Tom Tiffany, the Republican nominee for governor of Wisconsin, took a $20,000 campaign contribution on December 29, 2025, from Darwin Deason of Dallas, Texas.
Darwin Deason had died on December 2.
That's according to campaign finance records reviewed by Civic Media, which reported on October 13 that the money arrived 27 days after Deason's death — and that Tiffany's campaign still has not returned it.
Tiffany's campaign didn't respond to Civic Media's request for comment.
Who Darwin Deason was
Deason wasn't a small donor who forgot to cancel a monthly gift. He was a Texas billionaire. He founded Affiliated Computer Services and sold it to Xerox for $6.4 billion in a deal announced in 2009. Southern Methodist University, where his name is on a cybersecurity institute and a criminal justice center, announced his death with a statement calling him "a deeply respected Dallas business leader."
And his gift wasn't a token amount. $20,000 is the most any one person is allowed to give a candidate for governor in Wisconsin.
So the question Tiffany needs to answer is simple: who actually sent the maximum contribution in the name of a man who'd been dead for almost a month?
What the law says
Civic Media points to the Wisconsin law that bars giving money in someone else's name — today Wis. Stat. 11.1204. In plain terms:
- You can only contribute your own money.
- You can't give someone money so they can donate it in their name.
- And no one may intentionally accept a contribution made in violation of those rules.
We don't know who wrote the check, or whether there's an innocent explanation — an estate, a spouse, a check written before Deason died and cashed later. That's exactly why a campaign that wanted to clear this up would say so. Tiffany's hasn't. And for as long as it keeps the money, the question stays open.
The second problem in the same filings
The dead-donor check isn't the only issue in Tiffany's records.
Civic Media also found that his campaign took $20,000 from Richard E. Clack of Windsor in October 2025, and another $20,000 from Clack in December — $40,000 from one person, double the legal limit — and reported that the campaign returned half of it.
The state's campaign finance database tells it differently today. The October check is still listed under Richard E. Clack. The December $20,000 is now listed under Susan Clack, at the same Windsor address and with the same occupation. And there is no refund to either of them on the record. On paper, the campaign still has all $40,000 — it is just filed under two names now.
Big money is how Tiffany is running
This fits the way Tiffany is funding his run.
We reported earlier this month that he raised $26 million in two months, and that more than $24 million came from three billionaires — Diane Hendricks and Richard and Liz Uihlein — routed through the state Republican Party. That's a loophole that lets them get around the same $20,000 limit Tiffany's campaign didn't police for itself.
And while attacking his opponent over data centers, Tiffany took $5,000 from the only registered lobbyist for Wisconsin's data center coalition.
Now the billionaire money includes a check from a Texan who wasn't alive when it arrived.
Adding it up
Campaign finance records show Tom Tiffany's campaign accepted the maximum $20,000 contribution in Texas billionaire Darwin Deason's name on December 29, 2025 — 27 days after Deason died — and has not returned it. Civic Media also reported a $40,000 double-max contribution from one Wisconsin donor; the state database now lists half of it under another name at the same address, with no refund on record. Tiffany's campaign has not explained either.
