September 4, 2022

By Bill Berkowitz

For years, Schlitz beer marketed itself as “the beer that made Milwaukee famous,” becoming the largest brewery in the United States for a significant part of the twentieth century. These days, with his megabuck donations to all things GOP, including the reelection campaign of Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson, Richard Uihlein, a descendant of one of the founders of the Schlitz brewing empire, and his wife Elizabeth, are working to keep Wisconsin and a handful of other states deeply MAGA.

Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, the Lake Forest, Illinois-based couple, founders of the Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin-based packaging company Uline, have dumped over $4 million to several groups supporting the re-election of Johnson. Richard Uihlein isn’t only sticking to Wisconsin, as he’s also funded ads knocking Democrats running for Senate in Georgia, where he’s backing Herschel Walker, Nevada and New Hampshire.

According to Forbes’ Kyle Mullins, Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, along with Diane Hendricks, “a Wisconsin native and the richest self-made woman in America,” have given over $10 million to a super PAC called Wisconsin Truth PAC, which is backing Johnson.  

“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,” the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign reported in early August.  “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, and Americans for Prosperity.

Uihlein is also the largest donor to such anti-abortion behemoths as the Susan B Anthony List-affiliated Women Speak Out. A major funder of Donald Trump, Uihlein also regularly donates to the Gun Owners Foundation, a gun rights group, and was one of the biggest financial backers of the January 6 pro-Trump “March to Save America” rally that preceded the deadly Capitol Hill insurrection.

In June, The Financial Times’ Courtney Weaver and Caitlin Gilbert reported that “19 months into the 2022 midterm election cycle, Uihlein has given more than any other Republican so far, becoming a megadonor with the potential to take up the mantle of the once pre-eminent Koch brothers, whose standing in the party has fallen in the post-Trump landscape.”

Uihlein money has backed some pretty unsavory characters. The Financial Times reported that “In the 2022 primaries, Uihlein has given $2.5mn to the Senate campaign of Eric Greitens, the disgraced former governor of Missouri who left office amid accusations of funds misappropriation and sexual misconduct, which Greitens denies. … Since 2016, the billionaire has given nearly $7.8mn to the Tea Party Patriots group, which helped stage the pro-Trump rally on January 6. … He [also] donated tens of thousands of dollars to Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, continuing to support the Republican candidate even after he faced multiple allegations of sexual assault, which Moore denied.”
In an early August piece for Forbes titled “Meet The Billionaire Couple Pumping Their Fortune Into Right-Wing Politics,” Kyle Mullins and Carlos Sánchez Mora reported that “the Wisconsin-based business, which [the Uihleins’] run as CEO and president, respectively, does an estimated $6.1 billion in annual sales, enough to make the pair worth $4 billion apiece, according to Forbes’ estimates.”

Mullins reported that “In addition, the Uihleins cut checks totaling $292,100 to Ron Johnson Victory, a joint fundraising committee that supports Johnson’s campaign and other Republican groups. Richard Uihlein funneled another $2.2 million to Americas PAC, a super PAC he has almost single-handedly bankrolled that has spent $284,000 on the race.”

Kansas-based Koch Industries, led by Charles Koch, has given $6.5 million to another super PAC supporting Johnson, Americans for Prosperity Action.

Forbes’ Mullins and Mora wrote: “The Uihleins’ passion for politics permeates their business, too—even company catalogs. In between praise for her employees and listings for boxes and bubble wrap, Elizabeth Uihlein poses provocative questions: Is America in decline? Is China taking over? Are we spending too much on welfare programs? ‘Your family, your house, your yard, your own little corner of the world—these are things you can control and make better,’ she wrote in one letter. ‘You can’t fix everything—the world’s problems are big.’ But with enough money, you sure can try.”

As Forbes recently noted, “Together, the couple is the fourth biggest donor to political campaigns in the U.S., having reported giving over $190 million, according to FEC filings.”

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