The first big move of Leah Vukmir’s Senate campaign wasn’t a traditional kick-off speech or a catchy web video, but a private audience with an influential billionaire.

Vukmir, a nurse and longtime Republican state legislator in Wisconsin, was only vaguely familiar with roofing magnate Diane Hendricks. But shortly before launching her Senate bid, Vukmir met with the megadonor and other businesspeople at a wood-paneled country club owned by Hendricks. After two hours hearing from Vukmir about her political beliefs and preliminary campaign plans, Hendricks stood up and told the soon-to-be candidate she had her support.


Just like that, Vukmir had acquired this year’s must-have Senate campaign accessory: a billionaire backer. Hendricks “likes the fact that we’ve removed red tape and regulations in Wisconsin,” Vukmir told POLITICO.

She is one of a growing number of Republican candidates around the country who spent the first months of this year courting megadonors and even announcing their support before formally launching campaigns, in the same manner that Jeb Bush and others did for months during the last presidential race.

Candidates scrambling for donor help is nothing new. But the early efforts this year to secure big-name funders have further blurred the hazy lines between candidates and unlimited-money outside groups, while reshaping Senate races around the country — propelling unknown candidates to prominence, scaring off potential opponents and heralding millions of dollars of outside spending as Republicans prepare for tough campaigns against Democratic senators.

Vukmir is part of a group of Republicans in Wisconsin who slowly ripped the state out of Democratic control and have turned it into a GOP stronghold. She won now-Gov. Scott Walker’s state legislative seat when he made the jump to Milwaukee County executive, and she fought alongside Walker and other Republicans during a fight over public-sector unions in 2011. And over the summer, Hendricks’ support — announced in August, about three weeks before her campaign launch — was a public signal that Vukmir might be able to counter the $3.5 million already pledged to another Wisconsin Republican candidate, Kevin Nicholson, by the megadonor Richard Uihlein.

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Nicholson has never run for public office, but Uihlein’s millions “sent a signal to the grass roots, the political class and the media” that he was a top contender to take on Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin in 2018, according to an operative familiar with the pro-Nicholson super PAC.

Wisconsin is not the only state where candidates have quickly locked down big donors to fill the coffers of supportive super PACs. “They’re hyper. They’re on it right away,” Minnesota Republican donor Stanley Hubbard said of candidates for 2018, who started calling him for help a month after Election Day 2016. (Hubbard has instructed them to to wait until after primaries are over to solicit him for donations.)

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley has not officially entered the race against Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill — but the Club for Growth has already lined up a donor pledging to match donations of up to $5 million to support Hawley. The identity of the donor is unknown, but billionaire business executive David Humphreys has donated millions to Hawley in the past.

When celebrated author J.D. Vance considered mounting a bid for Senate in Ohio earlier this year, he lined up $15 million in pledges for a supportive super PAC before deciding not to go through with a campaign, according to a strategist with knowledge of Vance’s plans.

And when Andy Ogles, a former state director for the Koch network group Americans for Prosperity, launched his primary challenge against Sen. Bob Corker in Tennessee, a $4 million boost from Nashville auto dealer Lee Beaman gave his campaign extra legitimacy. (Corker later announced he will not run for reelection.)

Some of the communication with donors this year would be illegal if it took place between a candidate and a super PAC. But there’s nothing keeping soon-to-be candidates from recruiting such support before they declare a run for office, as Bush did in 2015, when he traversed the country raising tens of millions of dollars for his Right to Rise super PAC before announcing his candidacy for president.

“When the FEC failed to take action [against Bush and other presidential candidates], it was inevitable the practice would spread to Senate and House races and the level of candidate involvement would increase to the point that these super PACs are seen as an extension of the campaigns,” said Campaign Legal Center senior director Lawrence Noble, a former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission.

Some Republican Senate strategists believe the early financial muscle-flexing could result in less crowded primaries, as the GOP prepares to go after 10 Democratic senators in states carried by President Donald Trump in 2016. In Missouri, Hawley’s support from two big names — Humphreys and longtime fundraiser Sam Fox — has effectively cleared the Republican field for his expected campaign against McCaskill.

“A very, very, very big deal was Sam Fox coming on board,” said former Missouri Sen. John Danforth, who began organizing efforts on Hawley’s behalf earlier this year. Hawley and Fox met for lunch in the late spring and Fox, a former U.S. ambassador to Belgium, emerged “very enthusiastic” about Hawley, Danforth said.

Missouri Republicans are especially keen to avoid a messy primary after what happened in McCaskill’s last reelection campaign, when Republican Rep. Todd Akin squeaked through a three-way primary and promptly torpedoed his own campaign by saying that “legitimate rape” typically did not lead to women getting pregnant.

Fox organized a letter encouraging other donors to support Hawley in 2018 — and steer clear of giving to any candidate as he decided whether to run for Senate.

“I also ask that you withhold your support for other potential candidates in order to give Josh time to make his final decision,” Fox wrote in June.

Though the 37-year-old Hawley won election as state attorney general only in 2016, he’s garnered national media attention and has courted national donors including Robert Mercer, who Hawley met for lunch last year.

Hawley has since launched a Senate exploratory committee, but he hasn’t yet announced his bid for office. That hasn’t stopped Fox from stepping in with help raising money on Hawley’s behalf. Last week, the former ambassador packed about 80 donors into the dining room at his mansion in tony Clayton, Missouri, to raise money for Hawley. Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus, who donated $11 million during the 2016 elections, was listed as a co-host.

Hawley was at the fundraiser too, according to one attendee, where he spoke articulately about the deficit and castigated McCaskill’s voting record in front of the big donors — sounding every inch like a candidate.

