Richard & Elizabeth Uihlein
Net Worth: $5.8 Billion (As of March 27, 2025)
- Richard Uihlein is both an heir to the Schlitz Brewing Company fortune, and a founder of multi-billion dollar shipping company Uline. Not infrequently compared to the Kochs, The Uihleins have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in direct support of Republicans in both federal and state elections over the last decade while also funding a network of right-wing think tanks and policy groups.
- ProPublica has delved extensively into the consistently far-right, fascistic political history of the Uihlein family. Edgar J. Uihlein, Richard’s grandfather, was a donor to the original America First committee of Charles Lindbergh.
- Lindbergh was an open anti-Semite who also opposed the entry of the U.S. into World War II, where the American army opposed the Nazis. Richard’s father, Edgar J. Uihlein Jr., was involved in supporting racial segregation while opposing New Deal social programs and the Civil Rights movement. Richard Uihlein has claimed to be politically influenced by his father on multiple occasions.
- The Uihleins are major conservative donors. They were the #1 Republican fundraisers in the 2021-2022 election cycle, and large donors since 2016. According to OpenSecrets in Sept. 2023, “The Uihleins have collectively given more than $250 million to federal candidates and political groups since the 2016 election cycle, according to a new OpenSecrets analysis. The bulk of those contributions — over $233 million — came from Richard Uihlein himself. Over the first six months of the 2024 election cycle alone, Uihlein poured more than $20 million into federal contributions. The couple has given an additional $83.8 million to state and local candidates since the start of the 2022 election cycle.”
- The Ed Uihlein Family Foundation (named after Richard’s father) donated more than $1 million to the dark money incubator, the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) in 2021. They have also donated more than $2 million to Turning Point USA. The Foundation for Government Accountability, known for trying to roll back child labor protections, has received donations from the foundation as well. The American Principles project, which has been accused of echoing far-right conspiracies, has reportedly received 80% of its funding from the Uihleins in the past. The American Principles Project “runs ads attacking what it calls ‘transgender ideology,’ abortion and the teaching of ‘critical race theory.’ Richard Uihlein has also funded initiatives linked to the January 6th insurrection and election denialism.
- According to the Human Rights Campaign, Uihlein “has a long history of backing anti-transgender candidates, including accused pedophile Roy Moore.” In 2017, the Washington Post published an allegation from a woman who said that Roy Moore had initiated a sexual encounter with her when he was in his thirties, and she was fourteen. Afterwards, “other women then came forward to say that Moore had sexually assaulted or harassed them when they were teen-agers, too.” A source speaking to the New Yorker claimed that Roy Moore was known “for bothering young girls” in his home town and had even been banned from the local mall.
- Uihlein has a “fervent belief in less regulation, lower taxes and cracking down on unions.” He opposes abortion rights.
For more information, see the Revolving Door Project’s Billionaires in Trump World tracker.