The GOP’s Biggest Donor Has a Soft Spot for Election Deniers
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The billionaire Uihlein family are the biggest Republican donors for the 2022 midterms. But a review of federal data also shows that the overwhelming majority of that money has gone to candidates who have denied or questioned the 2020 election results—in fact, about 80 percent of it went to those Republicans.
Between Jan. 7, 2021, and Aug. 31, 2022, Dick and Elizabeth Uihlein—owners of the Uline shipping company—gave about $1.7 million to incumbent candidates, Federal Election Commission data shows. About $1.3 million of that money, or nearly 80 percent, went to campaigns or committees tied to the 147 Republicans who voted on Jan. 6 to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory.
The Uihleins have also given around $225,000 to non-incumbent Republicans seeking federal office in 2022. And more than 85 percent of that amount—around $191,000—also went to candidates who have either denied or questioned the legitimacy of the election results, including some who attended events at the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The vast majority of their money, however, goes to political action committees, including super PACs, which can accept contributions in unlimited amounts. And since the day after the attack on the Capitol, the Uihleins have poured a total of $53 million into PACs, with about 85 percent of it—$44.8 million—split between four PACs that either back election deniers directly or activities surrounding false election claims.
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Those four groups include the Club for Growth Action conservative super PAC, Wisconsin Truth PAC (a super PAC backing election denier Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI)), and 34N22 Inc. (a super PAC behind Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who has repeatedly promoted conspiracy theories about the 2020 results and refused to say Joe Biden was lawfully elected as recently as May.)
The fourth super PAC, Restoration PAC, is part of the larger Restoration of America network and funded almost exclusively by the Uihleins.
Of the committees affiliated with the 147 election challengers, the top recipient was the Steve Scalise Leadership Fund, a committee tied to House whip Steve Scalise (R-LA). The Uihleins threw a little more than $1 million behind the fund, or about four of every five dollars that they’ve given to the group of 147 since the insurrection.
Last week, ProPublica reported that the Uihleins are the top contributors to Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, an election-denying conspiracy theorist who attended the events of Jan. 6. They’re also the primary underwriters of Restoration of America, which ProPublica reported has stated goals to “get on God’s side of the issues and stay there” and “punish leftists.”
A spokesperson for the Uihleins declined to comment for this article.
For the Uihleins, it’s been a precipitous rise in influence—even in megadonor terms.
In 2018, The New York Times called the Uihleins “The Most Powerful Conservative Couple You’ve Never Heard Of.” In 2020, Uihlein—whose business made Forbes’ list of the 75 largest private companies in the country—was the fifth-biggest donor to outside spending groups, per data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
But according to ProPublica, the Uihleins caught a windfall in profits when the pandemic increased demand for Uline’s shipping services. And in the last two years, their donations surged.
In that time, they’ve poured at least $121 million into political activity at the state and federal level combined, including anti-union, anti-abortion rights, and anti-tax causes. To put that spike in perspective, the couple has given $190 million, total, Forbes reported in August.
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Altogether, the Uihleins—along with Dick Uihlein’s sister, Lucia—have contributed around $55 million to political committees since the insurrection, per FEC data. Dick Uihlein’s 2022 donations alone put him ahead of Citadel hedge fund honcho Ken Griffin, tech billionaire turned GOP puppetmaster Peter Thiel, investor Stephen Schwarzman, and Oracle chief Larry Ellison.
Only one person appears to have given more money—Democratic megadonor George Soros, who has ponied up a staggering $192,000,000 since Jan. 6. (A Houston-area man named Lee Mercer, Jr. reported $192,000,000 in what he says are in-kind donations to his former outsider presidential campaign for “Criminal Investigations of the U.S. Gov’t and Election BID Failure 2008 TO NOW.”)
The Uihleins have also bankrolled ultra-conservative politics and anti-election activity through their nonprofit, the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation.
In January, The Daily Beast reported that the foundation’s 2020 tax disclosures show millions of dollars flowing to an array of groups tied to efforts to undermine Biden’s victory and rewrite election law—including $1.25 million to the right-wing Conservative Partnership Institute think tank, where Trump insurrection attorney Cleta Mitchell served as senior legal fellow.
That donation tops Trump’s own $1 million contribution to CPI last year, after it hired his last White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
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