A 26-year-old congressional candidate with well-situated in-laws is counting on Donald Trump for a last-minute push to get MAGA voters on his side.
Michael Alfonso, the Trump-endorsed candidate running for the same Wisconsin House seat his father-in-law, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, once held, is promoting a “tele-rally” featuring the president just two days ahead of his primary election.
Alfonso is running for the same seat that Duffy held for nearly a decade. He has never run for elected office, but President Donald Trump gave “MAGA Warrior Michael Alfonso,” whom he called a “young ‘STAR,’” his “Complete and Total Endorsement” in the race.
Trump also attended his wedding to Duffy’s eldest daughter, Evita, in 2022.
His candidacy appears to be heavily boosted by his in-laws’ connections with the president.
Duffy, who has lived in New Jersey since 2021, funneled $1 million from his campaign committee to a super PAC supporting his son-in-law’s campaign for his old congressional seat, the Badger Project reported.
His campaign has also drawn support from transportation industry lobbyists and other interest groups unlikely to pour money into a rural Wisconsin district. Some of these contributions include $5,000 from Delta Air Lines PAC, $2,500 from Southwest Airlines PAC, and $1,000 from the U.S. Travel Association PAC.
Alfonso, his wife, Evita, and Duffy attended a local fair last week, where they passed out Alfonso campaign flyers. His campaign has also been promoted by his mother-in-law, Rachel Campos Duffy, a Fox & Friends weekend host.
The exact details of his work history, as well as whether he currently has a job, remain unclear. He claims to work as a part-time accountant at his local church, but the church does not list him as an employee.
His campaign website says that after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a math degree in 2022, he worked in construction and poured concrete. He later left Wisconsin for Florida to produce The Dan Bongino Show, the podcast of the right-wing conspiracy theorist and former FBI deputy director, along with his wife.
He now appears to live in a home owned by his father-in-law, Wisconsin Right Now reported, citing his voter registration data.
In response to the nepotism accusations, he and his wife have been on an online rampage, posting pictures of themselves at their private, Catholic high school and asserting that they’ve lived there their whole lives sans the brief stint in Florida, in an attempt to dispute those accusations.
Given that Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District is heavily Republican, whoever wins the primary election will likely go on to win the general election.
The Daily Beast has additionally reached out to Alfonso’s campaign for comment.
His murky work history, or lack thereof, has come under scrutiny by his opponents in the race as well as prominent Republicans in the area.
John Righeimer, GOP chairman in the county where Alfonso lives, has called out Alfonso for having “minimal life experience and job experience,” and claimed he is being pushed by a “machine.”
“When I suggested to a high level Alfonso staffer that Alfonso should start at school board, county board, or State Assembly I was told that, ‘Anything less than Congress is beneath Sean and Rachel’s paygrade,’” he wrote in a recent Facebook post. “This encapsulates the greed and arrogance of this entire con.”
Kevin Hermening, a GOP candidate for the seat, has been a well-known Republican in the area for years, having canvassed for Ronald Reagan’s campaign and been a fixture on local school boards. But even he acknowledged that his bid was a long shot given Alfonso’s connections, and has called the race a classic case of political nepotism.
“It for sure is,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “I’ve not heard anybody say it’s not.”
