Such a distillation of the con: guess who got Musk’s $1 million check yesterday? The head of the Wisconsin College Republicans.
— Ben Wikler (@benwikler.bsky.social) March 31, 2025 at 2:15 PM
The 2024 election and Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race are just the start—since Trump’s election, Musk has implicitly and explicitly threatened to fund primaries against Republican Congress members who don’t fall in line with Trump. Ironically enough, Musk responds to any opposition to him by accusing Democrats and protesters of being bought and owned by George Soros. When protesters heckled him at Sunday night’s rally, Musk said, “It was inevitable at least a few Soros operatives would be in the audience. Give my regards to George. Say hi to George for me.”
It is, apparently, unthinkable to Musk that people hate him for free. Over the last couple of months, as protesters have shown up outside Tesla dealerships across the country, Musk has repeatedly insinuated, without any evidence, that these are paid crisis actors. In reality, people hating your guts is the natural consequence when one wields their fortune of stolen wealth to usurp political power, destroy the social safety net, and pocket hundreds of millions in government contracts while helping to defund domestic violence shelters.
At Sunday’s rally, Musk claimed to be handing out the $1 million checks merely as a means to “get attention” for a very important race. He spelled things out more explicitly on a March 22 Twitter live stream, which was riddled with all the usual technical errors that go hand-in-hand with the social media platform. On the stream, Musk effectively said he wants to buy this Supreme Court seat to buy Congress: “This is a very important race for many reasons. The most consequential is that [it] will decide how congressional districts are drawn in Wisconsin,” he said, warning that if Crawford wins, “Democrats will attempt to redraw the districts and cause Wisconsin to lose two Republican seats… which is a big deal given that the congressional majority is so razor-thin.” As Mother Jones notes, the Princeton Gerrymandering Project gives Wisconsin’s congressional map an F for partisan fairness. Should Democrats retake the House, Musk can expect an onslaught of investigations scrutinizing his nakedly corrupt role in the Trump administration as well as the whopping $38 billion in federal funding his businesses hoard.
There are other obvious reasons Musk wants this seat: Tesla is currently suing Wisconsin for blocking the company from opening car dealerships in the state. And then, there’s the fact that, where Crawford has formerly represented Planned Parenthood, a teachers union, and a voting rights organization, Schimel is a raging misogynist who’s made clear his intent to wait hand-and-foot on the Trump-Musk administration. Not only has Schimel practically begged for Trump’s endorsement, but he dressed as Trump for Halloween, posed next to a 50-foot blowup Trump doll with a “Vote Brad Schimel” sign on it earlier this month, wears shirts that say “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president,” and explicitly told Turning Point USA that he’s running to convert the Wisconsin Supreme Court into a “support network” for the Trump administration. I am old enough to remember when we all pretended that courts weren’t political!
I should also note that the outcome of this race holds significant implications for abortion access in Wisconsin. Shortly after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, a 1849 total abortion ban took effect in the state. The ban has since been paused by a district court, but it’s still technically on the books. After the election of a liberal justice gave liberals a narrow majority in 2023, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is expected to formally strike down the 1849 ban within months. But a conservative majority could jeopardize the future of abortion access. Schimel, who has expressed support for the 1849 law, has condemned the all-women liberal justices who have voiced their opposition to the abortion ban. On a podcast earlier this month, he characterized them as “driven by their emotions” in a nakedly sexist attack, and more recently described them as “dumb as a sack of hammers.” Further, Crawford’s campaign has criticized Schimel for his tenure as state attorney general, during which just nine of 6,000 rape kits in the state were processed in his first two years in office—before about 4,000 were tested shortly after he announced he would seek reelection in 2018.
In addition to his bogus $1 million checks, Musk’s PAC Building America’s Future created a deliberately deceptive front group called Progress 2028, which puts out false ads and texts to voters, pretending to be aligned with Crawford and aligning her with unpopular positions she hasn’t actually taken. “Judge Susan Crawford would reform cash bail (and) supports second chances, not incarceration. Say thank you,” says one text.
All of that said, there is some cause for hope: Musk himself says he’s playing this active a role in the election because “if you look at the early voting data so far, Democrats are winning, which is not good.” At his rally Sunday night, protesters lined up outside, telling Rolling Stone they refuse to accept Musk’s attempts to buy their state. The Democratic National Committee over the weekend bought a slate of ads featuring images of Schimel and Musk performing a Sieg Heil, captioned, “WISCONSIN IS NOT FOR SALE.”
“Elon Musk has threatened Medicare, gutted Social Security services, and now he thinks he can buy himself a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement rolling out the ads. “On April 1, Wisconsinites get the chance to say what Americans across this country are thinking: ‘Go to hell, Elon.’ … Now and forever, Wisconsin is not for sale.”
