Last year's Wisconsin governor's race shattered spending records

The nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which tracks campaign spending, reported Tuesday that spending in last year’s gubernatorial election topped out at 77% higher than the almost $93.1 million spent in the 2018 governor’s race. Spending last year was double the roughly $82 million spent in the 2014 governor’s race.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who secured a second term in office by defeating GOP challenger and business executive Tim Michels by more than 3 points, spent about $42 million, compared with about $28.5 million spent by Michels, who spent millions of his own funds on his campaign.

All told, Evers and special interest groups supporting him spent about $88 million, while Republican candidates and outside groups supporting them spent about $76 million.

Among the top-spending groups, the Democratic Governors Association spent about $26.6 million on attack ads targeting Michels, while the Republican Governors Association spent about $15.3 million targeting Evers.

Other top-spending groups include A Better Wisconsin Together, which spent about $5.82 million attacking Michels and supporting Evers; Americans for Prosperity, which spent $5.42 million supporting Michels; and Fighting for Wisconsin, which spent $4.38 million largely supporting GOP candidate Kevin Nicholson, who dropped out of the race before the primary.