Hijacking Campaign 2024

Hijacking Campaign 2024 - Information on American Majority Action

Posted: October 19, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

This is a committee used by the rightwing Virginia-based organization American Majority to make independent expenditures in Wisconsin legislative and statewide elections. American Majority was created in 2010 to recruit and support Republican and conservative candidates in state and local races throughout the country. Between 2010 and 2023, the group used several different committees, including the one profiled here, to spend over $602,000 on outside electioneering activities in Wisconsin state-level elections. American Majority operates as an unregistered express advocacy group, meaning is not legally required to make its sources of income public or any other financial activity beyond independent exepnditures.

In mid-October, less than three weeks before the November 5th general election, American Majority first reported spending with over $1,900 for the “distribution of literature” to support Republicans in three state assembly races, the 26th, 91st and 94th.

In total, the group reported spending over $48,700, mostly for campaign literature, to support Republicans in six assembly contests - the 26th, 51st, 61st, 91st and 94th - and one state senate race, the 14th. Only two of the candidates supported by American Majority won in the fall election, incumbent Reps.Todd Novak and Bob Donovan. Donovan, however, was running in a district different from the one he actually represented at the time, the 84th Assembly, because of new legislative district maps passed earlier that year.

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 Blue Sky Waukesha, Inc.

Posted: October 28, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Fall: Oath • Spending

Organized in 2019, Blue Sky Waukesha, Inc. is a liberal leaning group based, as its name implies, in Waukesha County. It first made independent expenditures in the 2020 Wisconsin State Supreme Court election. Between 2020 and 2023, it spent about $104,000 on outside electioneering activities in state-level elections in Wisconsin.

Although Blue Sky Waukesha was active in local spring elections earlier in 2004, it did not report any spending in the fall legislative elections until nine days before the November 5th election. The group reported spending over $24,500 for mailers to support Democratic candidates in the 8th Senate and three state assembly races – the 13th, 15th, and 82nd. Three of the districts featured Republican incumbents running in new districts after they were displaced by new legislative maps passed earlier in 2024, while in the fourth, the 13th Assembly, a Democratic representative was challenging the GOP incumbent after new maps placed them in the same district.

The committee later reported spending nearly aother $10,400 for online advertising to support Democrats in the four races mentioned above plus the 28th state senate and three more assembly contests, the 24th, 84th and 97th.

Only two of its favored candidates won election, Rep. Robyn Vining in the 13th Assembly and Jodi Habush Sinykin in the 8th State Senate.

Last active election: 2023

Hijacking Campaign 2024 - Information on Americans for Contraception

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

Fall: Oath • Spending

Based in Washington, D.C., Americans for Contraception is a multi-partisan organization that advocates for birth control rights at the state and federal levels. The group operated as an unregistered express advocacy group in Wisconsin's 2024 state elections, so it was not legally required to disclose its income sources. However, the group has a federally registered independent expenditure committee and filings with the Federal Elections Commission show that the federal committee's principal funder in 2024, with $1 million, was Democracy PAC, a political action committee funded by billionaire George Soros. This was the first time Americans for Contraception reported making independent expenditures in Wisconsin.

Just before the November 5th election, the organization reported spending $175,500 for online advertising to oppose Republicans in seven legislative races - the 21st, the 26th, 51st, 61st and 85th assembly and the 8th and 14th senate districts. It was successful in three races, in two of those, the 26th Assembly and the 8th Senate, the GOP candidates were incumbent legislators running in new districts because of redrawn legislative maps, and, in the third, the 14th Senate, the Republican was an incumbent running in her old district, but one made more Democratic-leaning after redistricting.

Hijacking Campaign 2024 - Information on Volunteers for Agriculture

Posted: August 20, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Fall: Oath • Spending

This is a political action committee (PAC) used by the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation to make independent expenditures and direct contributions to support legislative and statewide candidates, overwhelmingly Republican ones. The federation is one of the state’s largest and most influential agricultural lobbying and advocacy groups. Between 2010 and 2023 the group reported over $930,000 on independent expenditures in partisan and nonpartisan state elections.

The PAC first reported spending six days after the August 13th legislative primaries with over $98,500 going for radio ads to support GOP incumbent Sen. Joan Ballweg in the 14th State Senate District against her Democratic challenger Sarah Keyeski.

By the time the election was done, the committee supported spending over $172,500 to support candidates in six senate - the 10th, 12th, 14th, 20th, 24th and 32nd - and 26 assembly races, the 1st, 5th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 32nd, 33rd, 36th, 37th, 38th, 41st, 49th, 50th, 51st, 56th, 57th, 67th, 68th, 69th, 70th, 72nd, 74th, 85th, 91st, 92nd and 96th. All the candidates supported by Volunteers for Agriculture were incumbents, even if fourteen of them were running in districts new to them after being displaced by legislative district maps passed in 2024. All the candidates backed by Volunteers were Republicans except for three Democrats, two in the assembly, Reps. Jenna Jacobson, running in the 50th but formerly of the 43rd, and Jodi Emerson of the 91st, and one in the senate, Sen. Brad Paff of the 32nd.

All but two of the candidates backed by this committee won in November. The two who lost were Rep. Lauren Oldenburg in the 96th Assembly and Ballweg in the 14th Senate. The general consensus among political observers before the election was that their districts had become more Democratic under the new maps.

Last active election: 2023

Hijacking Campaign 2024 - Information on Grassroots North Shore

Posted: September 23, 2024
Updated: October 6, 2025

Fall: Oath • Spending

This political action committee (PAC) is sponsored by the suburban Milwaukee based organization of the same name, a group that advocates for progressive causes and candidates. The PAC made its first independent expenditures in a Wisconsin state election on behalf of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett, who unsuccessfully challenged Republican Gov. Scott Walker in a June 2012 recall election, a rematch of their 2010 contest. Before 2024, the PAC last reported spending in a state-level election in the 2013 Wisconsin State Supreme Court primary when it supported losing primary candidate Ed Fallone.

Six weeks before the November 5th election, it reported that it had first started spending in mid-August and, by early had September, had spent over $1,000 for mailing lists, printing, and fundraising costs to support six Democratic candidates in the greater Milwaukee metropolitan area, two in the senate, the 4th and the 8th, and four in the assembly, the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th. One of those candidates had neither primary nor final ballot opposition. Rep. Darrin Madison of the 10th Assembly. One other, Sen. Dora Drake of the 4th Senate, who was first elected to the senate in a July 2024 special election, faced opposition in the August 13th primary, but was unopposed in November.

The only candidates backed by Grassroots Northshore who lost were in the 22nd and 24th Assembly.

Last active election: 2013

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