Hijacking Campaign 2026 | Campaign 2026
Posted: February 5, 2026
Updated: August 15, 2026
Fall: Oath • Spending
Spring: Oath • Spending
Wisconsin Conservation Voters, a statewide environmental advocacy group, first created this committee to make independent expenditures in the fall 2018 state elections. Between 2018 and 2025, this committee reported spending over $9.4 million in state-level partisan and nonpartisan elections. This is the fourth committee the group has used to make independent expenditures since 2010.
Fall Election
Conservation Voters first reported spending in the the 2026 fall state partisan elections, three days after the August 11th primaries. It reported spending nearly $232,000 for canvassing expenses and campaign literature to support Democrats in three races: Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley for governor, Trevor Young for the open seat in the 21st State Senate and challenger Ben Brist in the 61st Assembly. The election is on November 3rd.
Spring Election
In mid-January, Conservation Voters reported spending over $4,300 to print brochures for distribution in mid-February to support Wisconsin State Supreme Court candidate Chris Taylor in the April 7th election. Taylor, a former state Democratic legislator and then a a Court of Appeals judge based in Dane County, faced Waukesha-based Court of Appeals Judge Maria Lazar for a vacant seat on the state's highest court. Lazar first gained her current post with the help of independent spending by conservative groups. The retiring justice, Rebecca Bradley, was a member of the officially nonpartisan court's three-seat conservative minority. Taylor's victory by in the April electioin delivered liberals a 5-2 court majority.
The day before the spring primaries on February 17, although there was none for the high court, the committe reported spending about $10,500 for postage.
At the beginning of the third week in March, about three weeks before the election. Wisconsin Conservation Voters reported spending another $13,000 for postage.
Last active election: 2025
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.