Republican megadonor Richard Uihlein is the sole funder of a referendum seeking to overturn Maine’s law allowing transgender girls to participate in sports under their gender identity.
The Illinois billionaire and founder of ULINE, a business supply company based in Wisconsin, gave $800,000 in October to a political committee running the operation that organizers say has already gotten enough signatures from registered voters to make the 2026 ballot. The donation was made public in a campaign finance filing due Wednesday.
It underscores the national politics behind the culture-war issue that gained prominence nearly a year ago when President Donald Trump confronted Gov. Janet Mills at the White House over Maine’s laws on the issue. That led to federal investigations, funding cuts that often were reversed and a lawsuit from the Department of Justice that is set to go to trial this spring.
Several school boards in conservative areas have bucked Maine law and are facing lawsuits from the state agency that oversees the Maine Human Rights Act, which puts the state among 22 that bar discrimination in public settings including education on the basis of gender identity.
Trump’s position is that laws including this one violate Title IX, the landmark 1973 civil rights law, by denying girls fair competition in sports. There have been a small number of transgender girls competing in girls sports here, including a track athlete who was pictured in a social media post from state Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, that triggered a political firestorm.
Uihlein and others affiliated with his company have made $378 million in political contributions since 1990, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He trailed only Democratic megadonor George Soros as the second-biggest federal political donor in the U.S. during the 2022 midterm elections and was fourth during a 2024 cycle in which Trump won a second term.
He gave to the political committee “Safeguard Girls Sports,” which shelled out nearly $800,000 on the signature-gathering effort through the end of the year. Supporters have organized here under the banner of “Maine Girl Dads,” which is led by Berwick-area school board member Josh Tabor and is advised by former state Rep. Heidi Sampson, R-Alfred.