Uihleins Spent $38 Million On 2022 Races

Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, of Lake Forest, Ill., were among the top contributors nationwide for the past decade to GOP and conservative candidates and causes in Wisconsin and throughout the country.

In the first 18 months of the 2022 election cycle, the Uihleins doled out $38 million to support federal GOP candidates, party committees, and Super PACs, ranking them 2nd  among all individual contributors.

Some of the couple’s contributions went to the campaigns of several ultra-rightwing members of Congress and Big Lie proponents who claim the 2020 presidential election was rigged, including Republican Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar, of Arizona, Marjorie Taylor Green, of Georgia, Mo Brooks, of Alabama, and Madison Cawthorn, of North Carolina.

Richard Uihlein also contributed $2.5 million to Team PAC, a Super PAC that supports disgraced GOP U.S. Senate candidate and former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens. Greitens resigned as governor in 2018 following allegations that he sexually assaulted his hairstylist.

In the 2020 election cycle, the Uihleins spent about $75 million to back federal GOP candidates, committees, and outside electioneering groups that disclose their fundraising and spending. That outlay made the Uihleins the fourth largest donors during that cycle.

In the 2018 election cycle, the Uihleins contributed about $38 million to federal GOP candidates and committees, ranking them 4th among all donors that time around.

In the 2016 election cycle, the couple contributed $22 million to federal candidates, parties, and Super PACs. Among their largest beneficiaries was former GOP Gov. Scott Walker.

The Uihleins contributed $5 million to Unintimidated PAC, a Super PAC that supported Walker’s short-lived 2016 presidential bid. The committee later returned $4 million after Walker dropped out of the presidential race. Our American Revival, a  527 group that supported Walker, received $1.2 million from the Uihleins. 527 groups, which are nonprofits so-named for the IRS code that regulates them, may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money from any source on elections.

It’s unknown whether the Uihleins also contributed to issue ad and other dark money special interest groups that can keep their fundraising and spending secret.

In addition to their contributions to federal committees and candidates, the couple doled out $2 million to the state Republican Party and another $2.11 million to Wisconsin legislative and statewide candidates between January 2010 and December 2021.

The top state recipients of Uihlein contributions between January 2010 and December 2021 were:

Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, $1.31 million;

Walker, $319,500;

Committee to Elect a Republican Senate, $166,500;

Former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, $60,200;

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Brian Hagedorn, $40,000.

In addition to the individual contributions to Wisconsin legislative and statewide candidates and committees, Elizabeth Uihlein contributed $200,000 to a Super PAC, Freedom Wisconsin PAC, that backs Kleefisch in her 2022 bid for governor.

Meanwhile, Richard Uihlein urged Kevin Nicholson to run for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2022. Nicholson dropped out of the race in July after consistently ranking a distance third among the four GOP candidates squaring off in the Aug. 9 primary to determine who will face Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on the November ballot.

Uihlein flushed $4.5 million into a Super PAC, Fighting for Wisconsin, that backed Nicholson’s 2022 run for governor. In 2018, Uihlein blew nearly $11 million to back Nicholson’s unsuccessful bid to be the GOP U.S. Senate candidate.

Richard Uihlein also serves as president of the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation, which provides grants to civic organizations as well as rightwing groups and causes. Some of those foundation grants were made to groups connected to efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.

Between 2014 and 2020, the foundation has spent about $91 million mostly on grants to groups, including:

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)

American Majority

Conservative Partnership Institute

The Federalist Society

Heritage Foundation

Turning Point USA

Americans for Prosperity

Richard Uihlein’s great grandfather co-founded Milwaukee’s Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co., but the billionaire couple’s wealth – estimated at $4 billion by Bloomberg – comes from Uline, the shipping and packaging supply giant they founded in 1980. In 2008, the Uihleins, who tout limited government like most conservatives, accepted $18.6 million in state and local tax breaks, grants and low-interest loans to move Uline’s headquarters from Illinois to Pleasant Prairie, Wis.

In addition to Uline, the Uihleins also own EAU Holdings, which runs a spa, restaurants, and other businesses in Manitowish Waters, Wis. It is adjacent to state land the couple obtained to give them waterfront access in a controversial 2016 land swap with the Department of Natural Resources under Walker. Walker received large contributions from the couple for his gubernatorial and presidential campaigns.

The Uihleins sharply ramped up their political contributions to state and federal candidates, committees, and conservative ideological groups after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision in 2010.

Citizens United  and subsequent federal cases legalized unlimited political contributions from wealthy individuals, corporations, and unions to special interest groups that make independent expenditures to pay for broadcast ads, mailings, and other electioneering activities to support or oppose state and federal candidates.