Dollars and No Sense

Meet the Out-of-State Special Interests Who Tried and Failed to Buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court—Pennsylvania Is Up Next

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court race between Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel on April 1, 2025, was the single most expensive state supreme court election in U.S. history. The stakes were high, with the winner of the race slated to be the tie-breaking vote on numerous high stakes cases–from abortion access in the state, to collective bargaining for public sector unions, to fair maps and representation for voters. Wealthy out-of-state interests spent tens of millions of dollars to boost Republican candidate Brad Schimel’s campaign in an attempt to secure control over Wisconsin’s highest court and impose a regressive agenda on Wisconsinites.

Who was behind the groups pouring money into the election to back Schimel? Many of the same people who have funneled mind-boggling amounts of fossil fuel and other corporate money through dark money networks to capture and weaponize the federal government against the American people.

These interests lost this time—because the people of Wisconsin stood up for their values and freedoms. But billionaires and extremist power brokers are not done trying to buy their way into power by capturing state courts. Some of these same groups or their funders will likely spend big this fall when three seats are up for retention or non-retention on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, including the state’s richest man, billionaire Jeff Yass, who has spent heavily in other state judicial elections.

Americans across the country must follow Wisconsinites’ example and stand strong against cynical attempts at power grabs by regressive special interests. Keep an eye out for these networks’ spending in your state elections—especially in Pennsylvania’s upcoming election. And spread the word among your family, friends, and community to help them recognize and fight attempts to buy their votes.

Groups Funded by Elon Musk

Two groups—America PAC, which spent $12,713,590.80 to support Schimel, and Building America’s Future (BAF), which the Brennan Center estimates spent $5,955,141—are closely tied to the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. Musk also personally gave $3 million to the Wisconsin GOP, which transferred millions to Schimel’s campaign during the race, plus at least $2 million in other giveaways, for a grand total of over $23 million. Musk is a close Trump advisor who helms the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE,” which is gutting personnel and funds from public agencies that serve the American people. Musk is not a resident of Wisconsin, but he does have financial interests in state litigation due to a case headed to the state’s highest court via his company, Tesla.

America PAC was launched by Musk and other tech billionaires to back Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Musk is the PAC’s main funder, contributing the vast majority of its funds—over $217 million out of $263 million—in 2024. America PAC spent more than $250 million to help elect Trump and other down-ballot Republicans in the 2024 election, including working with Turning Point USA to target get out the voters in Wisconsin. In late March, America PAC began offering direct $100 cash payments to Wisconsin voters to sign a petition opposing “activist judges,” the same data-harvesting tactic the PAC used in battleground states in 2024 during the Presidential election. Many legal experts said this tactic was illegal, but America PAC continued to hand out $1 million payments to two voters with deep relationships with the state Republican Party, just days before the election. The Wisconsin Attorney General filed a complaint against this tactic, but the case was not resolved by the Wisconsin Supreme Court before election day and a lower court GOP-aligned judge found the tactic as deployed did not technically violate state law, a ruling that was widely criticized.

Building America’s Future (BAF) has a history of running deceptive ads that seemingly represent a progressive candidate or group and falsely tie them to unpopular positions. In the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, BAF ran digital ads designed to appear supportive about Crawford, falsely claiming that Crawford “would reform cash bail [and] supports second chances, not incarceration,” in an apparent effort to alienate her from potential supporters. Musk began funding BAF in 2022, the same year the 501(c)(4) saw a surge of funding that amounted to nearly five times the group’s 2021 revenue—and the same year the group’s board was replaced. The exact extent of Musk’s contributions to BAF are unknown.

Groups Tied to Leonard Leo

Leonard Leo, who hand-picked and helped install the Roberts Court majority, helms a $1 billion trust that he is weaponizing to roll back Americans’ rights to the pre-New Deal era, when courts routinely struck down workers’ rights, civil rights, and more. Leo has worked for decades to impose his views against abortion rights, gay rights, and limiting corporate regulation as binding law through the courts, including state supreme courts, which he has targeted for decades while working for the Federalist Society.

At least two Leo-funded groups spent big to back Brad Schimel in the 2025 Wisconsin supreme court race. The Republican State Leadership Committee-Judicial Fairness Initiative (RSLC-JFI) spent $2,363,787.41 on digital and television ads, mailers, and text message services ahead of the April 1 election, and CatholicVote.org spent $30,728 on digital ads and robocalls, according to Wisconsin Ethics Commission filings.

The Republican State Leadership Committee-Judicial Fairness Initiative is the state courts arm of, and is fully funded by, the Republican State Leadership Committee. RSLC’s largest donor in recent years has been the Leo-tied 501(c)(4) Concord Fund (formerly the Judicial Crisis Network, or JCN). RSLC-JFI’s playbook has long been to take in large sums from RSLC and quickly drop similar amounts of cash to reserve ads just after the primary election revenue and spending reporting periods. RSLC-JFI generally schedules those ads, which are only required to be reported by RSLC-JFI after the ads run, to run just days before the election, often spending more in one week than the candidate they are opposing has raised for their entire campaign. More than $91,000 of RSLC-JFI’s ad expenditures were tied to Leonard Leo’s for-profit firm, CRC Advisors. RSLC and RSLC-JFI’s next IRS 8872 filings covering this period will not be available until July.

CatholicVote.org Candidate Fund is a PAC affiliated with CatholicVote, a 501(c)(3). The largest known funder of its affiliated 501(c)(4), CatholicVote Civic Action, is Leo’s Concord Fund, which gave $1 million in 2023 and more than $1.7 million in 2021. The 501(c)(3), CatholicVote, has received millions from some of the same opaque donor-advised funds (DAFs) that Leo has deployed in recent years.

Groups Funded by Shipping Billionaire Dick Uihlein

Dick Uihlein, an Illinois-based MAGA mega donor who opposes access to safe and legal abortion anywhere, has spent heavily attempting to capture state supreme courts across the country. He has backed at least seven groups that collectively spent $7,397,907.84 to support Schimel in the Wisconsin supreme court race on April 1. Additionally, Dick and Liz Uihlein personally contributed $3.8 million to the state GOP that sent millions to Schimel’s campaign.

American Majority Action spent $1,442,250 on literature and phone banking to support Schimel’s campaign, and American Principles Project PAC spent $500,000 on digital ads attacking Schimel’s opponent. Fair Courts America spent $4,449,527.20 on digital and television ads and phone call and text message services. Restoration PAC spent $12,500 on video ads. In addition, the anti-abortion group Uihlein funds that calls itself Women Speak Out PAC spent $490,080.64 on canvassing efforts, issue ads, and mailers. Two other Uihlein-funded groups, Americas PAC (which is distinct from Musk’s America PAC) and a group called the L & C Coalition, spent $403,550 and $100,000, respectively, on radio ad buys.

Fair Courts America, a super PAC project of Dick Uihlein’s Restoration of America/Restoration PAC, received the entire $3,961,851.08 it spent on this year’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election through March 17, from Richard Uihlein, according to state filings. Receipts for the remaining $487,676.12 in spending have not yet been posted. FCA also has ties to Leonard Leo, whose Concord Fund provided $2.5 million to a related entity, “Foundation for Fair Courts,” between 2022 and 2023. FCA is led by Andrew Wynne, a former leader of the Leo-funded RSLC-JFI.

American Majority Action is the 501(c)(4) arm of “American Majority” (AM), a 501(c)(3) group that trains right-wing political candidates. AM was created in 2008 by brothers Drew and Ned Ryun, with the help of Wisconsin operative Eric O’Keefe. The group claims it trained more than 10,000 people in 2023. AM Action has been heavily funded by Dick Uihlein and his Restoration of America, and the 501(c)(3) American Majority has also received over $2.6 million in Uihlein funding in recent years.

American Principles Project PAC (APP PAC) received more than $10.7 million from Uihlein’s Restoration PAC last cycle. A super PAC called “Jefferson Rising” also gave APP PAC $500,000 last October; Jefferson Rising received $18 million from right-wing billionaire Tim Dunn and $450,000 from two Uihlein-tied Super PACs in 2024. APP PAC was one of five Uihlein-funded groups that backed anti-abortion, anti-gay activist Dan Kelly’s unsuccessful bid to re-join the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2023, spending nearly $800,000 to aid Kelly’s campaign. Of the more than $12.7 million in contributions APP PAC reported receiving from 2023 to 2024, more than $11.2 million can be attributed to Uihlein.

“Women Speak Out” is the PAC of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA-PLA), a national 501(c)(4) anti-abortion group that routinely inserts itself into state elections. Despite its name, “Women Speak Out” is mainly funded by one man: Dick Uihlein. In 2024, over 96% of WSO’s funding came from Uihlein’s Restoration PAC, and WSO reported receiving 99% of its revenue from Restoration PAC so far this year. Uihlein’s “Restoration of America” has also contributed at least $11 million to SBA-PLA since 2021. SBA-PLA also has ties to Leonard Leo, whose network has reported giving more than $14.5 million to SBA-PLA and its(c)(3) education fund, called the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), since 2017. CLI was in the news recently due to anti-abortion studies it funded that were withdrawn by a scientific publisher.

Americas PAC is largely bankrolled by Uihlein’s Restoration PAC. Last year, it spent over $2 million backing Donald Trump and over $400,000 attacking Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).

L & C Coalition also appears to be bankrolled by Dick Uihlein. The billionaire’s Restoration PAC gave $460,000 to a super PAC called the “L&C Coalition” in Illinois last year. The name appears to be short for the “Lexington & Concord Coalition”; it shares the same address as a group called “One Nation Under God Foundation.” A group called the “L&C Coalition, Inc.” is also registered in Florida, where it has attacked access to reproductive healthcare.

Charles Koch’s Americans for Prosperity Spent $3.3 Million

Billionaire Charles Koch’s Americans for Prosperity spent $3,345,163 on digital ads, canvassing, and mailers in the April 2025 Wisconsin supreme court election to get out the vote for Schimel. Koch and his nonprofit empire have long worked to attack laws that hold corporations accountable for the harm their products or practices cause, which could limit the massive profits of his multi-billion dollar private conglomerate, Koch Industries. He has also invested in Leonard Leo’s court-packing operations for years, using both his personal fortune and Koch Industries to fund the Federalist Society, a pipeline to power for rightwing lawyers.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a right-wing 501(c)(4) founded and funded by Koch and his allies. AFP has a long record of supporting right-wing operatives for judgeships while claiming they support the “rule of law”—including U.S. Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, who were hand-picked by Leonard Leo for the vacancies Trump filled. AFP has also waded into judicial elections in many states, as well as attempting to dismantle systems that help insulate state courts from politicization.

MAGA-Aligned Groups

Hunter Nation spent $1,169,638.70 on mailers and online ads to back Schimel, including a March ad featuring Ted Nugent, Brett Favre, and Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI). Hunter Nation is a MAGA-aligned 501(c)(4) based out of Kansas. The group was incorporated in 2018, by far-right Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and former Trump official Keith Mark. Donald Trump, Jr., is a director of Hunter Nation Foundation. The group spent more than $100,000 backing Dan Kelly in 2023.

House Freedom Action (HFA), which spent $225,610 supporting the Schimel campaign through online attack ads, is a national Super PAC of the far-right House Freedom Caucus. The super PAC has previously poured money into races backing the far-right members of the U.S. House of Representatives who call themselves the “Freedom Caucus,” which includes House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and Rep. Tom Tiffany. In the 2023-2024 election cycle, HFA spent more than $4.5 million. The PAC’s largest individual donor that period was Mike Rydin, a GOP mega donor who in 2021 gave the Conservative Partnership Institute more than $25 million to buy a hunting lodge named “Camp Rydin” for the group to entertain right-wing congressional members and their staff.

Turning Point PAC reported spending $35,606 on text message services and brochures to support Schimel. Turning Point Action, Charlie Kirk’s 501(c)(4), backed Schimel as well, and operatives with the group hold leadership positions with the state Republican Party.

Other Very Special Interests

First Principles Wisconsin spent $615,079.90 backing Schimel. Despite its name, First Principles Wisconsin lists a Nashville address in state filings and it appears related to multiple other TN-based entities with similar names. First Principles is led by Peter Bisbee, the former head of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) as well as the former director of the Federalist Society’s state courts project. RAGA’s largest funder in recent years has been Leonard Leo-tied groups. Notably, Bisbee was the leader of RAGA’s 501(c)(4) Rule of Law Defense Fund when it sent out robocalls urging “patriots” to travel to D.C. to urge “Congress to stop the steal” on January 6th, the day of the deadly insurrection.

Our America PAC spent $249,649.95 to support Schimel’s campaign. Our America PAC is a super PAC closely linked to Media Research Center (MRC), a 501(c)(3) that is a massive purveyor of disinformation and climate change denialism. Our America PAC’s treasurer is MRC’s CEO Ed Molchany, and both groups share the same address. MRC was created by Brett Bozell, a long-time right-wing operative whom Trump nominated to be the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, after Bozell’s earlier nomination to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media was withdrawn. In 1991, Bozell helped orchestrate the smear campaign against Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas nomination.

Wisconsin Family Action (WFA), the 501(c)(4) arm of Wisconsin Family Council (WFC), spent $230,343.31 to try to help Schimel win the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. WFA previously endorsed Dan Kelly and Brian Hagedorn for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. WFC reported an annual revenue of just under $1.9 million in 2023. It has also previously received funding from the “National Christian Charitable Foundation,” a pass-through that has received substantial funding traced to anti-abortion billionaire Ron Cameron, according to The Guardian, in addition to other secretive funders. WFA is a state partner of Focus on the Family, which was founded by the televangelist James Dobson in 1976. WFA has attacked reproductive choice and marriage equality for years."

Some big businesses also put their weight on the scale via the right-wing lobbying group Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce’s “Issue Mobilization Council” (WMC-IMC), which spent $4,324,810 on television ad time, according to an estimate from the Brennan Center.

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce-Issues Mobilization Council is a 501(c)(4) project of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), a 501(c)(6) trade association. WMC-IMC revenue was $6.71 million 2023, eclipsing WMC’s revenue of $5.7 million. WMC-IMC’s increased revenue included a $1 million grant from the Concord Fund/JCN, a core group in Leonard Leo’s dark money network. Leo’s network has fueled ads or outreach targeting the Wisconsin Supreme Court races since as far back as 2007.

NRA Political Victory Fund, the National Rifle Association’s federal PAC, also spent $87,969 backing Schimel with mailers. The NRA was a pivotal early backer of Donald Trump in 2016, and heavily backed Leo’s court-packing efforts, running large ad campaigns in key swing states during the confirmations of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. In 2017, the NRA’s 501(c)(4) arm received $950,000 from a now-defunct Leo group called “America Engaged,” around the same period that it ran an ad campaign costing at least $1 million in swing states backing Gorsuch. Between 2016 and 2019, the NRA received over $2 million from JCN (now the Concord Fund, a core Leo group). The NRA is a client of Leonard Leo’s CRC Advisors.

American Constitutional Rights Union, a 501(c)(3) group, spent $15,000 around Schimel’s efforts, according to the Brennan Center. ACRU has pushed to purge voter rolls and implement voter ID restrictions that make it harder for Americans to vote, a classic voter suppression tactic that has also been promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, which ACRU’s president Lori Roman previously led. (Wisconsin voters added Voter ID requirements to the state’s constitution, even though Schimel was defeated.)

Patriots for Brighter America—a Virginia-based super PAC funded entirely by Philip Schoenfeld, a Virginia-based stockbroker—spent $9,800 to support Schimel. The group’s treasurer, Chris Marston, runs a campaign finance compliance firm and has served in a number of roles with the Republican National Lawyers Association. In 2024, Patriots For a Brighter spent over $700,000 backing Republican candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives.

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