In 2024, Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, spent $277 million of his fortune to elect Donald Trump and Republicans around the country.
Now, with unfettered access to federal government systems under the guise of rooting out “fraud, waste, and abuse” through his fake “Department” of Government Efficiency,” Musk got quite the return on his investment.
So why would he stop there?
Musk learned a crucial lesson from his experience as political kingmaker in 2024: If he puts enough money into an election, he can simply buy it. And he is testing that theory in a crucial Wisconsin State Supreme Court race coming up on April 1.
Since 2023, with the election of Judge Janet Protasiewicz, the 7-seat Wisconsin Supreme Court has had a 4-3 liberal majority. But with an open seat on the court set to be filled in the April 1 election, that majority is up for grabs. While judicial races in Wisconsin are technically nonpartisan, the upcoming election pits Susan Crawford, a liberal circuit court judge in Dane County, against Brad Schimel, a MAGA circuit court judge in Waukesha County and former GOP Attorney General of the state.
As Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler put it, “Whoever wins this race will decide 4-3 cases for potentially years going forward.”
With issues ranging from abortion rights to gerrymandering to voter suppression likely to come before the court, this is the first high-stakes election of the Trump 2.0 era, pitting the newly energized anti-Trump (and anti-Musk) resistance in support of Crawford against the infinite dark money support of Elon Musk working to install Schimel on the court.
In this piece, I’ll break down the state of the race, explore what’s at stake in the election, and take a look at what we can all do to help elect Susan Crawford to the court.
Putting Musk On The Ballot
With 12 days left to go before Election Day, spending has already broken records for the most expensive state Supreme Court race in history. So far, $63 million has been spent on the race, with $36 million of that in support of Schimel and $27 million for Crawford.
A WisPolitics analysis has found that “groups linked to Musk” have spent more than $13 million thus far, including $7.3 million from Musk’s America PAC devoted largely to canvassing in support of Schimel.
In addition, according to Kate Shaw in The New York Times:
the Musk-affiliated Building America’s Future has spent another $4.3 million. Yet another Musk-affiliated PAC, Progress 2028, is airing deceptive ads that purport to support Judge Crawford but in fact appear designed to help Judge Schimel.
These deceptive ads portray Crawford as
a “progressive champion” who will “stand up for immigrants,” defend Planned Parenthood and promote a justice system that gives criminals “second chances.”
See what he did there?
This was a tactic Musk’s “Progress 2028 PAC” used last year as well, so from his perspective, why divert from a winning playbook?
While Donald Trump has not endorsed in the race, Musk’s messaging in support of Schimel is that a vote for Schimel is a vote for Trump.
Schimel is MAGA through and through, having dressed up as Trump for Halloween and recently held an event with Don Jr.
And his views are no different.
But that could be risky in a 50-50 state that went for Trump by only 27,000 votes in 2024, the smallest margin of any swing state. While Musk is trying to put Trump on the ballot in this race, Schimel is no Trump.
And in the meantime, Crawford is actively working to make sure Musk is very much on the ballot, hoping to make the billionaire’s support for her opponent a liability.
As Crawford told a crowd at a rally last month:
“When I was a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I’d be fighting the world’s richest man.”
Take this new ad her campaign is airing throughout the state, in which the narrator warns:
“Now Musk is trying to buy Schimel a seat on the Supreme Court because he knows Schimel always helps his big campaign donors.”
Additionally, the Wisconsin Democratic Party has launched a microsite in support of Crawford called The People v. Elon Musk:
And has released this devastating ad, making clear that a vote for Susan Crawford is a vote against Elon Musk
With 12 days to go, the race is in its crucial final phase as Early Voting began on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, the DNC announced its first Ken Martin-era post-presidential election investment, pledging “to host phone banks and call more than 2 million Wisconsin voters in support of Crawford.”
Governor Tim Walz was on hand in the state to remind voters not just to vote early, but to block Elon Musk’s attempt to buy this Supreme Court seat:
As Walz put it during his rally there:
“We have to take this like you do cleaning the house or whatever, one chunk at a time,” Walz said. “And America’s first chunk of cleaning is the Wisconsin Supreme Court, April 1.”
What’s At Stake In Wisconsin
Elon Musk first raised the alarm about this election to his X followers back on January 23rd by framing the race as a fight against “voter fraud”:
The notion that electing a Republican would somehow improve election integrity is a MAGA fever dream, of course, but Musk’s warning about the consequences of electing Susan Crawford to the court is not entirely baseless.
Back in 2023, after Justice Protasiewicz won election to the bench, the newly liberal court had a profound impact on voting rights in the state. Not only did it undo the Republican partisan gerrymander of state legislative districts, but per Kate Shaw:
The court’s liberal majority has also issued rulings permitting ballot drop-boxes and overruling a 2022 decision that had barred their use; and, just last month, turning away (on standing grounds) a challenge to the state’s in-person absentee voting procedures.
So, yes, all those like Musk and Trump who seek to suppress the vote while crying “voter fraud!” should absolutely be afraid, because while Crawford has never served in elected office before, she has a very clear progressive record, which The AP laid out:
That includes challenging the state’s voter ID law passed by Republicans and representing Planned Parenthood in a case challenging a GOP law that required doctors performing abortions to get admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. She also represented teachers in a case attempting to overturn the law championed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for public workers.
All of this underscores the grave necessity of electing Crawford to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, particularly considering what will come before that panel in the coming months.
Again, per AP:
The State Supreme Court has two pending cases involving the enforceability of the state’s 1849 ban on abortion. The state high court could also agree to hear a challenge to Wisconsin’s congressional districts, which were unaffected by the 2023 ruling on state districts and continue to reflect an extreme partisan gerrymander, with six of the state’s eight seats held by Republicans. And a changed court could revisit and perhaps even overrule the recent decision outlawing the previous state legislative maps — paving the way for restoration of Republican supermajorities in the Wisconsin legislature.
Even beyond the substantive importance of electing Susan Crawford to this crucial seat on the court, this is an opportunity to let Musk know he can’t simply buy an election at will.
Brian Tyler Cohen laid out the national implications of this election in a conversation with Ben Wikler this week:
“I view this as a test case. This is him saying, ‘I was already successful at the national level by giving Donald Trump a quarter of a billion dollars. Now if I can do this on a smaller scale in this race in Wisconsin, it’s pretty much the test case being proven out that I can just spend money in literally every race in America, I can just buy the government across the United States.’”
It’s also a chance to draw a line in the sand against the unconstitutional power grab taking place at the federal level at the hands of Trump and Musk.
Musk’s attempt to buy a state Supreme Court seat can be understood as a direct extension of the contempt the Trump administration has demonstrated for the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.
As Wikler told Cohen:
[Musk] wants to buy our Supreme Court because he wants to buy our democracy.
Elon Musk is funding these people going around…carrying around flyers saying Brad Schimel will advance Trump’s agenda, Trump needs you to vote for Brad Schimel.
This is like a completely straightforward “we can abolish the rule of law if we can just buy the court system” and that’s exactly what Elon Musk wants to do.
How To Help Susan Crawford
So far, it doesn’t appear that Musk’s intervention on behalf of Schimel’s campaign has moved the needle much, as the race remains tied in the polls.
While surveys have been sporadic, the most recent poll, which was in the field on March 9 and 10, shows the two candidates neck and neck at 47% support each, reinforcing the importance of getting every pro-democracy vote out leading up to April 1.
To help in that effort, you can contribute to Susan Crawford’s campaign directly:
Or give to the DNC’s get out the vote efforts. As they wrote in an e-mail blast just today:
Elon Musk has tried to buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court election for Brad Schimel — spending over $10 million on TV ads, digital ads, and mailers.
The only way we’ll fight back against that level of spending is by organizing on the ground.
That’s why, as Election Day approaches, the Democratic Party will host phone banks and call more than two million Wisconsin voters.
You can also volunteer on the ground in Wisconsin or even do remote phone banks in support of Susan Crawford via Wisconsin Democrats.
If you are a Wisconsin voter, here is everything you need to know in order to make sure your vote is counted. Early voting runs through March 30th.
And here are the deadlines for registering to vote and requesting an absentee ballot:
The good news is that after two days of early voting, according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, turnout is already “surging” relative to two years ago. But with Republicans now on board with early voting, emboldened by Trump, and flush with significant resources from Musk, this race continues to be an all-hands-on-deck moment not just for Wisconsin, but for all of us.
As Chris Hayes put it bluntly on All In this week:
“Republicans have not yet suffered any concrete political consequences for what they’ve been doing to the country since January 20th. This Supreme Court election in Wisconsin is the first chance to change that.”
WE WILL KNOCK HIM OUT OF OUR GOVERNMENT!
Those flyers and door hangers go directly into our recycling bin in the garage. They never make it into our house.