GOP megadonor Richard Uihlein provided his Restoration PAC with $3.1 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2024, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing released today. The owner of ULINE, a shipping and packaging company, gave $2.4 million to the PAC directly and funneled another $742,503 through his Restoration of America and Fair Courts America groups.
These three funding vehicles — along with the Voter Reference Foundation, a subsidiary of Restoration Action — are run by GOP operative Doug Truax and pumped with Uihlein cash. The $3.1 million Restoration PAC raised in the first quarter follows the $4.7 million it raised in the second half of 2023, as the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) previously reported.
Since Restoration PAC spent $3.6 million between January and March, it is left with $3.6 million in the bank.
Worth $5.3 billion according to Forbes, Richard Uihlein has so far spent $35.6 million on candidates and PACs in the 2024 election cycle. He has funneled $10.3 million of this to Club for Growth Action, another conservative super PAC that relies heavily on him for its funding.
Restoration PAC states on its website that it “engages in elections, provides support to truly conservative candidates, and opposes Leftists and the woke agenda” with the goal of “enabl[ing] all Americans to live in true freedom.” Given that the PAC is committed to funding radical anti-abortion groups, Uihlein’s vision of “all Americans” living in “true freedom” fails to include women and their reproductive freedom.
Last month, Richard’s wife Elizabeth told the Financial Times that the couple would again back Trump for president after initially supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary.
“Everybody likes Trump’s policies,” Liz Uihlein told the Times. “But we have almost 10,000 people that work for us and I would never talk to them the way Trump talks to people.”
Restoration PAC’s largest disbursement in the first quarter of 2024 was $1 million to Leadership for Ohio Fund. That was the PAC behind Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Frank LaRose, the secretary of state who lost in the March primary to Trump’s pick, Bernie Moreno. This contribution was in addition to the $3 million Richard Uihlein gave LaRose’s PAC in December.
Uihlein attended a Chicago fundraiser for LaRose hosted by Family-PAC Federal, which wrote on the invitation that it was endorsing him “in part because of his record opposing abortion, including voting during his time in the state Senate for a law that bans abortion after six weeks into pregnancy, in contrast to Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who supports abortion rights.”
Restoration PAC’s next largest contribution — of $888,890 — went to American Principles Project PAC, which is run by Frank Cannon, a longtime political strategist for the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America, and has yet to file a 2024 report. A CMD analysis of its funding in the second half of 2023 showed that 91% came from Restoration PAC. American Principles Project PAC states that it “is the premier national organization engaging directly in campaigns and advocacy on behalf of the family,” yet it attacks candidates supporting Black Lives Matter, transgender kids, and women’s right to access and make decisions about their own healthcare.
Restoration of America received $741,495 from Restoration PAC in the first quarter of the year. The group’s 2023 filing isn’t available, but in 2022 the nonprofit sent millions to anti-abortion groups, voter suppression advocates, and right-wing candidate training operations, among others.
Between January and March, Americas PAC received another $500,000 — or 95% of its funding over that period — from Restoration PAC. Uihlein continues to essentially fund most of this PAC, which targets Hispanic and Black communities with ads “promoting the GOP’s free market principles on suburban and medium sized market radio in purple states.”
During the first quarter, Restoration PAC again supported the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA), the premier organization for attorneys who vote Republican, with $194,446 in funding. RNLA hosts receptions for candidates for U.S. Senate, state supreme court, state attorney general, and other offices as well as election law training sessions, a national policy conference, and a national election law seminar.
Restoration of America was listed as a platinum-level sponsor of RNLA’s 2023 National Election Law Seminar.
Election Integrity PAC has received $166,667 to date in 2024 from Restoration PAC, but hasn’t yet filed its first quarter FEC forms and received nothing in contributions in 2023. Election Integrity PAC was founded in 2022 by Jennifer Gross, vice president of administration for SBA.
In the last election cycle, Uihlein appeared to be fully funding this PAC as well.
Uihlein’s PAC also gave the Columbus-based Patriotic Veterans $75,000 (likely for its support of LaRose) and Mom’s for Liberty Action $25,000, the only contribution the PAC received in the first three months of 2024. Restoration PAC also gave Moms for Liberty Action $136,000 in the second half of 2023, which represents the sum total of what the group raised that year, as CMD reported.
The new filing also shows that Restoration PAC has contracted with Charles Koch’s data operation i360 for “data acquisition” to the tune of $32,280.
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