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You are here: Home / Featured / MUSK FLOPS IN WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT RACE: LIBERAL JUDGE ELECTED BY LARGE MARGIN

MUSK FLOPS IN WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT RACE: LIBERAL JUDGE ELECTED BY LARGE MARGIN

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And they say Disney’s live action remake of Snow White is a flop.

Elon Musk’s full-court press to defeat a liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court judge bombed — bigtime — and now it’s the Democrats who are singing “Whistle While You Work.”

The polarizing billionaire turned a vote for a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice into a referendum on him and President Donald Trump. But for once nationalization of a local election wasn’t soley focused on President Donald Trump. Musk spent more than $25 million to try and defeat liberal Susan Crawford and elect Brad Schimel, a former Republican Attorney general and County circuit judge. Musk held a big ra;;u Sunday night. He proclaimed the future of civilization was at stake in the vote. He Musk handed out two $1 million checks to two people connected with Republican causes in a kind of lottery. .

Musk was accused of trying to bribe voters and buy a Supreme Court just as many believe he bought himself the White House and an unprecedented position of power in the Trump administration. Democrats turned his exceedingly high profile and increasing unpopularity into their mantra and the vote became about Musk. Could his money and people he brought in to canvass voters pay off?

It didn’t. NBC News:

Susan Crawford has won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, NBC News projects, allowing liberals to maintain their narrow majority on the battleground state’s highest court — and defying Elon Musk after he spent millions of dollars to oppose her.

Crawford, a Dane County circuit judge who was backed by Democrats, secured a 10-year term on the court over Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County circuit judge and a former Republican attorney general. As the first major battleground state election of President Donald Trump’s second term, the technically nonpartisan contest drew national attention and became the most expensive state Supreme Court race in U.S. history.

The outcome is a setback for Trump and his billionaire adviser, Musk. Trump endorsed Schimel in the final stretch of the race, while Musk injected himself into the center of it, spending huge sums of money, visiting Wisconsin days out from Election Day and frequently posting about the race on his X feed. In turn, Democrats and progressive groups made Musk their primary villain, attacking his influence on the race and his efforts to slash federal jobs and the government through the Department of Government Efficiency.

“As a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin,” Crawford told supporters Tuesday night. “And we won.”

In a brief concession speech, Schimel said, “I knew I had to put my all in,” but that “you gotta accept the results.”

And:

Crawford’s victory also means liberals will maintain a 4-3 advantage on the court for at least another year heading into a term when it could decide cases about abortion rights, unions and collective bargaining rights, and congressional maps and redistricting.

Despite the more than $15 million that Musk and groups affiliated with him dropped into the race, Democrats overall held a narrow ad spending advantage, according to AdImpact.

Democratic-aligned groups spent millions of dollars blasting Musk as “trying to buy” Schimel and the election, while Crawford herself repeatedly used Musk as a foil at her campaign events. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin launched a town-hall tour dubbed “People v. Musk,” on which surrogates including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz further bashed Musk and DOGE.

Some also pointed out that Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, sued in Wisconsin this year challenging a state law banning carmakers from owning dealerships. The case could end up before the state Supreme Court.

Democrats also attacked Musk’s offer of $100 to Wisconsin voters to sign a petition to oppose “activist judges.” The Democratic state attorney general, Josh Kaul, also unsuccessfully tried to block Musk from giving $1 million to people to be “spokesmen” for the petition at a rally Sunday.

Conversely, groups on the left largely stayed away from making the race about Trump, who narrowly carried the state in two of the past three presidential elections.

The anti-Musk playbook is one that Democrats could seek to replicate in other elections this year and in the 2026 midterms.

Two key questions:
**Does this mean Trump will begin to reign Musk in and not be joined at the political hip?
**Will such a dramatic failure of Musk’s clout, persuasiveness and money embolden GOP members of Congress who are unhappy with his role?

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