Elon Musk wears a cheese hat as he holds a rally in support of Judge Brad Schimel in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Sunday
Elon Musk wears a cheese hat as he holds a rally in support of Judge Brad Schimel in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Sunday
A liberal candidate for a pivotal seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court overcame $25 million in spending from Elon Musk and defeated her conservative opponent on Tuesday in a contest that became a kind of referendum on Musk and his slashing of the federal government.
Judge Susan Crawford handily beat Judge Brad Schimel, who ran on his loyalty to President Donald Trump and was aided by Musk.
Musk not only poured money into the race but also campaigned personally in the state, even donning a cheesehead. But his starring role seemed to inflame Democratic anger against him even more than it helped Judge Schimel.
The barrage of spending in the race may nearly double the previous record for a single judicial election. With about 95 per cent of the vote counted on Tuesday evening, Judge Crawford held a lead of roughly 9 points.
“Today, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections and our Supreme Court,” she said in her victory speech on Tuesday night. “Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.”
For Democrats, the result is a jolt of momentum. Crawford’s victory puts the party on its front foot for the first time since last November.
Democrats have quietly argued for months that a Crawford victory would pave the way for a liberal-tilting Wisconsin Supreme Court to order new congressional maps, which could help Democrats defeat one or two of the state’s Republican Congress members.
Judge Crawford, of Dane County, herself participated in a meeting with liberal donors in January that was pitched as a chance to put two House seats in play, a prospect echoed last week by Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the chamber’s Democratic leader. And Republicans, led by Musk, sought to make that possibility the central focus of their campaign to defeat her.
Musk seemed to personify the campaign on Judge Schimel’s behalf even more than the candidate himself. Through his super PAC, he underwrote an $11.5 million ground game that targeted voters with messages urging them to help Trump by supporting Schimel. A separate organisation with Musk ties spent $7.7 million on television advertising, according to AdImpact, a media-tracking firm.
Musk also offered Wisconsinites $100 each to sign a petition in opposition to “activist judges”.
By Tuesday, his super PAC was offering voters $50 to post a picture of a Wisconsin resident outside a polling place.
The victory for Judge Crawford, 60, maintains a 4-to-3 majority for liberals on the court, which in coming months is poised to deliver key decisions on abortion and labour rights.
The involvement of the billionaire, whose electric-vehicle company, Tesla, sued Wisconsin in January for the right to open dealerships in the state, turned what would have been a state contest into something approaching a national bat signal for Democrats to support Judge Crawford.
Judge Schimel, 60, of Waukesha County, a longtime Trump loyalist who last year dressed up as Trump for Halloween, embraced the President and Musk with gusto in the campaign’s final weeks.
On Sunday night, Musk travelled to Green Bay, where he came bearing a pair of $1 million cheques to voters, winners, he said, of a contest among those who had signed his petition. One recipient just happened to be the chairman of the College Republicans of Wisconsin, who joined a third person to whom Musk’s super PAC had given a $1 million check a few days earlier.
But Musk spent just a couple of minutes out of his two hours of remarks addressing Judge Schimel and the coming election. In what came across as an unedited TED Talk, Musk delivered extended monologues about immigration policy, alleged fraud in the Social Security system and the future of artificial intelligence, in addition to taking a series of questions from the audience that also did not address the court race.
When Musk did address the reason for his visit, he framed the election in maximally important terms — suggesting Wisconsin voters were the first domino in a process that could change the future of civilisation.