‘Goodbye, Zuckerbucks!’: Wisconsin Voters Ban Private Funding of Elections

Zuckerberg Elections
AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File, Alex Wong/Getty Images
Nick Gilbertson

Wisconsin voters approved an amendment on Tuesday night, banning the private funding of elections in the swing state.

The amendment directs that “donations and grants may not be applied for, accepted, expended, or used in…connection with the conduct of any primary, election, or referendum,” according to the question phrasing that the Wisconsin State Legislature listed. Associated Press election results showed the ballot question passed by a 54.4 percent to 45.6 percent vote.

Wisconsinites also voted in favor of a second part to the amendment on ballot question two, mandating “that only election officials designated by law may perform tasks in the conduct of primaries, elections, and referendums.” That question passed with 58.6 percent of support.

The votes come four years after the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL), gave more than $10 million in grants in Wisconsin in the 2020 election, as Capital Research Center reported.

“Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan notoriously poured hundreds of millions of ‘Zuckerbucks’ into” the CTCL “for the purpose of getting out the vote in Democrat-leaning areas in the 2020 election,” Breitbart News previously noted.

The Badger State went for President Joe Biden in that year’s presidential election by just 20,682 votes. In 2021, the state had an opportunity to ban the private funding of elections, but Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) vetoed a bill that the state legislature passed that would have done so.

Former President Donald Trump encouraged voters at a rally on Wednesday evening in Green Bay — while polls were still open — to “ban Zuckerbucks” by voting for the ballot questions, and Republicans celebrated the outcome.

“Victory! Wisconsin has spoken and the message is clear: elections belong to voters, not out-of-state billionaires,” said Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming in a statement.

“Thanks to the efforts by the Republican Party of Wisconsin and grassroots organizing, Wisconsinites have turned the page on Zuckerbucks and secured our elections from dark money donors,” he added.

The Wisconsin GOP celebrated with a post on X, reading, “Goodbye, Zuckerbucks!”

Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk cheered the new amendment in a post on X.

Wisconsin “voters, by a large margin, just rejected the oligcarch [sic] takeover of our elections.”

GOP Strategist and Wisconsin native Alex Brusewitz, who is considering a bid for Wisconsin’s Eighth Congressional District, called the moment a “HUGE WIN FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY!”

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