Republicans spend $500K on ads in Wisconsin AG race

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MADISON — Wisconsin’s attorney general race is kicking off with a Republican group buying hundreds of thousands of dollars in television ads in Milwaukee and Green Bay, hoping to draw attention to the race and to Republican candidate Eric Toney.

The Republican Attorney General Association will purchase $500,000 in ads in the coming months, targeting Attorney General Josh Kaul and what the organization says has been a weak-on-crime approach to his office over his last two terms.

Wisconsin is one of four states with Democratic attorneys general where Trump won the 2024 vote. The race between Kaul and Toney, the Fond du Lac County district attorney, is a rematch of 2022.

The group has chosen Wisconsin as one of five states for ad buys – Michigan, Minnesota, Georgia and Kansas are the others – because of their status as battleground states. In total, RAGA and affiliated groups will spend about $11 million.

“RAGA has a good map in 2026 and will be on offense because the reality is voters prioritize public safety and prefer Republican AGs who fight crime and win at the courthouse over Democrat AGs who pander to criminals with cashless bail ideocracy,” RAGA Executive Director Adam Piper said in a release. “These early TV reservations and direct candidate investments are merely a down payment on the resources RAGA will marshal this fall.”

In particular, the group will target Kaul’s involvement in dozens of lawsuits against the Trump administration since Donald Trump took office in January 2025. The group contrasts that with Toney prosecuting violent crimes in as role as a district attorney.

“When you look at Josh Kaul’s record, he has been more concerned about fighting climate change than fighting crime,” Piper said in an interview. “People want an attorney general who’s going to make the state safer, not one that’s going to waste resources tilting at things that might be popular in Oregon.”

The Democratic Attorney General Alliance pushed back on Republicans’ claims, saying it’s clear the election will be a referendum on Trump’s performance in the White House and his sagging polling numbers.

“RAGA can try all they want, but they know voters are fed up with the corruption and extremism that Republican AGs and candidates have been defending. The wind is at our back,” said Lottie Ash, the DAGA political director in an emailed statement.

“With this election serving as a referendum on Trump, RAGA can’t distract from Democratic AGs being relentless fighters for their constituents, standing up against this administration and bad actors. We’ll hold Republican AGs and candidates accountable in states across the country.”

Kaul, 44, was elected as attorney general in 2018, narrowly defeating former Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel. He won reelection in 2022 in the match with Toney.

Before seeking elected office, Kaul worked as a federal prosecutor in Baltimore from 2010 to 2014, where he “prosecuted murderers, gang members and drug traffickers,” according to his official bio.

He moved back to Wisconsin in 2014 and began working at Perkins Coie law firm, focusing on voting rights and other election-related litigation.

Toney, 41, narrowly emerged from the three-candidate Republican primary for attorney general in 2022, less than a point ahead of former state lawmaker Adam Jarchow. Toney lost to Kaul in the general election by about 35,000 votes.

Toney has served as the district attorney of Fond du Lac County for more than a decade. He was first elected to the position in 2012.

Under his tenure, the office added specialized prosecutors to handle juvenile, domestic violence and sexual assault cases and he led a successful effort to bring a drug court to the county.

Because there are no primary challenges in the attorney general’s race, voters will only see the race on the ballot on Nov. 3. The ballot will also feature an open race for governor, other statewide offices and a battle for control of the state Legislature.