Musk and
His Millions Enter Wisconsin Supreme Court Race
Elon Musk’s
super PAC has spent $1 million on canvassing operations supporting the
conservative candidate in the race, his first election spending after the 2024
campaign.
Theodore
SchleiferReid J. Epstein
By Theodore
Schleifer and Reid J. Epstein
Feb. 20,
2025
Elon Musk’s
super PAC is back.
Mr. Musk,
the country’s largest donor during the 2024 election, is returning to campaigns
by funding a new effort to help elect Brad Schimel, the conservative candidate
for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. It is Mr. Musk’s first public political
spending after Election Day.
America PAC
spent $1 million on canvassing operations in the state, according to a new
campaign finance filing that became public Thursday. Pamphlets distributed to
some Wisconsin homes read, “President Trump needs you to get out and vote,” and
included a link to a website where voters could register to vote and learn
about how to cast ballots early.
A nonprofit
organization that has historically been backed by Mr. Musk, Building America’s
Future, this week began a $1.6 million-and-counting television campaign to
bolster Judge Schimel, a former state attorney general who is now a judge in
Waukesha County. But that group has other major donors and is not as directly
tied to Mr. Musk as is America PAC, which is funded almost entirely by the
billionaire.
Wisconsin
Supreme Court elections are officially nonpartisan, but Judge Schimel has been
endorsed by the Republican Party of Wisconsin, which is allowed by state
campaign finance law to transfer unlimited sums to his campaign. The liberal
candidate, Susan Crawford, has been endorsed by the Democratic Party of
Wisconsin. Judge Crawford sits on a court in Dane County, Wisconsin’s most
Democratic county, which includes Madison.
The April 1
election for a 10-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court carries higher
stakes than any election this year until the November contests for governor of
New Jersey and Virginia. There is now a four-to-three liberal majority on the
court, but Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, a liberal who has sat on the court since
1995, is retiring, putting the court’s majority on the ballot.
The state’s
abortion laws, as well as its legislative and congressional district lines, are
likely to be determined by whichever faction controls the state high court in
coming months.
In January,
Mr. Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, sued Wisconsin to challenge a state law
forbidding manufacturers from owning dealerships. Eight days later, Mr. Musk
wrote on his social media site, “Very important to vote Republican for the
Wisconsin Supreme Court to prevent voting fraud.”
The election
is expected to be the most expensive judicial contest in American history,
breaking a record set two years ago by Wisconsin’s last Supreme Court election.
That year, $55 million was spent on a race that put Justice Janet Protasiewicz,
a liberal, on the court and flipped majority control for the first time in 15
years.
On election
night in November, Mr. Musk, who spent close to $300 million to aid Mr. Trump,
said he intended to keep his super PAC going.
“America PAC
is going to keep going after this election — preparing for the midterms and any
intermediate elections, as well as looking at elections at the district
attorney and sort of judicial levels,” he said that night, and added, referring
to George Soros, “Something has to be done to counter the damage that Soros has
done to the American system.” Mr. Musk’s group is “going to aim to weigh in
heavily on the midterms and intermediate elections.”
Theodore
Schleifer is a Times reporter covering billionaires and their impact on the
world. More about Theodore Schleifer
Reid J.
Epstein covers campaigns and elections from Washington. Before joining The
Times in 2019, he worked at The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Newsday and The
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. More about Reid J. Epstein
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