‘Trojan Horse’? Turning Point, Supporters Won’t Respond to Questions on Finances

If you’re going to take over a party, you’ve got to make the case that you can deliver something better. Has Turning Point delivered?

Turning Point Action and three of its key supporters in Wisconsin—who hold top positions in county GOP parties—are refusing to answer questions about their finances and turnout efforts in the November and April Wisconsin elections.

That comes after a bombshell Wispolitics.com report found that Turning Point “reported spending just $44,780 helping conservative Brad Schimel. None of it was for staff expenses.” (Turning Point raised more than $10 million nationwide.)

Compare: Musk’s America PAC spent $12.7 million to help Schimel. Americans for Prosperity spent $884,641. A plethora of other conservative groups spent heavily for Schimel, but Turning Point dramatically pales in comparison.

“Turning Point PAC Wisconsin in 2024 registered with the state and spent $148,035 in 2024, according to its filing,” Wispolitics.com reported.

Turning Point’s PAC has three reports in the campaign finance system in Wisconsin. The first in July reports $80,000 in receipts and disbursements, all to county GOP parties, including Dane, Brown, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, and more. See: TurningPointJuly.

The fall 2024 pre-election report shows an additional $25,000 in receipts and $41,035 in disbursements. At that point, Turning Point’s national arm had funneled $100,000 to Wisconsin’s PAC. See: TurningPointJuly TurningPointpreelection. The January continuing report, the latest, says Turning Point had receipts and disbursements of $27,000 each, again to county parties. See: turningpointjanuary.

The state Republican Party that Turning Point supporters trash transferred $9.5 million to Brad Schimel’s campaign and, it should be noted, helped deliver Wisconsin for Trump.

We verified this data in campaign finance reports. The expenditures, at least what is publicly known, don’t seem to match Turning Point supporters’ crowing about the group’s supposedly superior efforts in the November and April elections. Yet, its key backers wasted no time in calling for state GOP Chair Brian Schimming’s head on a figurative pike after conservative Brad Schimel got trounced in the state Supreme Court race.

With Turning Point supporters steadily assuming control of county parties and congressional districts throughout Wisconsin in an alleged effort to oust the chairman and take over the party’s apparatus (including its volunteer and data networks), probing exactly how and what Turning Point itself did seems germane.

Yet answers are hard to come by. What isn’t hard to come by are data points, which show that county parties already headed by Turning Point employees and/or supporters performed abysmally for Schimel. While that’s true of many areas, it’s not a great argument for a takeover.

“In Dane County, (former conservative Supreme Court candidate Dan) Kelly got 18% of the vote in 2023 and Schimel got 18.3% of the vote in 2025,” said Kewaunee Co. GOP Chair Kirt Johnson. “Not exactly an increase to write home about! And in Brown County, Kelly got 48.24% in 2023, which is basically what Schimel got in 2025! These results are not exactly awe-inspiring and certainly are not results that could lend credence to the claim that Turning Point would be a God-send in running our party.”

Among the questions we asked Turning Point:

• Were there other expenditures, how much, and where are they documented?
• How many voter contacts did Turning Point make for the November and April elections?
• How much money was spent on employees and workers, and where is that documented?

We also asked the headquarters why Elon Musk’s PAC allegedly took over, at least in part, Turning Point’s door-knocking operation right before the presidential election.

There has been no answer from the national Turning Point Action HQ, Milwaukee County GOP Chair Hilario Deleon, Dane County GOP Chair Brandon Maly, or 5th Congressional District Vice Chair Brett Galaszewski.

Deleon was previously a ballot chase manager for Turning Point. Maly’s LinkedIn page says he is Turning Point’s Midwest Field Manager. Galaszewski, who has referred to the Wisconsin Republican Party as a “hell hole” at times, is simultaneously Turning Point Action’s National Enterprise Director and the newly elected vice chairman of the 5th Congressional District, which encompasses Milwaukee and parts of southeastern Wisconsin.

Maly, once one of the most prolific Turning Point ambassadors in Wisconsin, announced on May 16 that he is leaving Wisconsin to spend time with his grandparents and is resigning as Dane County’s GOP chair.

“A great opportunity has come my way,” he said, without detailing it.

A Turning Point supervisor told WRN last fall that the group would likely pull up stakes and leave Wisconsin after the April election. Maly’s departure follows the resignation of Dane County GOP Vice Chair Chrissi Ilgen, who has a page on the Turning Point website.

There was briefly a move by some in the state Republican Party to create a rule to ban such dual roles, but it mysteriously fell by the wayside.

The lack of transparency over what Turning Point Action actually did in Wisconsin versus what its supporters claimed it did has led to strong words from some county party volunteers.

“Turning Point was welcomed into the Republican Party of Wisconsin because of our big tent, but as a result of that same tent, it seems that it created a Trojan Horse,” alleged Orlando Owens, a pastor who belongs to the Milwaukee County GOP and who once ran for state treasurer. Owens has been extremely vocal that he sees Turning Point’s “Mount Vernon Project” as the takeover template.

What of Musk?

A man who worked for Turning Point last summer through roughly October told Wisconsin Right Now that the group’s workers were called to a meeting at the Sheraton Hotel in Brookfield, WI, shortly before the presidential election.

He says they were told the group wasn’t meeting its targets, so Elon Musk’s PAC was essentially taking over the door-knocking operation. He did not want his name printed.

Before that, the man said that he was told by Turning Point to do relational organizing, i.e., holding events in his neighborhood to try to drum up voters for Donald Trump, like cookouts and poker parties and the like, as well as reaching out to voters who didn’t always make it to the polls in past elections. A second source told us a similar account; people were being paid thousands of dollars. She said they were being organized by neighborhoods where they lived.

This made sense in theory, the first worker told Wisconsin Right Now. But it was done too rapidly, in his opinion, to work, starting only in roughly mid-summer. Throughout the summer, we heard from multiple people who were paid to door-knock for Turning Point. They told us that the group was throwing a lot of money at a lot of people—but that they probably wouldn’t stay in Wisconsin past April. At least, that was the belief of the people we spoke to then.

This matches Wispolitics’ reporting that “as the (presidential) race turned to the fall, (Turning Point) joined forces with Elon Musk’s America PAC. The billionaire’s group took over leadership of the effort, as well as many of Turning Point’s expenses in Wisconsin.”

It also somewhat matches previous reporting by Politico, which painted what happened more softly: “Hundreds of ‘ballot chasers’ that had been hired by Turning Point this week are combining with America PAC’s operation in Wisconsin,” the site reported in October 2024, just a month out from the presidential election.

A Criminal Conviction

“If we’re going to scrutinize the party, we should also be free to scrutinize the organization that wants to take over the party,” said Door County GOP Chair Stephanie Soucek.

She recently lost a party election to be 8th congressional district chair to a man, Ken Sikora, who was convicted of beating his wife and who was backed by some Turning Point supporters, as well as the Donald Trump-pushed new Congressman, Tony Wied. This battle put napalm on the already simmering Turning Point clashes with some longtime party volunteers.

Why do the congressional district leadership positions matter? Because the “congressional district chairs and vice-chairs make up a majority of the state executive committee charged with electing the state chair and drafting party bylaws,” WPR reported. In other words, these elections are perceived by some as a coup to topple Schimming, the affable former talk show host, and take over the party’s apparatus, with some of its hardest-working volunteers being shoved aside.

The criminal complaint against Sikora is ugly. You can read it here: Sikora Criminal Complaint.

“Kenneth then struck her (his wife) with an open hand on the right side of her head,” the complaint says. “She explained he then grabbed her by the throat with his right hand. At this point, EMS started to swat at his arm with her hands, in an attempt to make him stop. EMS stated the next thing she remembered was waking up on the floor, near the back door of the kitchen by the ice machine, which was approximately 12 feet from where the initial incident began.”

The complaint says his wife “stated Kenneth became upset with her when she questioned him about possibly having an affair with one of the bartenders.” The couple is still together.

Sikora was charged with felony strangulation but pleaded it down to misdemeanor battery, with a domestic violence modifier, court records show (they also show a slew of tax warrant cases). Some of his supporters, including the person running the Waupaca Co. GOP’s official Facebook page, have engaged in unsavory and vitriolic name-calling of people online (Waupaca even trashed the party’s biggest donor!), who have dared to question the wisdom of a party that touts law-and-order while choosing a person with such a record to be a leader.

“Some in the Republican Party have leveled accusations of bullying and described a toxic party culture in the 8th Congressional District,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, and we’ve heard the same accusations.

The Republican Party of Calumet County didn’t hold back, writing on Facebook, “Oconto GOP chair Ken Sikora, a New Jersey native, explains why rules do not need to be followed. Waupaca GOP chair Joel Bartel claims amnesia about harassing voicemail messages he (allegedly) left.” The party shared a WMTV story on the battles.

“I think we’re representing the grassroots of the state party and the grassroots around the country,” Sikora said to that station. “We’re putting up a fight that they haven’t seen in a long time.” In his spare time, Sikora has threatened to end the career of the only conservative Wisconsin talk radio host north of Green Bay, Meg Ellefson.

Paul Anderson wrote on X that he worked for Turning Point on the presidential election and claimed that Turning Point “took a step back” from the Schimel race. He also wrote that Turning Point “did such an AMAZING job training us in Wisconsin,” but “almost 0 of those employees are still with TP, and the election is in 6 weeks. TP has this data, but not the RELATIONSHIPS. Brad could’ve easily won.” When he’s not opining on Turning Point, Anderson is calling Schimming a “fat ass” on his X page and a female conservative pundit a bimbo.

It’s all expected to come to a head Saturday at the state Republican Party’s annual convention in Rothschild. But people casting about for a side to take won’t be armed with much information about what Turning Point actually did.

This all feels a bit like a replay of Arizona, where Turning Point spectacularly tried to take over the state party apparatus but did not turn the state red.

“Today, the Democratic Party holds Arizona’s two U.S. Senate seats, the governor’s office, the Secretary of State’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office and could conceivably win majorities in the state House and Senate,” a scathing 2023 column in the Arizona Republic reads. It claims Turning Point agitated against a Republican candidate who was more electable in its efforts to “engineer the takeover of” the state party there.

Seeking Answers

After Door County GOP Chair Stephanie Soucek raised questions about the finances and spending, Galaszewski shared additional details on Facebook.

“We spent on paid ballot chase staff through our 501c4. Not Turning Point PAC,” he wrote. But we’ve been unable to document how much that was, exactly, and Turning Point isn’t answering.

On X, Turning Point’s Tyler Bowyer wrote, “This is what the establishment does…. vote totals increased across the board in Wards where we had volunteers being managed and paid chasers… The left put far more resources on the ground, which we warned about and the response? Attack those who helped in your state instead of figuring out how to get MORE resources in to win.”

Turning Point Action, which is running the “chase the vote” turnout operation, is a 501(c)(4) organization, which is a nonprofit devoted to social welfare of the community but also allowed to engage in politics.

For its part, the state RPW has outlined its efforts in detail in an internal email obtained by WRN. Among its key points:

• “We invested more in the race than ever before, transferring over $11 million to Brad Schimel and Brittany Kinser.
• Utilizing financial transfers through the party allowed Judge Schimel to raise more than any other conservative Supreme Court candidate.
• We kept on field staff to be on the ground across the state, who, since November, were working to elect Brad Schimel and turn out voters
• Combined with the efforts of outside groups, our turnout operation made progress, increasing Republican turnout by over 200,000 votes.
• Building off 2024, WisGOP expanded minority outreach, with 4 dedicated staff members focused on coalition building, alongside 3 targeted radio ads aimed at Hispanic and African American voters, something not seen in previous Supreme Court elections.
  Made over 2.5 million voter contacts.
• Overall, pro-Schimel efforts spent more than pro-Crawford efforts in this race, but Crawford’s campaign received and spent more than Schimel’s campaign, which resulted in a cheaper rate on TV ad buys.”

Why does this matter?

One of the key concerns long-time volunteers raise is a belief that Turning Point does not share the data it collects with the party or all GOP candidates. For example, when county party volunteers in Turning Point-affiliated counties go out door-knocking, the data doesn’t get always placed in the centrally shared GOP app but rather is tucked away in a Turning Point app the party doesn’t control, they claim.

Turning Point has also trashed and/or worked against some Republican elected officials (like Assembly Majority Leader Robin Vos, painted as an uber villain despite his strategies that have kept the Legislature in GOP hands and 92% lifetime CPAC conservative voting record).

And Turning Point supporters knocking doors for Schimel in key Waukesha County also handed out a flyer touting an appointee of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

Michelle Litjens, a former state legislator married to Vos, raised the point about data on X.

“@TPUSA and @WisGOP are totally different orgs. We need both to be successful. TP is a C4 and a 527; it is NOT a Committee,” she wrote.

“RPW IS A CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE. The Dems (DPW, a committee) gave (Susan) Crawford $3mm in money and in-kind contributions. TP CANNOT legally give money to a candidate. Only Committees can do that. TP pays ppl to knock on doors, and they do not share that information with candidates. Candidates must buy that information. RPW door knockers put voter info into a central database that is used by all candidates for free. Why are we fighting when we are two distinctly different groups with different purposes???” Litjens claimed.

When Trump won in November, some Turning Point supporters aggressively leapt to take credit, and when Schimel was trounced in April, some of them instantly blamed the RPW and Schimming, even though the party chairman received glowing praise from Trump himself just a few months ago. To be clear, RPW does not choose or run campaigns, nor develop their strategies.

There is also an almost bizarrely obsessive hatred constantly directed at Vos, but he has minimal involvement, if any, in statewide campaigns, outside of keeping control of the Legislature in Republican hands, so Wisconsin doesn’t become Tim Walz’s Minnesota.

“This is unacceptable…accountability must come at all levels at the State Party, and it must be swift and thorough; we owe that to the Members of the Party,” Milwaukee Co. GOP Chair Deleon demanded on X after the April loss.

Yet Deleon is one of those we reached out to for more details, but we did not receive a response, even though he typically responds quickly to WRN’s inquiries. His logic begs the question: If the state party leaders should be ousted because of Schimel’s big loss, then what of the county party chairs in areas that didn’t deliver?

Although some Turning Point supporters have tried to present this clash as the party vs. the people or the “establishment” vs. the “non-establishment,” it’s hardly that simple. The “establishment” insult has turned into a label that few can define and that seems to have lost meaning. After all, is Trump now the establishment since he’s been elected twice? Clearly not.

After all, the long-time volunteers are often regular folks who have worked in the trenches for years, and sometimes paid a price for it, like Kelly Ruh, forced to defend herself legally as an alternate elector for Trump. Almost to the one, they worked their tails off to elect Donald Trump. The fact that so many long-time volunteers feel so upset, vilified and insulted speaks to, minimally, a problem of style.

The rancor led one longtime GOP volunteer to circulate this meme:

The volunteers like Soucek say they welcome the youthful energy Turning Point sometimes brings to a party of blue hairs who gather at supper clubs. Everyone is pretty much in unison that it was great when they focused on college campuses, and we saw Maly once rallying support at a Dane County Board meeting, and admired his energy. Yet Turning Point Madison’s X page only has 46 followers and hasn’t posted since 2018. UW-Milwaukee’s Turning Point Facebook page has a pretty robust following but hasn’t posted since 2020. Meanwhile, campus towns have been on fire for Democrats, a point the Arizona columnist also made.

These feuds have led to codes of conduct both statewide and in Milwaukee County, as well as tongue-lashings and name-calling on social media. Turning Point supporters trashed the party for its new code until it was pointed out that Milwaukee County’s Turning Point-affiliated GOP had passed a code of conduct of its own so draconian that it even banned people from going on tangents at meetings. Supporters of the state code of conduct argue that the Wisconsin GOP is a brand. Would McDonald’s allow a franchisee to trash its CEO and company under its flag?

If Turning Point wanted to be additive, it’s hard to see anyone caring. It would likely be welcomed and used to be when the focus was on college campuses, not trashing or ousting fellow Republicans. However, the degree of intensity in the clashes, the depth of the hard feelings, and the lack of transparency all speak to a different narrative. No one we spoke to believes the party doesn’t need to improve. The question is whether it needs to be blown completely up, and who and what would come next.