaign 2024 - Information on Wisconsin Family Action, Inc. - 1.91 Account

Posted: October 3, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

This independent disbursement committee is run by Wisconsin Family Action, a conservative group that opposes gay marriage and domestic partnerships. Between disclosed independent expenditures and undisclosed issue ads, this group spent over $1.5 million between 2010 and 2023 to support Republican and conservative candidates for legislative and statewide offices in Wisconsin.

At the end of October, five weeks before the November 5th elections, the committee reported spending $12,200 for Facebook ads to support Republican candidates in five state senate - the 8th, 14th, 18th, 30th, and 32nd - and nine assembly races, the 21st, 26th, 30th, 53rd, 61st, 85th, 88th, 89th, and 94th.

The only districts not represented by Republicans at the time of the election were the 32nd Senate and the 94th Assembly, represented by Democrats Brad Pfaff and Steve Doyle, respectively. Five of the districts had no incumbent running. They were the 18th and 30th Senate and 53rd, 88th, and 89th Assembly races. In three races, incumbent legislators were running in districts new to them after being displaced by the legislative district maps passed earlier that year, the 8th Senate, 26th and 61st Assembly.

Six of the fourteen candidates favored by Wisconsin Family Action won, all in assembly races. Four were incumbents, Jessie Rodriguez in the 21st, Shannon Zimmerman in the 30th, Bob Donovan in the 61st and Patrick Snyder in the 85th, although Donovan was one of the displaced incumbents. The other two won open seats, newcomer Benjamin Franklin in the 88th and Dean Kaufert, a former legislator who last served in 2014, in the 53rd.

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 - Information on Wisconsin Principles PAC

Posted: October 4, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Fall: Oath • Spending

Based in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin Principles PAC first registered with the state to make independent expenditures in Wisconsin state election in March 2024. The committee is sponsored by Wisconsin Principles, Inc., a conservative policy organization that was also first organized in March of that year . The organization opposes “judicial activism” and advocates for “fiscal conservatism” and a wall on the country’s southern border, among other issues.

Less than five weeks before the November 5th general elections, the committee reported spending $86,000 for online advertising to oppose Democratic challengers in three assembly districts, the 30th, the 51st and the 85th. A day later it reported spending nearly $408,000 for mailers, television and online advertising in those three races plus one new district, the 14th Senate, where it opposed the Democratic challenger to the Republican incumbent Sen. Joan Ballweg. Going into the election, most political observers judged both the 51st Assembly and 14th Senate as move favorable to Democrats after the 2024 enactment of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers's new legislative district maps.

Wisconsin Principles PAC ended the election by spending over $1 million on mailers and television and online advertising in the four races, defeating the Democratic candidates in all the assembly races but not in the senate.

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 - Information on Wisconsin Leadership Committee

Posted: October 12, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Fall: Oath • Spending

The Wisconsin Leadership Committee (WLC) was first organized in 2018 to make independent expenditures in Wisconsin state-level elections by the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), an organ of the national Democratic party devoted to electing Democrats to state legislatures. The committee was last active in the state that same year when it spent about $362,000 to oppose Republican candidates in four state senate races.

The DLCC had previously run issue ads in 2002 fall and 2011 recall elections and made independent expenditures with another committee called DLCC Wisconsin PAC, the last time in 2014.

WLC reported spending nearly half a million dollars to oppose Republicans in three state senate races - the 14th, 18th and 30th - and ten state assembly districts, the 21st, 26th, 30th, 53rd, 61st, 85th, 88th, 89th, 92nd, and 94th.

Democrats won in six of the thirteen races with independent spending by WLC: all three senate races and the 26th, 89th, and 94th assembly districts.

During the election season, the DLCC announced it would be involved in the 8th Senate District, but the committee never officially reported any such spending despite the fact the race was featured on the organization's website.

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 2024 - Information on Progress North

Posted: October 17, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Fall: Oath • Spending

Progress North is a liberal organization based in the Wisconsin Northwoods sponsored by TakeAction Minnesota, the committee's sole funder in 2024. Progress North was first active in Wisconsin state elections in 2020 and, excepting the 2023 Wisconsin State Supreme Court election, has restricted its activity to supporting Democratic legislative candidates in the Lake Superior region.

In mid-October, less than three weeks before the November 5th general election, the group first reported spending over $2,900 for campaign staff and literature to support the Democratic candidates in the 73rd and 74th State Assembly races in the Lake Superior region. Both seats were held by Republicans at the time of the election, but the 73rd's incumbent, having judged the district too Democratic leaning under the legislative district maps passed in 2024, chose not to run for reelection, and the incumbent in the 74th was only in his first term.

By the time the election was over, the committee spent more than a reported $23,200 for canvassing, mailers, newspaper and online advertising between the two races. The Democrat won in the 73rd, while the Republican incumbent prevailed in the 74th.

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 - Information on Power to the Polls Action Fund

Posted: October 18, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Fall: Oath • Spending

Power to the Polls Action Fund first registered with the Wisconsin State Ethics Commission to make independent expenditures in the 2023 spring and special elections at the end of February of that year. It is sponsored by Power to the Polls, Inc., a corporation based in Shorewood, Wis. that first organized in January 2022. The corporation's registered agent is Mandela Barnes, former state lieutenant governor and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2022. The corporation made independent expenditures in the 2022 election with an unregistered committee operating under a slightly different name.

As of October 2024, when the group first reported making independent expenditures in that year's legislative elections, Power to the Polls had only reported $500 in income and by the end of the year had only raised about $8,400. However, it raised about $890,000 in 2023. Its two largest sources of income that year were the liberal organization America Votes Action Fund at $507,500 and the labor union SEIU Wisconsin at over $231,000.

Power to the Polls first reported making independent expenditures in the 2024 stage legislative elections less than three weeks out from the November 5th election day. It reported spending about $8,600 for campaign literature to support Democrats in six assembly races and two senate – the 8th and the 30th. The group quickly expanded the scope of its activity, spending a total of $252,000 in the election, mostly for canvassing, in three state senate races - the 8th, 18th and 30th - and nine assembly, the 14th, 21st, 26th, 52nd, 53rd, 61st, 88th, 89th, and 90th. All senate candidates backed by the group won, while five of the assembly candidates did, in the 14th, 26th, 52nd, 89th, and 90th

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 - Information on Speak Free or Die

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

Fall: Oath • Spending

Speak Free Or Die positions itself as a defender of 1st Amendment freedoms and originally registered with the state as an independent expenditure committee to back then Sen. Roger Roth in his losing 2022 bid for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. This is the first time the committee has reported any spending on behalf of a candidate in a state election since then, but it did spend $7,500 in the spring 2023 election to support a yes vote on a referendum question on bail reform.

Little else is known about the organization. At the time of the election, its only known address matched that of a packing and shipping business in Bayside. The committee reported raising $212,000 between 2022 and 2023, $145,000 of that coming from Americans 4 Security, Inc. As for 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 another independent expenditure committee active in 2024, Stronger Wisconsin Fund. Americans 4 Security was the sole funder of Stronger Wisconsin in 2024 and of another independent expenditure committee involved in the 2024 elections, Wisconsinites for Liberty Fund.

In 2024, Speak Free Or Die raised $65,000, all of it from the Jobs First Coalition Political Fund, another independent expenditure committee involved in the 2024 elections. Moreover, the influx of funds from Jobs First came on the very same day - October 29 - Speak Free Or Die recorded its first independent expenditure in the 2024 elections. That contribution was crucial to the organization's efforts as it had less than $3,400 in its coffers at the time.

Speak Free or Die reported spending over $60,300 for radio ads and mailers opposing Democratic incumbent Rep. Steve Doyle in the 94th Assembly. Despite the committee's efforts, Doyle was reelected.

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 - Information on Organizing Empowerment PAC

Posted: January 16, 2025
Updated: October 6, 2025

Fall: Oath • Spending

Organizing Empowerment PAC first registered as an independent expenditure committee with the Wisconsin State Ethics Commission in April 2023 and the Federal Elections Commission in 2020. It operates from a McFarland, Wis. post office box which it shares with two similarly named corporations, Organizing Empowerment Project, Inc. and Organizing Empowerment Action, Inc. From its formation in 2023 through the end of 2024, the state committee raised over $5.38 million with $1.3 million from Democracy PAC, $1.225 million from Organizing Empowerment Project, and $1 million from AFSCME. This is the first time the organization has reported involvement in state-level elections in Wisconsin as a registered committee. The organization previously operated as an unregistered committee in the 2022 fall and 2023 Wisconsin State Supreme Court elections.

It first reported spending four days before the November 5th elections with $11,370 going towards text messages to support Democrats in six legislative races two in the Senate, the 8th and 14th, and four in the assembly, the 21st, 51st, the 53rd and 88th. By the end of the election, it had reported spending over $15,800 for text messages in those contests. All the senate candidates supported by Organizing Empowerment won, and all of the assembly candidates lost.

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 - Information on Americans for Prosperity

Posted: July 9, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Fall: Oath • Spending

This is a group created in 2003 by David and Charles Koch, the billionaire owners of Koch Industries and Wisconsin-based papermaker Georgia-Pacific. Americans for Prosperity first got involved in Wisconsin state politics through the medium of "issue ads" in 2006 and first reporting independent expenditures in 2018. Between 2010 and 2023 the group spent over $21.3 million on issue ads and independent expenditures combined to influence Wisconsin state elections, placing it among the top interest group spenders in state elections during that time period.

A week into July the group filed its first report of independent expenditures for the fall state legislative elections indicating it had spent over $46,200 for canvassing and campaign literature to support GOP Sen. Duey Stroebel in the 8th State Senate District. Stroebel represented the 20th Senate since 2015 but was moved into the 8th Senate with the passage of Gov. Tony Evers's legislative maps earlier in 2024. The incumbent in the 8th, Republican Sen. Dan Knodl, was first elected to that office in a 2023 special election but chose to run for the State Assembly rather than contest the seat in a primary against his more senior senate colleague. Stroebel was unopposed in the primary and faced Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin, also unopposed in her primary, in the November election. Habush Sinykin lost to Knodl in the 2023 special election but won election this time around.

In mid-July Americans for Prosperity reported spending another $5,100 for online advertising in two August Republican primaries. In each primary, two then-current GOP incumbents faced each other due to redistricting: Knodl and Rep. Janel Brandtjen ran against each other in the 24th State Assembly, a district new to both of them, and the 55th Assembly where first-term incumbent Rep. Nate Gustafson was challenged by Rep. Michael Schraa, a six-term incumbent formerly of the 53rd. The group favored Knodl and Gustafson, each of whom won their respective primaries and went on to win in November.

The group subsequently reported spending on behalf of Lori Voss in the 69th Assembly Republican primary. Voss was running against first-term incumbent Rep. Karen Hurd, then serving the 68th but yet another GOP incumbent displaced by new district maps. Hurd went on to win the November election.

By the time of the August 13th primaries, the group had reported spending over $180,500 on mailers, canvassing and digital ads in the four aforementioned races with about a third of that going to the primary contests. Voss was the only one of the committee's favored candidates who lost in the primaries.

By the end of the elections in November the group had reported spending a total of more than $633,600 across eleven state assembly - the 5th, 24th, 30th, 38th, 49th, 55th, 69th, 88th, 89th, 91st, and 92nd - and three state senate races, the 8th, 10th and the 30th. Eight of its favored assembly candidates - in the 5th, 24th, 30th, 38th, 49th, 55th, 88th, and 92nd - and one state senate candidate, incumbent Rob Stafsholt, won.

(The committee attributed some of its spending to support for Maryann Zimmerman, a losing candidate in the 2022 Republican primary for the 31st Assembly District which then included the cities of Elkhorn and Whitewater. She did not run in 2024. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign has assigned that spending to GOP Rep. Shannon Zimmerman running in the 30th Assembly.)

Last active election: 2023

This organization is an unregistered independent expenditure committee that is required to report any such spending done within 60 days of a primary or an election to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission per Chapter 11, Subchapter X of Wisconsin Statutes.

Hijacking Campaign 2024 - Information on NRA Political Victory Fund - Federal PAC

Posted: July 27, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Fall: Oath • Spending

This federal political action committee (PAC) is used by the National Rifle Association (NRA), the nation’s largest and most controversial pro-gun group, to make independent expenditures that generally support Republican and conservative candidates in Wisconsin state elections. Between 2010 and 2023, the NRA spent more than $5 million on independent expenditures placing it among the top special interest groups in spending on legislative and statewide races in Wisconsin.

The NRA first reported spending in the 2024 fall legislative elections at the end of the fourth week of July with over $2,000 going towards text messaging in nine August 13th Republican primaries, one in the state senate, the 20th, and eight in the assembly, the 1st, 4th, 37th, 57th, 61st, 68th, 74th and 98th.

Aside from the 98th, where there was no incumbent, all the candidates supported by the NRA in the primaries were incumbents, but five of those were running in districts new to them because of legislative district maps that first took effect in 2024. They were Reps. Mark Born, Bob Donovan, Kevin Petersen, Rob Summerfield, and Sen. Dan Feyen. All the primary candidates favored by the NRA won in November.

The NRA later expanded its spending, mostly for postcards, to support Republicans* in nineteen more districts, five in the senate - 8th, 10th, 12th, 24th and the 30th - and fourteen in the assembly, the 21st, 24th, 26th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 33rd, 40th, 43rd, 51st, 59th, 85th, 88th and 92nd. Only five candidates supported by the NRA lost, three in assembly races - Rep. Amy Binsfeld in the 26th, Jerry Helmer in the 40th, Scott Johnson in the 43rd - and two in the senate, Sen. Duey Strobel in the 8th, and Jim Rafter in the 30th.

Last active election: 2023

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*The NRA reported spending over $1,400 to support Dylan Testin, an Independent candidate running in the 57th Assembly, but, since, the group had supported Rep. Kevin Petersen for that same seat in the primaries, and had also reported supporting Sen. Patrick Testin in the 24th Senate, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign has attributed that spending to the senator.

Hijacking Campaign 2024 - Information on Milwaukee Police Association

Posted: August 10, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Fall: Oath • Spending

The Milwaukee Police Association is the union that represents City of Milwaukee police officers. The union last made independent expenditures in Wisconsin state-level elections in the 2008 through its political action committee (PAC). Although it did not make independent expenditures in subsequent years, the union’s PAC contributed over $178,000 to partisan state candidates and officeholders between 2010 and 2023. All but $3,300 of that went to Republican candidates.

Four days before the August 13th primary, the union reported spending $18,250 for text messages, videos, online advertising and a website (link is an image of now defunct website) to back Jarrod Anderson in the Democratic primary for Milwaukee’s 19th Assembly District. The day of the primary, it reported spending another $4,000 for text messages supporting Anderson.

Anderson was challenging incumbent Rep. Ryan Clancy in the Democratic primary. Clancy won the primary and was unopposed in the November 5th election.

Last active election: 2008

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