Wisconsin Democrats are far outpacing their Republican counterparts in terms of fundraising, mirroring a national trend of Democrats raising more money than the GOP.
Democrats in Wisconsin have raised $5.4 million dollars so far this year, thirteen times more than the Wisconsin GOP has, at $395,000. Wisconsin is a must-win swing state for both candidates, where President Joe Biden beat former President Donald Trump by a narrow margin of 20,000 votes.
“We raise the resources we need to be competitive and win elections in accordance with the campaign finance laws Scott Walker gave us. Despite his promises to revive the GOP’s anemic fundraising, Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brian Schimming has consistently failed to bring home the bacon,” Joe Oslund, Communications Director of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, told the Washington Examiner.
In 2023, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin raised four times as much as the Republican party did. When Schimming took over as chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin in 2022, he said fundraising was a top priority.
“I’ve got to do what it takes in fundraising to do what it takes in everything else that we do,” Schimming told WisPolitics.com. “If we don’t have high levels of funds coming in the door, if I don’t do what it takes there, I can’t do what it takes in turnout, phones and other operations that we need to do to win.”
“Democrats, y’know to their credit, have a permanent infrastructure in the state that is working 24/7,” Waukesha County GOP Chair Terry Dittrich said on the Dan O’ Donnell Show. He added, “We were outgunned and out-financed, big time. And we need to change that whole structure. And I’ve tried to articulate this to the state party and even the RNC folks.”
Nationally, the RNC reported their worst fundraising year since 2013. The RNC raised $87.2 million in 2023 to start 2024 with just over $8 million on hand, compared to the DNC, which raised $120 million in 2023 and started 2024 with $21 million in cash on hand.
Under Trump’s campaign financing agreement with the RNC, donations are directed to the Trump campaign, then his legal bills. Only after that does the RNC see a cut of the money.
“The Republican National Committee has become a financial dumpster fire at a time when they literally cannot afford it,” DNC spokesman Alex Floyd told Fox News Digital.
Departures and other drama among the RNC are trickling down to the state level, notably swing states. This year, there are only seven swing states, heightening the stakes.
In Arizona, Jeff DeWitt, former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, suddenly departed from the position after an unsuccessful bribe to Kari Lake for her not to run in the state. The Michigan GOP has seen a battle between newly elected state GOP chairman Pete Hoekstra and ousted former chairwoman Kristina Karamo over who is really in control of the party.
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According to Hoekstra, Michigan has not yet seen a cut of the RNC funds.
“We’ve got the skeleton right now,” Hoekstra said. “We’re going to have to put more meat on it.”