Richard Uihlein

Tea Party Patriots was one of 11 organizations formally listed as co-sponsors of the "March to Save America" — the January 6, 2021 rally that immediately preceded the attack on the United States Capitol. From 2015 through 2020, Richard and Liz Uihlein donated $4.3 million to Tea Party Patriots, including $800,000 in October 2020 as Donald Trump was contesting the election results. On January 13, 2021 — seven days after the insurrection — with the House in the middle of a second impeachment and 147 members of Congress having just voted to reject Biden’s certification, Uihlein wrote a $250,000 check to Tea Party Patriots. He did not withdraw his support. He doubled down.

• —$4.3 million total to Tea Party Patriots from 2015–2020 — $800K in October 2020 alone, during the contested election period.
• —Tea Party Patriots was a formal, named co-sponsor of the "March to Save America" on January 6, 2021 — listed on the official event website among 11 organizing groups.
• —$250,000 additional donation to Tea Party Patriots on January 13, 2021 — after the Capitol had been breached, after law enforcement officers had been beaten, after members of Congress had been evacuated, and while the House was debating impeachment.
• —No statement distancing himself from the violence. No request for return of funds. No public comment until business blowback from Northwestern University and other institutional customers forced the issue.
• —Northwestern University reviewed but ultimately retained its Uline contract. The review itself documents the extent of the scrutiny Uihlein faced.

Richard Uihlein and his wife have collectively spent more than $250 million on federal candidates and political groups since the 2016 election cycle — the overwhelming bulk of it to politicians and organizations committed to the proposition that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. In the 2022 midterms alone, Uihlein spent $90 million, ranking him as the single largest conservative donor that cycle. Of the money he gave directly to candidates, 92% went to the 59 members of Congress who cast doubt on Biden's 2020 victory. Beyond candidates, Uihlein built Restoration of America — a dark money infrastructure designed to launder the election-denial project through nonprofit status. Restoration Action, its 501(c)(4) wing, took in $20.5 million in 2021 while keeping its donors secret. VoteRef (Voter Reference Foundation), another subsidiary, spreads debunked voter fraud claims at scale. The apparatus was purpose-built to do what the Uihleins could not do openly: fund the delegitimization of American elections.

• —$250M+ total political spending since 2016; $233M+ from Richard Uihlein personally (OpenSecrets).
• —$90M in the 2022 cycle alone — #1 conservative donor in the entire country that election cycle.
• —92% of direct candidate contributions went to the 59 members of Congress who denied the 2020 election result.
• —Key 2022 recipients: Doug Mastriano (PA governor, election denier), Jim Marchant (NV secretary of state, election denier), Herschel Walker (GA Senate), Ron Johnson (WI Senate).
• —Restoration of America umbrella: Restoration PAC (super PAC, reports donors), Restoration Action (dark money 501(c)(4), donors secret), VoteRef/Voter Reference Foundation (election fraud disinformation). Run by former Trump campaign official Gina Swoboda.
• —Restoration Action revenue jumped from $10.4M in 2020 to $20.5M in 2021 — doubling in the year of the insurrection — with the money flowing predominantly to "election integrity" projects.

While Richard Uihlein spent hundreds of millions of dollars funding politicians who campaigned on stopping illegal immigration — and while those politicians deployed DHS agents to deport undocumented workers — The Guardian reported in February 2026 that Uline had been running its own years-long scheme to bring undocumented workers into the United States. The program, internally called "shuttle support," transported Mexican Uline employees to warehouses in Wisconsin, Florida, and Pennsylvania using B-1 visas — business visitor or training visas that do not authorize employment in the United States. Workers were assigned to regular warehouse duties, not temporary training. They were paid Mexican wages, significantly below what American workers doing the same jobs were paid. They were coached to tell border officials they were entering for "training purposes." The scheme ran until December 2024. Immigration lawyers told The Guardian the practices were "illegal." A Milwaukee city council member called for a state investigation. Uline did not deny the program. No federal charges have been filed.

• —B-1 (business visitor) and B-1 "training" visas explicitly do not authorize employment. Workers on these visas cannot legally be assigned to productive work.
• —Workers from Uline's Mexican facilities were transported to warehouse facilities in Wisconsin, Florida, and Pennsylvania — regular operational warehouses, not training sites.
• —Workers paid at Mexican wage rates for work being performed in the United States, creating a two-tier workforce where the cheaper tier had no recourse under American labor law.
• —Workers were instructed to represent to US Customs and Border Protection that they were entering for training — a material misrepresentation to federal agents.
• —Program ran until December 2024. The Guardian's investigation was published February 2026.
• —Milwaukee alder JoCasta Zamarripa called on state officials to investigate. Wisconsin Examiner and Patch confirmed the Guardian's reporting.
• —Immigration lawyers retained by The Guardian reviewed the program description and called it "illegal." Uline did not issue a denial. No federal charges as of May 2026.
• —Richard Uihlein simultaneously funded politicians running on mass deportation of undocumented workers and border security — including Donald Trump and anti-immigration Republican candidates across six states.

Uline was founded in 1980 by Richard and Liz Uihlein in their basement in Waukegan, Illinois. It sells industrial packaging: boxes, tape, bubble wrap, pallets, warehouse equipment, janitorial supplies. It operates through catalogs and direct sales to businesses that need packaging and have few alternatives at scale. The company employs approximately 7,000 people and generates billions in annual revenue. The Uihlein political project is the extraction model: build a B2B supply business in a market with captive customers, extract margin, convert margin into political spending to prevent the labor, tax, and regulatory reforms that would raise costs or share revenue with workers. The cycle is structurally self-reinforcing. In 2012, Liz Uihlein sent a company-wide email to all Uline employees urging them to vote for Mitt Romney — warning that failure to elect Romney would put their jobs at risk. The NLRB reviewed but did not charge the company. Uline catalogs feature American flag imagery and "family business" framing. The B-1 visa scheme ran during the same period the Uihleins were funding politicians who campaigned on deporting undocumented workers.

• —Uline employs ~7,000 people and generates billions in revenue from captive B2B customers — businesses that need packaging cannot easily substitute away from established suppliers.
• —2012: Liz Uihlein emailed all employees urging them to vote for Mitt Romney, warning about job security — a form of employer coercion reviewed by the NLRB, which did not charge.
• —The political machine (Restoration of America, candidate donations, Jan 6 funding) costs far less than the regulatory burden that would be imposed if the politicians Uihlein opposes were to take office — labor law reform, tax reform, minimum wage increases. The political spending is a cost-benefit calculation.
• —Uline’s "family values" brand positioning — flag imagery, "Made in America" emphasis, "Christian-friendly" workplace reputation — coexists with a documented record of: B-1 visa labor exploitation; funding of an insurrection; and funding of election denial infrastructure that undermined the votes of Uline’s own employees.