In March 2014, Doug Truax, a political newcomer from west suburban Downers Grove, lost a Republican Senate primary bid to then state Sen. Jim Oberweis, who went on to be defeated by Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin.
Though the door to elected office closed, another opened for Truax a few months later, when he created two Downers Grove-based political operations, Restoration PAC and Restoration of America.
Since then, Truax has nurtured what began as small, politically conservative groups into a sprawling empire of organizations pushing far right agendas and election denialism — fueled by contributions of at least $150 million, and likely more, from suburban Lake Forest’s Richard Uihlein, one of the country’s biggest Republican donors.
Restoration-linked work includes efforts to question the results of the 2020 presidential election and seed doubts about the potential outcome in 2024 between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
A political empire tucked away in DuPage County
The related tax-exempt enterprises in the political empire Truax oversees share facilities and equipment at 1901 Butterfield Road in Downers Grove, according to disclosures to the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission.
The latest Restoration PAC filing with the FEC reveals that as of Oct. 24, Uihlein donated $76.2 million to the group in the 2024 political cycle. Since 2015, Uihlein has sent $144.2 million to the Restoration PAC, records show.
Through the years, Uihlein has given millions of dollars more to the growing universe of Truax-related political operations.
The scale of Truax’s operation now dwarfs its small beginnings in January 2015, when he launched Restoration PAC and Restoration of America with $300,000 from Uihlein.
Back then, Uihlein and his wife, Elizabeth were just beginning to emerge as major funders of conservative candidates and causes, from either direct contributions or through a family foundation.
The couple founded Uline Corp., a paper and office products distributor headquartered in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, with facilities in Illinois. The Uihleins have deep interests in national and local politics, especially in Wisconsin. Uihlein’s forebears were among the founders of the Schlitz Brewing Co.
The Uihleins are now among the nation’s megadonors, and are major backers of Trump.
Open Secrets, a non-partisan campaign finance watchdog group, ranked the couple third in the nation in the 2024 cycle, after they gave $126,300,891 to political groups in 2023 and 2024. And that’s just what’s disclosed.
So-called “dark money” political groups that Truax also runs do not disclose their donors because the IRS does not require nonprofits to reveal their contributors. Non-profit, however, does not mean non-political.
Who is Doug Truax?
Uihlein’s contributions vaulted Truax into becoming one of the highest ranking and least known influential political players in the nation.
Douglas Lee Truax was born in New Mexico, in a town 30 miles from the Mexican border. He’s a 1992 graduate of the United States Military Academy. After West Point, he attended U.S. Army Ranger School.
After moving to the Chicago area, Truax became an employer benefits consultant, running Veritas Risk Service, a firm eventually acquired by another company. He later founded and became the CEO of Everlong Captive Health Insurance Co. headquartered, according to corporate records, at 1901 Butterfield Road in Downers Grove — the same address Truax’s political groups use.
In recent years, Everlong Captive incorporated with the Florida secretary of state’s office, using an address in Ponte Vedra, Florida. Records show Truax recently sold his home in Downers Grove and purchased a house in Ponte Vedra. Truax registered to vote in Florida earlier this year.
Truax and Uihlein keep low profiles. I emailed Dan Curry, the chief strategy officer for Restoration of America, requesting a meeting to discuss Truax’s Downers Grove political groups.
Curry replied in an email, “We won’t be participating in this. Good luck with your story.” A call to Uline requesting a Uihlein interview was not returned.
More on Truax’s political operations
The constellation of Truax political operations based in Downers Grove includes:
Restoration PAC, a super PAC. Super PACs can take unlimited contributions to bankroll independent political expenditures, but those expenditures cannot be coordinated with a campaign.
According to FEC reports, as of Oct. 29 Restoration PAC has spent $33.4 million in independent expenditures to support former President Donald Trump and defeat Kamala Harris.
For the 2024 cycle, according to another FEC report, the PAC’s receipts totaled $81.9 million — with about $77.6 million devoted to other political committees and independent expenditures.
Restoration PAC also has spent some $4.5 million to oppose the re-election of Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
Restoration of America, a nonprofit classified by the IRS as a 501(c)(4), which means it does not have to disclose donors, but does have to reveal its spending on its annual IRS 990 filing.
According to its latest 990 report filed November 2023, the group collected $30 million in revenue in 2022. That’s the most ever taken in by the group, up from $20.5 million in 2021; $10.4 million in 2020; $64,426 in 2019; $201,958 in 2018 and $148,506 in 2017. The group’s November 2023 IRS 990 report states that its mission in 2022 in part was to “support election integrity litigation.”
One of its larger contributions in 2022 was $2.5 million to the Tea Party Patriots PAC. That is one of the groups that organized the Jan. 6, 2021 rally near the White House, where Trump helped provoke the people that attacked the Capitol in an attempt to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president.
Restoration of America’s biggest expense in 2022 was $3.3 million paid to a Chicago firm, Salvo Page LLC, 2045 W. Grand Ave., for research and consulting. In 2021, a company with the same address as Salvo — Pipeline Media — was a vendor for Restoration PAC, according to FEC records.
In November 2022, I reported on Pipeline Media, a company connected to Brian Timpone — who has ties to Uihlein-funded political enterprises — and its role in publishing partisan publications masquerading as newspapers. Two years ago, these publications flooded Chicago and suburban mail boxes in the days before the election.
The Columbia Journalism Review’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism has done extensive research on these “pink slime” publications and the role of Uihlein, Timpone and the Restoration family of political operations. The Tow Center found “the signatory on Salvo Page’s certificate of formation is Brian Timpone, who holds an executive role in numerous organizations that are known to operate the extended” phony newspaper network.
An Oct. 20 ProPublica story on copies of the “Wisconsin Catholic Tribune” being mailed to voters in that critical swing state noted they are not connected to the Catholic church. “Most of the articles in the papers are overtly partisan, focusing on culture-war issues that resonate with conservative voters.” ProPublica traced the papers to a “network” led by Timpone that received money from “right-wing super PACS funded” by Uihlein.
In 2022, Restoration of America gave $250,000 to CatholicVote, a Madison, Wisconsin nonprofit that is advocating for Trump and accusing Harris of being anti-Catholic.
Foundation for the Restoration of America, which in 2021 helped bankroll redistricting litigation related to the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
Fair Courts America, a super PAC whose major donor in the 2024 cycle is Uihlein, who contributed $5.7 million.
Uihlein gave $1 million to the Fair Courts PAC on Oct. 7. The next day, the PAC sent $500,000 to Ohioans for a Healthy Economy Action Fund. According to a report by Megan Henry of the Ohio Capital Journal, the Fair Vote money came as the Ohioan group “started running an attack ad against the three Democratic candidates running for the Ohio Supreme Court.”
Fair Courts PAC also spent millions to back conservative Republican Dan Kelly in his failed bid against liberal Democrat Janet Protasiewicz for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat in 2023, according to the Intercept, an investigative journalism nonprofit.
Voter Reference Foundation, which states on its website it is a subsidiary of Restoration of America. A study by ProPublica concluded that the group, using “discredited techniques” put “the nation’s voter rolls online while making unsupported claims suggesting election fraud. The group’s funding can be traced to a Super PAC funded by the CEO of Uline.”
The director of the Voter Reference Foundation is Gina Swoboda, a prominent election denier who Restoration of America paid $162,975 in 2022, according to its IRS filing. She is the chair of the Arizona Republican Party.
Trump is already raising questions about the credibility of the vote, laying groundwork to deny the results if Harris wins.
What Truax told me about Uihlein
I interviewed Truax in connection with a big piece I was doing on Uihlein that ran in September, 2015. Truax told me Uihlein donated the initial $300,000 to Restoration PAC after he met with him in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
Truax explained his new alliance with Uihlein, which still holds today. Said Truax, Uihlein “looks for a strategy and a vision that coincides with his own.”