In Less Than Two Weeks Wisconsin Hosts "America vs Elon Schimel"

Musk Has Fueled America's Most Expensive State Judicial Election Ever

Elon Musk, a billionaire, drug-addicted South African Nazi, is one of the dominant figure in American politics today. A big problem— aside from the ones already mentioned— is that for all the high-priced political consultants who are enriching themselves from him, her doesn’t have a touch for democratic politics. CEOs rarely do… most are authoritarians by nature. 

Wisconsin is a very swingy state with, for example, polar opposite U.S. senators— a strong progressive in Tammy Baldwin and a neo-fascist in Ron Johnson. In their last elections:

• Tammy Baldwin (D)- 1,672,777 (49.4%)

• Eric Hovde (R)- 1,643,996 (48.5%)

The difference was just 28,781 votes. Two years earlier, it had been even closer, with a difference of only 26,718 votes:

• Eric Johnson (R)- 1,337,185 (50.5%)

• Mandela Barnes (D)- 1,310,467 (49.5%)

The last Wisconsin Supreme Court election pitted progressive  Janet Protasiewicz against reactionary Daniel Kelly. She was backed by the Democrats and he was backed by the Republicans and the result was a bit of an outlier, with one side besting the other decisively:

• Janet Protasiewicz- 1,021,822 (55.4%)

• Daniel Kelly- 818,391 (44.4%)

There’s another Wisconsin Supreme Court election coming up in 11 days— early voting is underway now. It looks extremely close. The most recent public polling— conducted by OnMessage Inc. and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) on March 9-10, 2025, surveyed 600 likely voters and found both candidates tied at 47%, with 5% of voters undecided! It doesn’t get closer than that. Since then, though, Musk has belly-flopped into the race in a big way, spending between $14 and $20 million on behalf of Brad Schimel, an extreme right candidate, and against Susan Crawford, a progressive candidate. Musk’s contributions, dwarfing other donors is not just unprecedented spending for a state judicial election but also seen by many as an attempt by an outsider to buy the election for his own interests.

Musk has committed a cardinal error in politics; he has made himself the central issue, and there’s evidence it might not play out entirely in Schimel’s favor. Obviously his cash gives Schimel a clear edge in advertising and outreach and could help sway undecided voters, especially in a state where most voters are unfamiliar with the candidates. Heavy ad campaigns are defining Crawford negatively— dubbing her “Catch ‘N Release Crawford” for example— potentially tipping the scales. 

There’s a flip side. Musk’s high-profile involvement could alienate voters who see it as an outsider billionaire trying to buy influence. In Wisconsin, a state with a populist streak and a history of bristling at external meddling, this narrative has traction. Democrats are leaning hard into it—Crawford’s campaign calls Schimel “bought and paid for,” and the state party’s seven-figure ad blitz ties Schimel to Musk and Trump, figures with divisive reputations. Polling shows 53% of Wisconsinites— including 97% of Democrats— disapprove of Musk. If this “tidal wave of fury,” as party chair Ben Wikler puts it, motivates turnout among Democrats and independents wary of Musk’s influence, it will hurt Schimel.

The race’s dynamics support this possibility. Despite the spending gap, Democrats claim they’ve contacted twice as many voters as in the 2023 Supreme Court race, which saw high turnout and Protasiewicz decisive win. At this point, the race will hinge on grassroots energy more than ad dollars. Musk’s role is also raising ethical red flags— Tesla has a pending lawsuit in Wisconsin that could reach the Supreme Court, and Schimel’s vague “I don’t know” on recusal hasn’t quelled suspicions of bias. Among voters who connect those dots, it will fuel a backlash.

Historically, as in Protasiewicz’s case, big money doesn’t always win in Wisconsin judicial races. In 2023, despite record spending, she won by 11 points, driven by abortion rights fervor. Today’s issues— abortion, redistricting and Musk’s overreach— might similarly galvanize opposition. With Musk becoming a lightning rod, Schimel risks being seen as his puppet rather than a judge, potentially costing him in a state that’s split down the middle politically. It’s a gamble— flooding the race with cash might drown out Crawford, or it might drown Schimel in voter resentment.

Yesterday, John Nichols wrote that  this race that “will decide whether the highest court in the nation’s ultimate swing state will remain liberal or flip back to the right… will be the most expensive judicial election contest in American history.”

He reported that Musk “made his preference for Schimel public in January. It was then that he took to [Twitter] to promote Schimel’s candidacy with a declaration that it is ‘very important to vote Republican for the Wisconsin Supreme Court’— not knowing, apparently, that Wisconsin Supreme Court races are officially nonpartisan and do not feature Republican or Democratic ballot lines. Musk’s meddling has picked up steam as the election approaches. Musk-backed groups are already spending in the double-digit millions, according to the democracy campaign. And the numbers will almost certainly rise as overall spending on the Schimel-Crawford race accelerates in the final weeks of a campaign that everyone recognizes as the first major electoral test of 2025… [T]he level of spending by Donald Trump’s ‘special government employee’ has become a fundamental issue in the race— as was illustrated in the campaign’s sole debate last week. Crawford went into the debate with a track record as a prosecutor, trial lawyer, and jurist— but not as a politician. She faced a rival who has spent much of his adult lifetime campaigning for one office or another. A former Republican district attorney and attorney general, who has always been closely aligned with defeated former Republican governor Scott Walker, Schimel has appeared on the ballot frequently over the past two decades and participated in statewide televised debates when he won the AG’s office in 2014, and when he lost it in 2018. Yet it was Crawford who proved to be the more skilled debater. Indeed, she delivered what was easily the most amusing jab of the night, when she referred to her opponent as ‘Elon Schimel.’ In contrast, Schimel got bogged down in his own talking points. When he tried to upend Crawford with convoluted attacks that mimicked online trolling, she countered with short, sharp dismissals of the Republican’s remarks. Crawford did so most effectively during exchanges about Musk’s funding of Schimel’s campaign. Clearly aware that he was not having a particularly good night, Schimel tried to tie Crawford to liberal donors. But that line of attack blew up in his face as the discussion of how money is influencing the court race kept coming back to Musk’s over-the-top intervention in the race. ‘He’s spent over $10 million on my opponent’s race. He has basically taken over Brad Schimel’s campaign,’ announced Crawford. ‘It is no coincidence that Elon Musk started spending that money within days of Tesla filing a lawsuit in Wisconsin.’ The lawsuit by the Musk-owned automaker targets a Wisconsin regulatory decision that prohibits car manufacturers from also being able to own dealerships in the state, and could well end up on the state Supreme Court docket.”

But the biggest concern with Musk’s entry into Wisconsin politics has to do with the many issues related to the Trump administration— and Musk’s role in it. These conflicts are most likely to be litigated in federal courts, but it’s perfectly plausible that state courts will be roped in as well. “Musk wants to ensure he can prevent any check on himself and Trump from the states, and he’s starting right here in Wisconsin,” says Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair Ben Wikler.

…Wisconsin Democrats are so sure that running against the richest oligarch in the world will help them defeat Musk’s candidate in the Supreme Court race that they’ve been organizing “People v. Musk” town hall events. When they did so in closely-contested Sauk County— which Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair Wikler describes as “the most bellwether county in the most bellwether state”— an overflow crowd packed the community room at the local library. They held signs that read, “Don’t Let Elon Musk Buy Wisconsin,” and cheered as Wikler declared, “We are in a fight for democracy itself.”

There’s something to that assertion.

Wisconsin Supreme Court races have in recent years been exceptionally expensive, and they have seen plenty of spending by out-of-state special interests. But, now, the ultimate “special interest” has arrived— an oligarch whose $320 billion fortune allows him to engage in epic levels of personal spending on behalf of his favored candidates.

Schimel says he can’t be bought. But the free-spending support he’s getting from groups aligned with Musk has a lot of Wisconsinites raising concerns about the court candidate’s independence. So, the Musk intervention matters, a lot. And Schimel’s bumbling debate performance has allowed Susan Crawford to make a dramatically bigger deal of Musk’s enthusiasm for “Elon Schimel.”