10 Takeaways From Governor’s Race Donations

David Crowley and Tom Tiffany.

It sounds like a lot of money: a total of $6.5 million was raised by the nine major candidates for Wisconsin’s governor in the second half of 2025 (July 1 through Dec. 31). In fact, it’s chump change compared to what was spent in the last governor’s race in 2022: $164 million, including $70.3 raised by the campaigns of incumbent Tony Evers and challenger Tim Michels, with the rest of the money coming from outside groups.

Still, the early money in the campaign is crucial for the candidates and the identity of the top donors, all reported with exactitude by Urban Milwaukee’s numbers-crunching reporter Jeramey Jannene, tells us a lot about the race for governor. Here are 11 takeaways.

1. Most donors are hedging their bets. With so many candidates, many fat-cat or even medium-cat donors are waiting to see how the primary elections play out and haven’t contributed. Some donors have given to more than one candidate.

2. Tom Tiffany is the Republican front runner. He’s been seen that way since he entered the race, and this campaign report certifies this: Tiffany raised $2,126,829 from 3,341 unique donors compared to $539,870 from 1,268 donors for Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann. That said, Tiffany’s total haul is what you would expect an incumbent Congressman to collect. It doesn’t tell us how well he will do in a general election for governor, but does verify that Schoemann has little chance of winning the primary.

3. Milwaukee’s business community is engaged — and divided. They’d love to see a moderate Democratic win the primary. Some were initially excited by Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, then by the later entrance into the race by business woman and former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation leader Missy Hughes, and then by the even later entrance of Greater Milwaukee Committee CEO Joel Brennan. You can see that division particularly in the donations to Crowley and Brennan. If they unite behind either of them, that person could win the primary.

4. Mandela Barnes isn’t attracting big Wisconsin donors: Nine of his eleven donations of $10,000 or more are from out of state donors. As a former Lt. Governor who narrowly lost to Ron Johnson, perhaps the most hated Senator in America for Democrats, Barnes will likely gain more such donations but needs more state support. His total of 3,360 unique donors, however, is impressive, and may be something to build on.

5. Francesca Hong is the grass roots winner. With just four major donors, the Democratic state Assembly member and Socialist still raised $381,365; that’s because she had money from 5,477 unique donors, way more than any other Democrat. Impressive.

6. Joel Brennan is the big money Democrat. About 60% of his money came from major donors, a figure surpassed only by Tiffany, at 66%. Brennan raised $567,822 from just 282 unique donors, an average contribution of over $2,000 a donor. “That’s the highest I can recall seeing outside of a self funded campaign and speaks to no small donor program,” says a Democratic consultant. And there could be more to come: Brennan’s brother-in-law Kevin T. Conroy is the CEO of Exact Sciences and gave a max donation of $20,000, as did his wife. Conroy has an estimated net worth of more than $200 million and some observers expect him to spend big on Brennan’s campaign.

7. David Crowley may be the Goldilocks candidate. Not too big, with 46% of his money coming from major donors, and anything but small, with just over $800,000 raised, the most by any Democrat. And far more of his big donations are from Wisconsin, giving him an edge over Mandela Barnes. Considering both are Black candidates from Milwaukee and former state legislators, one of them needs to eliminate the other in the primary and Crowley looks in the lead.

8. Chris Abele has switched horses: The wealthy Democrat and former Milwaukee County Executive did all he could to get Crowley elected as his successor, but is backing Missy Hughes now. Both Abele and his wife Jennifer gave the max donation of $20,000 to Hughes. Yet she looks well behind Crowley, with $479,083 from 917 unique donors.

9. Hendricks and the Uihleins are aboard the Tiffany train. Diane Hendricks and Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein all gave the max donation to Tom Tiffany and they are most important Wisconsin donors to Republican candidates.

10. George Soros can be the Republican target. There is no one Republicans love to hate more than than the wealthy liberal and George and his son Alexander Soros both gave a max donation to Barnes. That and Barnes’ loss to Johnson in the the U.S. Senator race of 2022 make him one of the candidates they’d prefer to face in November. That said, they’ll look for any pretext to tie Soros to whoever wins the Democratic primary.

Clarification Jan 21, 4:00 p.m.: The story originally reported that three candidates had violated state campaign law by accepting donations from individuals of more than the maximum allowed amount of $20,000. Tiffany’s campaign reported a $40,000 donation from Richard Clack, but now says $20,000 of that came from Clack’s wife. Hong, according to the state system, reported donations totaling $20,400 from Nathan Condella, but the state system now reflects only one $10,000 contribution, not two. And the campaign of Democratic Lt. Governor Sara Rodriguez reported a donation of $25,000 from Katherine Matlock, but Matlock actually donated $20,000 and there was an error involving the Wisconsin Elections Commission that inflated the amount.