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Diane Hendricks

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Diane Hendricks
Born
Diane Marie Smith

(1947-03-02) March 2, 1947 (age 78)
Mondovi, Wisconsin, U.S.
Occupation(s)Co-founder and chair, ABC Supply
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1975; died 2007)​
Children7
RelativesSkylar Simone (granddaughter)[1]

Diane Marie Hendricks (née Smith; born March 2, 1947) is an American billionaire, businesswoman, and conservative political megadonor.[2][3] She is the widow of the late businessman Ken Hendricks.[2][4] She is the largest political donor in the state of Wisconsin.[5]

Biography

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Hendricks was born in Mondovi, Wisconsin,[6] and raised in Osseo, Wisconsin,[4] the daughter of dairy farmers.[7] At seventeen, she had her first child and began assembling pens at the Parker Pen Company in Janesville, Wi.[8] Her relationship with the child's father was short lived, ending in divorce.[8] She graduated from Osseo-Fairchild High School in 1965.[9] She speaks of working as a Playboy Bunny to pay her bills.[10] At the age of 21 she became interested in real estate and earned her broker's license.[8]

Sometime after this, she met roofing contractor Ken Hendricks, who she married in 1975. Together, they began buying old houses, fixing them up, and renting them out around Beloit, Wisconsin.[8] They soon moved on to doing the same with industrial properties.[8]

Hendricks has seven children and lives in Afton, Wisconsin.[2][4] Ken Hendricks Hendricks died at age 66 on December 21, 2007, in Afton, Wisconsin, when he fell through a portion of roof that was under construction at his home.[11]

Career

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In 1975, she was selling custom-built homes and Ken was a roofer's son and high school dropout.[7] They married and became business partners. In 1982, they used their lines of credit to secure a loan that enabled them to establish ABC Supply, the nation's largest wholesale distributor[10] of roofing, windows, gutters, and siding for residential and commercial buildings.[9]

Hendricks owns the Hendricks Holding Company, and is the owner and chairperson of ABC Supply.[2][12][13] In March 2012, Forbes estimated her net worth at US$2.8 billion.[12] In 2018, Forbes ranked Hendricks the US's richest self-made woman.[14] As of December 2024, Forbes estimated her net worth at US$21.9 billion.[15]

Political involvement

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She is an enthusiastic supporter of Scott Walker, having donated $500,000 to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's 2012 campaign to avoid recall, and was his biggest donor that year.[12] In January of 2011, she was recorded asking Walker what she could do to aid him in turning Wisconsin into a Right to Work state.[16]In 2015, she gave $5 million to a PAC associated with presidential candidate Scott Walker, of which $4 million was ultimately refunded.[17]

She spoke on the last night of the 2024 Republican National Convention, where she was listed as a "everyday American" by convention materials.[18]

She is also notable benefactor of Donald Trump. In the 2016 and 2020 election cycles, Hendricks donated $1.4 million to the Trump Victory committee.[19] In the 2020 cycle, she made another donation of $1.4 million to the Trump Victory Committee and donated $4 million to America First Action.[20]Hendricks contributed a total of $1.1 million to Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign.[21]Hendricks has contributed $5,000,000 to the Super PAC, Make America Great Again, Inc., as of 2023.[22]In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, she gave over $5 million to the Reform America Fund, a super PAC which opposed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and supported Republican U.S. Senator from Wisconsin Ron Johnson.[23] Hendricks served as an economic advisor to Donald Trump's presidential campaign.[24][25]

She also supported Paul Ryan.[13] In 2014, she donated $1 million to the Freedom Partners Action Fund, a pro-Republican Super PAC created by the Koch Brothers.[26] In both 2015 and 2016, she donated $2 million to Freedom Partners Action Fund.[27]

Prior to Scott Pruitt's resignation in July 2018, she donated $50,000 to the Scott Pruitt Legal Expenses Trust.[28]

Hendricks contributed to the campaign of Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.[29]

Tax controversies

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An investigation by Urban Milwaukee found that Hendricks's multi-story 8,500-square-foot home in the Town of Rock in Rock County, Wisconsin, had been assessed as a 1,663-square-foot ranch.[30] Following the Urban Milwaukee investigation, Hendricks denied the tax assessor access to the property, citing "security reasons". After she agreed to supply the assessor with data on the home, the property's assessment was changed from $445,700 to $1,205,500.[31]

References

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  1. ^ "Young, talented and eager to sing". January 20, 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d "Our Team: Diane Hendricks". Hendricks Holding Co., Inc. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  3. ^ Perez, Catherina Gioino,Andrew (July 18, 2024). "The RNC Is Calling This Billionaire Trump Donor an 'Everyday American'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 13, 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ a b c "Diane Hendricks Net Worth". CelebrityNetWorths. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
  5. ^ "Wisconsin's Top Political Donors". Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  6. ^ IWF 2017 Annual Awards Gala Remarks: Diane Hendricks
  7. ^ a b Goldstein, Amy (2017). Janesville: An American Story. New York City, NY: Simon and Schuster. p. 55. ISBN 978-1-5011-0228-8.
  8. ^ a b c d e Matthews, Dylan (June 15, 2019). "The town philanthropy rebuilt". Vox. Retrieved May 13, 2025.
  9. ^ a b Zipkin (as told to), Amy (November 21, 2009). "The Business Must Go On". The New York Times. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  10. ^ a b McGrath, Maggie. "Meet The Most Successful Female Entrepreneur In American History". Forbes. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
  11. ^ "Roofing billionaire dies after fall through roof". NBC News. December 21, 2007. Retrieved May 13, 2025.
  12. ^ a b c Spivak, Cary (May 30, 2012). "Beloit billionaire pays zero in 2010 state income tax bill". Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  13. ^ a b Romell, Rick (December 25, 2010). "Widow a power in Beloit, beyond". Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  14. ^ "America's Richest Self-Made Women". Forbes. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  15. ^ "Forbes profile: Diane Hendricks". Forbes. Retrieved December 8, 2024.
  16. ^ "A transcript of the Walker/Hendricks union discussion". www.jsonline.com. Retrieved May 13, 2025.
  17. ^ "Million-Dollar Donors in the 2016 Presidential Race". The New York Times. February 9, 2016. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  18. ^ Spicuzza, Mary. "'We risked everything': Billionaire Diane Hendricks tells RNC of her path to success". Journal Sentinel. Retrieved May 13, 2025.
  19. ^ Perez, Catherina Gioino,Andrew (July 18, 2024). "The RNC Is Calling This Billionaire Trump Donor an 'Everyday American'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 13, 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ^ Perez, Catherina Gioino,Andrew (July 18, 2024). "The RNC Is Calling This Billionaire Trump Donor an 'Everyday American'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 13, 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ "Here Are The Billionaires Who Donated To Donald Trump's 2020 Presidential Campaign". Forbes. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
  22. ^ "Browse Individual contributions". FEC.gov. Retrieved May 8, 2024.
  23. ^ Bice, Daniel (October 25, 2016). "Bice: 5 donors pump $1.7 million into pro-Johnson PAC". Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Retrieved October 28, 2016.
  24. ^ Arnsdorf, Isaac (October 27, 2016). "Another super PAC spends millions against Clinton". Politico. Retrieved October 28, 2016.
  25. ^ Titus, Elizabeth (August 16, 2016). "Trump adds Hendricks Scaramucci as Economic Policy Advisors". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
  26. ^ Vogel, Kenneth; Allen, Mike (October 14, 2014). "Koch donors uncloaked". Politico. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  27. ^ "Freedom Partners Action Fund Contributors, 2016 cycle". OpenSecrets.
  28. ^ Guillén, Alex (February 5, 2019). "Pruitt legal fundraising started months before his exit". POLITICO. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  29. ^ "Wisconsin billionaire Hendricks donated to QAnon believer Greene". Wisconsin Examiner. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  30. ^ Horne, Michael (May 17, 2017). "Hendricks Not Paying Property Taxes?". Urban Milwaukee. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  31. ^ Murphy, Bruce (June 1, 2017). "Hendricks' Home Is Reassessed". Urban Milwaukee. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
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