DoorDash shelled out nearly $2.2 million lobbying Wisconsin lawmakers in 2025 as it pushed a bill that would have cemented app-based drivers as independent contractors and dangled optional "portable benefits" accounts on the side. The spending left every other lobbying operation in the dust, tracked a hard partisan sprint through the Legislature, and ended with a veto from Gov. Tony Evers. Now, the sheer size and fuzzy details of those filings are drawing pointed questions from lawmakers and watchdogs about where all that money really went.
What the filings show
According to filings with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission, DoorDash reported $1,934,223.50 in lobbying expenditures for January–June 2025 and $2,183,623.40 for the full year. The state records list 171 lobbying hours in the first half of the year and 79 in the second, 250 hours total.
On paper, that made DoorDash the single largest reported lobbying spender in Wisconsin for 2025, outpacing traditional heavy hitters by a wide margin for a single, highly contested policy fight.
DoorDash response and critics
DoorDash told The Badger Project it backed the legislation because portable benefits are popular with drivers and have already been tried in other states. The company framed the proposal as a way to give workers more flexibility while adding a new, optional safety net.
Opponents were not buying it. State Rep. Mike Bare called the scale of spending "absurd" in comments reported by The Badger Project, and labor groups formed the main organized bloc working against the bill. The reporting also notes that the Wisconsin Ethics Commission cannot launch an investigation without a formal complaint, a structural limit that watchdogs say leaves some key questions about DoorDash's spending unanswered.
How the money breaks down
The January–June certification filed with the Ethics Commission lists about $41,584 in direct payments to named lobbyists and nearly $1,876,009.78 under "All Other Lobbying Expenses," a catchall category the report does not spell out in detail. The statement, certified on August 19, 2025, itemizes payments to firms including Michael Best Strategies and Husch Blackwell and mentions overhead and travel, but the overwhelming share of the dollars still lands in the broad "All Other" bucket.
That lopsided breakdown is exactly what has lawmakers and transparency advocates zeroing in, arguing that the public can see a huge number but not the real nuts and bolts of how it was used to influence the policy debate.
What the bill would have done and why it failed
Assembly Bill 269 and its companion Senate Bill 256 were written to spell out that app-based drivers are independent contractors and to let companies offer optional portable-benefits accounts instead of extending traditional worker protections and employee benefits. Supporters pitched the plan as legal clarity for a modern gig economy model.
Evers vetoed AB 269 on August 8, 2025, saying he opposed the bill's approach to defining independent-contractor status "in the absence of any guaranteed benefit for workers" in Gov. Tony Evers' veto message. The veto froze the bill where it stood, leaving the core questions about how gig workers should be classified and protected unresolved at the Capitol.
Other players and the wider context
DoorDash was not alone in flexing financial muscle. Filings and reporting show Wisconsin Infrastructure Investment Now reported about $1,006,943 in 2025 lobbying, while Maplebear, Instacart's parent company, and Uber came in at roughly $140,000 and $80,000, respectively.
Observers say that sort of financial firepower goes a long way toward explaining how the bill moved as far as it did despite visible opposition from labor and worker advocates. "It is a cannon vs. a popgun," UW–Milwaukee political scientist Mordecai Lee told reporters, summing up the gulf between corporate and labor spending in this fight.
For Wisconsin drivers and the voters who rely on them, the episode is a reminder that lobbying reports can show how big the checks are without clearly revealing what, exactly, those checks bought. Lawmakers and transparency advocates are now pushing for sharper reporting rules so the public can see more detail about how money is used to shape policy. With the governor's veto in place and national battles over gig work continuing, few at the Capitol expect the portable benefits and worker-classification fight to stay quiet for long.
