{"id":6000,"date":"2025-04-02T07:37:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T07:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=6000"},"modified":"2025-04-02T07:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T07:37:11","slug":"democrats-win-in-wisconsin-court-race-also-is-a-big-loss-for-elon-musk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=6000","title":{"rendered":"Democrats’ win in Wisconsin court race also is a big loss for Elon Musk"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

MADISON, Wis. — <\/span>Judge Susan Crawford preserved liberals\u2019 narrow majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court<\/a> Tuesday by defeating conservative Brad Schimel, but in a way the real loser of the election was billionaire Elon Musk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Musk and his affiliated groups sunk at least $21 million into the normally low-profile race and paid three individual voters $1 million each for signing a petition in an effort to goose turnout<\/a> in the pivotal battleground state contest. That made the race the first major test of the political impact of Musk, whose prominence in President Donald Trump’s administration has skyrocketed with his chaotic cost-cutting<\/a> initiative that has slashed federal agencies.<\/p>\n

Crawford and the Democrats who backed her made Musk the focus<\/a> of their arguments for holding the seat, contending he was \u201cbuying\u201d the election, which set records for the costliest judicial race in history.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections and our Supreme Court,\u201d Crawford said in her victory speech. \u201cAnd Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price, our courts are not for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump endorsed Schimel as the race turned into a proxy fight over national political issues. The state\u2019s high court can rule on cases involving voting rights and redistricting in a state likely to be at the center of both<\/a> next year\u2019s midterm elections and the 2028 presidential contest.<\/p>\n

But Musk\u2019s involvement dialed those dynamics<\/a> up to 11: \u201cA seemingly small election could determine the fate of Western civilization,\u201d the billionaire said Tuesday in a last-ditch call to voters on his social media site X. \u201cI think it matters for the future of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notably, America PAC, the super PAC backed by Musk, spent at least $6 million on vendors who sent door-to-door canvassers across the state, according to the non-partisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. It was a reprise of what the group did across the seven most competitive presidential battleground states, including Wisconsin, which were carried by Trump in November. <\/p>\n

But the end results this time were not good for Musk. Despite the millions he spent on Schimel, as of late Tuesday night the Supreme Court candidate was losing by four percentage points more than the other Republican-backed statewide candidate, Brittany Kinser, who also fell short in her bid for superintendent of public instruction. <\/p>\n

Musk’s court race defeat wasn’t only because of crushing Democratic margins in deep blue cities like Madison and Milwaukee. Crawford\u2019s margins were higher in places where the Musk-backed group America PAC had been active, including Sauk County, just north of Madison, which Crawford was carrying by 10 points after Trump won it by less than 2 points in November.<\/p>\n

In Brown County, the home of Green Bay where Musk headlined a campaign rally with 2,000 people on Sunday, Crawford beat Schimel. Trump won the county by 7 percentage points last year.<\/p>\n

Overnight, Musk posted on his X platform that \u201cThe long con of the left is corruption of the judiciary.\u201d In another comment, he seemed to take solace from voters\u2019 approval to elevate the state\u2019s photo ID requirement from state law to constitutional amendment. The platform was rife with criticism from Trump opponents for his involvement in the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease send @elonmusk to all the close races!\u201d Jon Favreau, former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cElon Musk is not good at this,\u201d J.B. Pritzker, Illinois\u2019 Democratic governor and a billionaire himself who donated to support Crawford, posted on X.<\/p>\n

Voters definitely had Musk on their minds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an insane situation going on with the Trump administration, and it feels like Elon Musk is trying to buy votes,\u201d said Kenneth Gifford, a 22-year-old Milwaukee college student, as he cast his ballot on Tuesday. \u201cI want an actual, respectable democracy.\u201d <\/p>\n

Others may not have had their vote decided by the billionaire but were all-too aware of the money pouring into their state.<\/p>\n

Jim Seeger, a 68-year-old retiree who previously worked in communications and marketing, said he voted for Schimel because he wants Republicans to maintain their outsized majority in Wisconsin\u2019s congressional delegation, which could be at risk if Crawford wins and the court orders the maps redrawn. But, he added, he was disappointed the election had become a \u201cfinancial race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a shame that we have to spend this much money, especially on a judicial race,\u201d Seeger said as he voted in Eau Claire.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin\u2019s Democratic Attorney General, Josh Kaul, sued<\/a> to bar Musk from making his payments to voters if they signed a petition against \u201cactivist judges.\u201d The state Supreme Court unanimously declined<\/a> to rule on the case over a technicality.<\/p>\n

Musk swooped into the race shortly after Trump\u2019s inauguration. Republicans were pessimistic about being able to win the seat. They lost a longtime conservative majority on the state high court in 2023, and Democrats have excelled in turning out their educated, politically tuned-in coalition during obscure elections such as the one in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

Musk duplicated and expanded on some of the methods he used in the final weeks of last year\u2019s presidential race, when he spent more than $200 million on Trump\u2019s behalf in the seven swing states, including Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

This time, in addition to the $1 million checks, Musk offered to pay $20 to anyone who signed up on his group\u2019s site to knock on doors for Schimel and posted a photo of themselves as proof. His organization promised $100 to every voter who signed the petition against liberal judges and another $100 for every signer they referred.<\/p>\n

Democrats were happy to make Musk a lightning rod<\/a> in the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople do not want to see Elon Musk buying election after election after election,\u201d Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler said Monday. \u201cIf it works here, he\u2019s going to do it all over the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Riccardi reported from Denver. Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MADISON, Wis. — Judge Susan Crawford preserved liberals\u2019 narrow majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court Tuesday by defeating conservative Brad Schimel, but in a way the real loser of the election was billionaire Elon Musk. Musk and his affiliated groups sunk at least $21 million into the normally low-profile race and paid three individual voters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6002,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6000\/revisions\/6002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}