Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s son-in-law is running for Congress. Despite being a 26-year-old with scant political experience running to represent a district in rural Wisconsin, he’s attracted massive amounts of financial support from an unlikely source: the transportation industry.
This dynamic has some concerned that the donations could be an effort on the part of the transportation industry to buy influence with the agency meant to regulate it.
Michael Alfonso, who is married to Duffy’s daughter, raised $601,290 during the first quarter of 2026, according to campaign finance filings. At least 25% of Alfonso’s individual contributions came from individuals linked to companies with business before the Department of Transportation, Politico reported on Thursday. These included executives and lobbyists representing firms in the transportation industry.
Additionally, nearly half of the donations Alfonso received from PACs through the end of 2025 came from committees linked to the transportation industry, according to campaign finance records reviewed by Politico.
“The law, as it stands, provides very little constraint,” Daniel Weiner, director of the Elections and Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, told ProPublica regarding the donations. “There’s a very large gulf between what is legal and what is ethical. Obviously, this raises numerous ethical questions.”
Further adding to the confusion surrounding Alfonso’s surge in support from the transportation industry is the fact that his campaign’s “issues” page makes no mention of transportation policy. Additionally, ProPublica reported that many of the transportation industry-linked donors supporting Alfonso didn’t make contributions to the congressman he is running to replace, who is leaving the House of Representatives to run for governor. This indicates that the transportation industry lacks long-running ties to the district.
“Michael Alfonso is the only candidate in the race endorsed by President Trump,” a campaign spokesperson said in response to questions about the donations. “He has earned support from conservative leaders, including a majority of Wisconsin’s Republican congressional delegation, and from grassroots supporters across the district and country. Every decision he makes will be driven by one priority: fighting to put the people of Wisconsin’s 7th District first.”
Donors to Alfonso include PACs, lobbyists, and executives linked to Southwest Airlines, Boeing, Uber, the U.S. Travel Association, the National Air Transportation Association, General Dynamics, Delta, and Lockheed Martin, among many others.
In one instance, lobbyists linked to the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel Project, which aims to connect Manhattan and New Jersey, cut checks to Alfonso after the Trump administration froze federal funding for the project — a decision Alfonso’s father-in-law had the potential to reverse.
TRUMP’S LABOR DEPARTMENT TAKES ANOTHER HIT AS INSPECTOR GENERAL ACCUSED OF ABUSING ROLE
Duffy’s involvement in his son-in-law’s congressional bid has been a point of friction within the Trump administration, NOTUS reported in November 2025.
As the Department of Transportation faced criticism for widespread flight delays caused by a shortage of air traffic controllers amid a government shutdown in 2025, Duffy appeared at a campaign event for his son. The secretary did not obtain permission from the White House to attend a political event and made an aggressive push for the president to endorse his son-in-law, reportedly causing senior White House staff to become annoyed with him.
Duffy has also put his money where his mouth is, funneling $1 million from his mothballed campaign account dating back to his time in Congress to a super PAC supporting his son-in-law’s congressional campaign, according to the Badger Report, a nonprofit investigative outlet based in Wisconsin.
“The idea of using family connections to get ahead is not a new thing,” Brendan Glavin, the director of insights for OpenSecrets, told the outlet. “It’s an age-old thing. And certainly in politics, it’s nothing new.”
