[‘An organized group of insurrectionists’ is seeking to swing
a vote with big implications for voting rights, redistricting and
abortion]
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ELECTION-DENYING DONORS POUR MILLIONS INTO KEY WISCONSIN SUPREME
COURT RACE  
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Alice Herman
March 14, 2023
The Guardian
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_ ‘An organized group of insurrectionists’ is seeking to swing a
vote with big implications for voting rights, redistricting and
abortion _

Daniel Kelly, the conservative candidate for the Wisconsin supreme
court, speaks at a training session for local Republicans in Waukesha
in 2019. , Brian Snyder/Reuters

 

More than $3.9m has poured into the Wisconsin
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from individuals and groups involved with promoting election
disinformation and attempts to overturn the 2020 election, according
to an analysis of campaign spending by the Guardian.

The contributions, in support of the conservative candidate Daniel
Kelly, come amid a race that has broken national campaign spending
records. According to a campaign finance tracker by the Brennan Center
for Justice, political ad orders for the liberal county judge Janet
Protasiewicz and conservative Kelly have reached at least $20m in
anticipation of the 4 April general election.

The Wisconsin supreme court is currently made up of three judges who
lean liberal and four conservatives. Whoever replaces the conservative
retiring justice Patience Roggensack will determine the ideological
composition of the court, which has been dominated by the right wing
for 15 years. At stake
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the Wisconsin supreme court race are redistricting, abortion rights,
and voting rights and elections policy. And these decisions go beyond
the state: Wisconsin has been a critical swing state in recent
presidential elections, so its voting policies affect more than just
state residents.

Among the election-denying funders behind Kelly’s run are
anti-abortion thinktanks and Super Pacs, conservative billionaires and
a constellation of groups funded by the Wisconsin shipping supply
tycoon Richard Uihlein.

Meanwhile, prominent election denier Charlie Kirk of the rightwing
Turning Point USA has voiced support for Kelly’s campaign. Kirk has
been blamed
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funding the travel of a large number of the Capitol rioters on January
6.

“There is an organized group of insurrectionists who are trying to
actively fund candidates for elected office, including judgeships,”
said Jeremi Suri, a professor of public affairs and history at the
University of Texas-Austin.

The funding comes after prominent election deniers lost their efforts
in the 2022 midterms to oversee elections in swing states including
Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

“I don’t think the insurrectionists have given up,” Suri said.
“They’re still looking for candidates, and they’re particularly
interested in someone like Kelly, who, if he can get on the supreme
court, will have a 10-year term and will be pretty much
unaccountable.”

Looming behind the biggest campaign splurges is Richard Uihlein, heir
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the Schlitz beer fortune and founder of Uline, a shipping supply
company based in Wisconsin. Uihlein has gained notoriety for his
financial support of groups involved with the 6 January 2021 Capitol
riot and thinktanks that stoked unfounded fears of election fraud
during and following the 2020 election – including
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Conservative Partnership Institute and the Federalist Society.

Campaign finance reports show the group Fair Courts America, Inc,
which is largely bankrolled by Uihlein, spent at least $1.5m in
independent expenditures on pro-Kelly television ads before the 21
February primary. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Fair
Courts America has booked
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than $3.9m in ads scheduled to run by 4 April.

Uihlein’s influence in the Wisconsin supreme court race extends
beyond Fair Courts America. Restoration Pac, a funding vehicle that
Uihlein has poured millions into, finances other pro-Kelly groups,
including Women Speak Out Pac. Reports show Women Speak Out Pac has
spent more than $100,000 on the primary and general election so far.

American Principles Project Pac, which has reported contributing more
than $66,000 on pro-Kelly digital advertising before the primary, is
also funded by Restoration Pac.

Although Uihlein dollars figure prominently in the Wisconsin supreme
court race, the billionaire is one of multiple mega-donors behind
Restoration Pac. The Florida private equity billionaire John
Childs contributed
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$800,000 to the Pac in 2022, according to filings with the Federal
Elections Commission (FEC). Childs has also contributed to America
First Action, the Super Pac that supported Trump’s 2020 run for
office.

The Texas billionaire Brett Hendrickson, who has contributed to the
campaigns of the Missouri congressman Eric Burlison, Senator Ted Budd
of North Carolina and the Illinois congresswoman Mary Miller, has
also contributed
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Restoration Pac. Burlison, Budd and Miller have all aligned themselves
with Trump in questioning the results of the 2020 election.

According to campaign finance filings, the Federalist Society
chairman, Leonard Leo, contributed $20,000 to Kelly’s campaign –
the maximum amount an individual donor can contribute to a supreme
court campaign in Wisconsin. In addition to his work with the
Federalist Society, Leo has ties
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the Concord Fund and the 85 Fund, groups that have pushed the widely
disputed independent state legislature theory that claims state
legislatures have full jurisdiction to conduct federal elections.

Also donating the maximum $20,000 to Kelly’s campaign was Diane
Hendricks, chairwoman
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the multibillion-dollar building company ABC Supply. According to the
FEC, Hendricks has also donated
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least $4m to Trump’s 2020 America First Pac, and more than $500,000
to Trump Victory and Make America Great Again, Again! Inc.

The deluge of cash from the same groups that financially supported
election denialism and Trump’s failed bid to overturn the 2020
election also played an outsize role during the 2022 elections.
Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel and Trump-allied
conservative strategist Larry Ellison, for example, reportedly spent
more than $40m during the 2022 election cycle.

A bombshell report
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the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel_ _raised questions about Kelly’s own
participation in 2020 attempts to overturn the presidential election.
Kelly, the report found, had provided special counsel to the
Republican party, advising on the subject of fake electors. He has
also been paid close to $120,000 for his work on “election
integrity” by the Republican National Committee and state GOP.

Given that the winner of the supreme court race will help decide the
future of legal abortion in Wisconsin, money has poured
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the race on both sides of the abortion fight. Planned Parenthood Pacs
promised more than $1m for Protasiewicz and the anti-abortion Women
Speak Out Pac has spent at least $100,000 on pro-Kelly materials. The
anti-abortion groups and funders behind Kelly’s campaign have also
taken part in efforts to cast doubt on the 2020 election results –
highlighting the common cause rightwing Christian activists have found
with election deniers.

On a 21 February episode of the Charlie Kirk Show, Julaine Appling –
president of the Christian, anti-abortion Wisconsin Family Council –
endorsed Kelly while invoking fears of electoral fraud.

“Just take the ballot harvesting,” said Appling. “That was
something that the liberals were pushing and pushing and doing these
bizarre things during the 2020 election that were clearly outside the
law.”

Wisconsin Family Action, Inc, which Appling also heads, has reported
about $6,000 in independent expenditures to support Kelly’s
election.

Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA and played a prominent role in
mobilizing protestors for rallies that preceded the insurrection at
the US Capitol on January 6, concurred.

“Dan Kelly is the best of all of them.”

_ALICE HERMAN is a contributing reporter to THE GUARDIAN US based in
Madison, Wisconsin_

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_Editor, Guardian US_

* elections
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* Wisconsin
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* Supreme Court
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* campaign finance
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* ultra-right
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* Billionaires
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