On Tuesday, Ohio is holding a special election over a constitutional amendment that would make it harder for citizen-led ballot measures to pass in the state.
It may sound technical, but it’s actually quite sinister: Republicans are gunning hard to pass this proposed amendment, called Issue 1, because it could help them thwart an extremely important abortion rights vote in November. As a result, a ton of outside money has been pouring into the state. And on the conservative side, a lot of it is coming from the hard-right box billionaires of Illinois.
Dick and Liz Uihlein are the founders of the country’s largest shipping supply company, Uline. They manufacture and sell all the boring things associated with moving and shipping—cardboard boxes, packing tape, bubble wrap—and their wealth and political activism have put them in the upper echelons of rich white folks funding ultraconservative causes. They’re like the Koch brothers, but a whole lot Trumpier.
According to Politico, one ultraconservative political action committee that’s spent millions advocating for the constitutional amendment is almost entirely funded by Dick Uihlein. He also gave $1.1 million to the PAC that pressured Ohio’s Republican lawmakers to approve the August special election in the first place.
And that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to how much the Uihleins have collectively donated to hard-right causes and candidates around the country since they reported their first political contributions in the 1990s. They rarely give public interviews, but their worldview is no mystery because of their massive political spending, which has only increased as their wealth has grown. (A ProPublica investigation found that the couple had a reported income of $712 million in 2018, an almost fortyfold increase from the $18 million they reported in 2002.)
In the 2021–2022 cycle, the Uihleins spent at least $121 million on issues like fighting taxes, unions, abortion rights, and marijuana legislation. During the 2022 midterm cycle, more than $9 of every $10 the Uihleins donated went to Republican congressional candidates who denied that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, according to the Chicago Sun Times. (As ProPublica put it: That cardboard box in your home is fueling election denial.)
Recipients of the Uihlein largesse include Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson (Uline is headquartered in Wisconsin); House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana; former Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker; Alabama House Rep. Mo Brooks; and Ohio House Rep. Jim Jordan.
Together and separately, the Uihleins fund political candidates that they hand-pick. They’ve given money to groups that attack transgender rights and critical race theory, while also campaigning against COVID-19 shutdowns and vaccine requirements. Back in July 2021, Liz emailed Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers urging him to “get government out of the way” by cutting people off from expanded federal unemployment benefits.
Though the couple were hardcore Trump supporters in 2016, they are contributing to Ron DeSantis’ 2024 campaign. In 2016, Liz was tapped by former Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus to head Donald Trump’s fundraising committee, and both husband and wife attended Trump’s inauguration. “She likes to be a much more influential Republican Party donor,” former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh told Politico.
Now, they are using their money to attack Ohioans’ participation in the democratic process. Citizens there have long been able to amend their state constitution with a simple majority vote—a right that many conservative Ohioans, including former Gov. John Kasich, loudly defend—but not if the Uihleins have their way.
