Candidate Michael Alfonso's Public Venmo Exposes Payments Labeled "The Strippers"
Michael Alfonso is running for Congress on faith, grit, and Trump's endorsement. His Venmo account tells a slightly different story.
The 26-year-old Wisconsin Republican, son-in-law of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and married to conservative writer Evita Duffy-Alfonso, left his Venmo feed public, and people found exactly what you'd expect from an unlocked payment history: entries labeled "The strippers" and "High supplies."
Alfonso's defense was that the payments were five dollars each, obviously a joke between friends rather than literal receipts. "It's wildly dishonest to leave out the part where the 'strippers' were $5," he wrote, adding that Venmo memo fields have never been sworn testimony.
Maybe. Payment app inside jokes are common enough that this alone probably isn't a scandal. But it is a preview of what happens when a 26 year old with a famous father-in-law and a Trump endorsement skips the basic step of locking down his digital footprint before running for federal office. Opposition researchers do not need subpoenas anymore. They need a public profile and five minutes.
Alfonso already won the Republican primary for Wisconsin's 7th District, the seat his own father-in-law once held. He is about to spend the next several months being one of the youngest members of Congress in the country, if elected, in a district Trump carried by more than 22 points. The Venmo entries will not sink that campaign. But they are a pretty good reminder that in 2026, everything is discoverable, and nothing digital stays private for long.
