Republicans Lose Campaign Cash Game They Created

Cash. (CC0 Creative Commons).

Wisconsin’s Republicans are not happy about their latest loss. The more than 20-point defeat conservative Maria Lazar suffered against liberal Chris Taylor in the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court was a historic low point for the GOP in a swing state like Wisconsin, where presidential and governor races have typically been nearly 50-50 affairs.

The brutal beatdown left former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson declaring that Wisconsin is now “a blue state.” The fact that Ozaukee County has gone from 37% of its voters backing the liberal, Democratic-backed Supreme Court candidate in 2019 to 52% liberal this year is a wake-up call for Republicans. Without big support in the WOW counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington, the party has no chance to win in Wisconsin.

Much of the blame for defeat was heaped on state Republican Party chair Brian Schimming and his inability to raise enough campaign cash for Lazar. Taylor and her allies reported spending $7.9 million heading into the election, giving her a nearly 8-to-1 advantage, according to a WisPolitics tally.

But even when Republicans are able to raise huge sums, as they did in the 2025 state high court race, which set a national record for total spending on a state supreme court race of $115 million, Democrats still raised more money. Liberal candidate Susan Crawford raised $33.7 million, more than doubling the $15.7 million raised by conservative candidate Brad Schimel. When all spending by outside groups was included, Schimel had a $54 million to $46 million edge in total campaign spending, but TV stations charge about three times more for ads by outside groups, leaving Crawford with the edge in total advertising.

In short, it’s become a game Wisconsin Republicans can’t seem to win — even though they created the rules.

Back in 2015, Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans passed legislation loosening the rules on campaign contributions, including ending the $10,000 limit on individual contributions to a political party and allowing unlimited donations. They were convinced the changes would give them a big advantage in campaigns, and for a while they did. By 2018, three years after the law was passed, the state Republican Party raised $17 million, compared to $8 million by the Wisconsin Democratic Party, as Urban Milwaukee reported.

But by 2020, as the story noted, the numbers were nearly reversed, with the Democratic Party raising $27 million compared to $16 million for Republicans. And by 2023, the Democratic Party raised $16.14 million, four times more than the $3.95 million raised by the state Republican Party. Yes, the Republican candidates got more spending by independent groups than the Democratic candidates, but they had less control over how the money was spent and were paying three times more for the TV ads. GOP leaders, including Schimming, went on record lamenting the fundraising success of Democratic Party leader Ben Wikler.

In a recent interview on WISN-TV’s “UpFront,” Schimel called the 2015 change by Walker and company “a terrible law” and said he hopes lawmakers repeal it.

That would put Schimel in agreement with good government groups like Common Cause and the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which opposed the 2015 law allowing unlimited donations. “I think it’s ironic,” said Wisconsin Common Cause director Bianca Shaw in comments to Urban Milwaukee. “If the Republicans don’t think unlimited giving is a good idea, then we are finally at the point of naming a problem we have talked about for years. It does corrode and erode the democratic process.”

But it wasn’t just the change in fundraising rules that has come back to haunt the Republicans. This was one part of a broader strategy by Walker and Republican legislative leaders to game the system, to gerrymander legislative seats so they could retain control of the Legislature even when they lost the state, and to pass lame-duck laws after Democrats won for governor and attorney general, with new rules hamstringing both offices and thereby frustrating the majority of the voters who had backed a change.

Thompson wanted to win the biggest majority he could and carried Milwaukee County every time he ran for governor. He appeared on Black radio stations in Milwaukee and courted city voters. Today’s Republican approach is exemplified by GOP 4th Congressional District chair Bob Spindell, who bragged about GOP ads suppressing the vote “in the overwhelming Black and Hispanic areas” of Milwaukee.

Thompson sought to represent the entire state. Walker’s approach was that he needed just one more vote than 50% and needn’t worry about Milwaukee or Dane County. Walker and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos routinely demonized these counties. Vos claimed it was Republicans who got a mandate from voters in 2018 when Tony Evers won the state because they retained a majority of the gerrymandered Legislature.

The net effect of this approach was to diminish the base of the state Republican Party, while Gov. Evers always emphasized that he represented the entire state. In a social media post April 8, Rick Esenberg, who founded the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, noted that since Trump took office in 2017, “the GOP or conservative candidate in statewide races for Senator, Governor, AG or Supreme Court has lost 11 of 13 races.” And now that the Legislature is no longer gerrymandered, we are seeing a stampede of Republican legislators announcing their resignations, including at least 10 GOP incumbents this year.

But other Republicans and conservatives, like Spindell and the ever-entertaining talk radio host Dan O’Donnell, see no reason for the party to change. Many Democrats, I suspect, are cheering them on.