Wisconsin Democrats relied on heavy-hitter mega donors from out of state to maintain a massive fundraising edge over Badger State Republicans last election cycle.
With the 2024 election complete, a full picture of the fundraising numbers is taking shape. During last year’s election cycle, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin raised nearly $30 million compared to the Wisconsin GOP’s $7.4 million over the same time frame.
At least the top 11 donations to the state Democratic party were from out of state. The Republican Party’s top donor was Wisconsinite Diane Hendricks, who owns ABC Supply and Hendricks Holding.
The 2024 numbers came on the heels of “a historically expensive” state Supreme Court race in 2023 in which Democrats raised four times the amount the state Republicans did.
Of the nearly $30 million brought in by Wisconsin Democrats, a single donor, billionaire Reid Hoffman of California accounted for more than 25% of the total, with a staggering $7.65 million in contributions to the party.
Critically, the top seven Democrat donors are from outside of Wisconsin. Among those donors are Illinois Governor and member of the Hyatt hotel chain family JB Pritzker and George Soros, a foreign-born billionaire notorious for funding left-wing causes across the globe.
Aside from his actions as governor, Pritzker made headlines in the last few years for self-funding a nationwide effort to protect or expand abortion rights. In Arizona and Nevada alone, Pritzker spent at least $1.25 million on pro-abortion ballot measures while he donated a half million dollars each to similar efforts in South Dakota and Florida in 2024.
In 2023, Pritzker said he was in favor of campaign finance reform in his home state of Illinois and for federal elections. His support for reform came after he spent an astonishing $323 million on his two campaigns for governor. Since then, he’s given millions to Democrats across the country.
Reid Hoffman has similarly spent millions each cycle for Democratic candidates and causes. In 2018, the Silicon Valley billionaire donated more than $8 million to Democrats while he pledged to spend as much as $100 million during the 2020 cycle in an effort to defeat Trump.
Finally, Hungarian-born leftist George Soros was among the top donors to the Wisconsin Democratic Party. Soros is well known for his funding of Color of Change, a political advocacy network that aims to elect progressive prosecutors across the country. His funding of Color of Change began a decade ago.
Many of Soros’ donations are to groups adjacent to politics but not election-focused entities. Soros’ infamous Open Society Foundation has contributed $37 million to New York’s Work Families Party, a far-left political outfit that “played a pivotal role in helping” Zohran Mamdani secure the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor.
Wisconsin Democrats’ huge fundraising lead continued into the 2025 cycle, with liberal state Supreme Court candidate Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford raising more than twice the amount of her Republican opponent Brad Schimel. Crawford went on to defeat Schimel by 10 points.
