Democrats’ win in Wisconsin court race marks big loss for Elon Musk
The entrepreneur had spent millions of dollars in a bid to tip the balance of the court in favour of the Republicans in a key battleground state,
The Democrats’ victory in the Wisconsin supreme court race marks a big loss for Elon Musk.
The billionaire supporter of President Donald Trump and his affiliated groups spent more than 21 million dollars (£16.2 million) supporting the conservative candidate with the aim of breaking the liberals’ 4-3 majority on the court.
Mr Musk also paid three individual voters one million dollars (£773,000) each for signing a petition in an effort to boost turnout in the pivotal battleground state contest.
But Judge Susan Crawford won comfortably, preserving the liberals’ narrow majority. She and the Democrats had focused their campaign on Mr Musk’s spending.
The election was the first test of Mr Musk’s political impact since he skyrocketed in prominence by launching a controversial effort to slash the US federal government in Mr Trump’s administration.
Judge Crawford defeated conservative candidate Brad Schimel in the contest.
The Democrats had contended Mr Musk was “buying” the election, which set records for the costliest judicial race in history.
Judge Crawford said in her victory speech: “Today, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections and our supreme court.
“And Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price, our courts are not for sale.”
Mr Trump endorsed Mr Schimel as the race turned into a proxy fight over national political issues.
The state’s high court can rule on cases involving voting rights and redistricting in a state likely to be at the centre of both next year’s mid-term elections and the 2028 presidential contest.
But Mr Musk’s involvement dialled those dynamics up, saying on his X platform: “A seemingly small election could determine the fate of Western civilization.
“I think it matters for the future of the world.”
Notably, America PAC (Political Action Committee), the super PAC backed by Mr Musk, spent at least six million dollars (£4.6 million) on vendors who sent door-to-door canvassers across the state, according to the non-partisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
This was similar to what the group did across the seven most competitive presidential battleground states, including Wisconsin, which were carried by Mr Trump in November.
But the end results this time were not good for Mr Musk. Despite the millions he spent on Mr Schimel, as of late Tuesday night the supreme court candidate was losing by four percentage points more than the other Republican-backed state-wide candidate, Brittany Kinser, who also fell short in her bid to become superintendent of public instruction.
Mr Musk’s court race defeat was not only because of crushing Democratic margins in deep blue cities like Madison and Milwaukee. Judge Crawford’s margins were higher in places where the Musk-backed group America PAC had been active, including Sauk County, just north of Madison, which the Democrat was carrying by 10 points after Mr Trump won it by less than two points in November.
In Brown County, the home of Green Bay, where Mr Musk headlined a campaign rally with 2,000 people on Sunday, Judge Crawford beat Mr Schimel. Mr Trump won the county by seven percentage points last year.
Overnight, Mr Musk posted on his X platform that “The long con of the left is corruption of the judiciary”.
In another comment, he seemed to take solace from voters’ approval to elevate the state’s photo ID requirement from state law to constitutional amendment. The platform was rife with criticism from Mr Trump’s opponents for his involvement in the race.
“Please send @elonmusk to all the close races!” Jon Favreau, former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, wrote.
“Elon Musk is not good at this,” JB Pritzker, Illinois’ Democratic governor and a billionaire himself who donated to support Judge Crawford, posted on X.
Democrats were happy to make Mr Musk a lightning rod in the race.
“People do not want to see Elon Musk buying election after election after election,” Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler said on Monday.
“If it works here, he’s going to do it all over the country.”
