Money can't buy everything, it seems — not even $25 million of Elon Musk's money. The billionaire and President Donald Trump ally took drastic measures that critics said were illegal, such as giving $1 million checks to some voters who signed a petition, in order to overturn the 4-3 liberal majority on the state Supreme Court. But it was not enough to stop Susan Crawford from defeating her conservative opponent by a 10-pont margin.
Crawford's victory, buoyed by a surge in turnout by left-leaning voters, provides a much-needed boost for liberal hopes in a time when the party leadership has often seemed divided, listless and incapable of effectively opposing Trump. Her opponent, Brad Schimel, ran on his loyalty to Trump and conceded much of the spotlight to Musk, who personally traveled to campaign in the state, at one point donning a cheese hat.
In an election that largely became a referendum on Musk and Trump's slashing of federal government services, the billionaire's presence seemed to animate furious Democrats — and perhaps others feeling the brunt of the cuts — more than Republicans.
Never before had a single donor sought to influence a judicial election to the degree that Musk did. His super PAC spent $11.5 million on a ground game that urged voters to help Trump by supporting Schimel. Another Musk-aligned group poured $7.7 million into television ads, according to AdImpact. Voter turnout, remarkably high for an off-year, nominally non-partisan state election, blew past the numbers for the previous Wisconsin Supreme Court race: With nearly all precincts reporting, more than 2 million voters are reported to have cast a ballot compared to 1.8 million in 2023.
"Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections and our Supreme Court,” Crawford said in her victory speech Tuesday night. “Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.”
With Crawford's triumph, the Wisconsin Supreme Court appears poised to deliver liberal victories in pending cases on abortion and labor rights. Democrats and voting rights activists also anticipate that the court will order new congressional maps to replace the current, heavily gerrymandered map passed by GOP legislators, which gives Republicans a 6-2 edge in seats. Crawford herself had told liberal donors that her campaign offered a chance to put two further GOP-held seats in play, which Musk and Schimel repeatedly invoked.
“What’s happening on Tuesday is a vote for which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives — that is why it is so significant,” Musk said at one rally. “And whichever party controls the House to a significant degree controls the country, which then steers the course of Western civilization. I feel like this is one of those things that may not seem that it’s going to affect the entire destiny of humanity, but I think it will.”
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