GOP donor Uihlein backing Nicholson

For months, U.S. Marine veteran and businessman Kevin Nicholson has been laying the groundwork to enter the Republican race to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin in 2018.

Even though Nicholson, 39, has courted GOP insiders and appeared at Republican dinners, he has yet to formally enter the race and remains relatively unknown among the wider electorate.

That may change with Thursday’s announcement that GOP mega-donor Richard Uihlein has contributed $2 million to Solutions for Wisconsin, a newly formed super PAC that endorsed Nicholson.

The move came just a day after another potential candidate, Nicole Schneider of Green Bay, signaled that she was mulling whether to enter the race.

Uihlein, who lives in Lake Forest, Ill., is founder of the Pleasant Prairiebased Uline company.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Uihlein and his wife, Elizabeth, contributed $23.6 million to federal candidates and other groups during the 2016 election cycle.

“I’ve never made a commitment of this significance so early in a cycle,” Uihlein said in a statement. “Kevin served our country in the Marines including combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan ... ”

Nicholson lives in Delafield and works at ghSMART, a management consulting firm.