Wisconsin voters delivered a sharp rebuke to billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday, electing liberal Judge Susan Crawford to the state\u2019s Supreme Court despite a record-breaking flood of cash and campaigning from Musk, who backed her conservative opponent, Judge Brad Schimel. Crawford\u2019s victory ensures a continued 4\u20133 liberal majority on the state\u2019s high court and signals growing pushback to Musk\u2019s rising political influence. With nearly all votes counted, Crawford held a commanding lead of about nine percentage points, defying $25 million in total spending tied to Musk and his network of political action committees. \u201cToday, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections, and our Supreme Court,\u201d Crawford said in her victory speech Tuesday night. \u201cWisconsin stood up and roared, saying that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Musk personally campaigned in Wisconsin, appearing at rallies and photo ops\u2014including one where he wore a cheesehead hat\u2014as he sought to frame the race as part of a broader campaign to reshape the federal government and state courts. His involvement appeared to energize Democratic voters and galvanize turnout, with early data showing exceptionally high participation for an off-year spring election. The race drew national attention not only because of its record-shattering cost but also due to the implications it holds for abortion rights, labor protections, and congressional redistricting. The Wisconsin Supreme Court is expected to rule on several pivotal issues in the coming months, including the legality of the GOP-drawn congressional maps that have helped Republicans win six of the state\u2019s eight House seats, despite Wisconsin being evenly split politically. Democratic leaders had long argued that a Crawford victory could create more competitive districts. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York recently noted the opportunity to flip one or two Republican-held seats in the state if the court redraws the maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republicans and Musk attempted to make that argument the centerpiece of their campaign against Crawford, warning of activist overreach. Musk\u2019s super PAC reportedly funded a $11.5 million ground operation, and another group with ties to him spent $7.7 million on TV ads, according to media tracking firm AdImpact. In addition to massive ad buys, Musk\u2019s efforts offered Wisconsinites financial incentives to oppose so-called activist judges. His super PAC offered $100 for signing petitions and $50 for posting photos outside polling places\u2014tactics that raised concerns about voter influence and legality. But those tactics appeared to backfire. \u201cThere\u2019s an insane situation going on with the Trump administration, and it feels like Elon Musk is trying to buy votes,\u201d said Kenneth Gifford, a 22-year-old Milwaukee college student after casting his ballot. \u201cI want an actual, respectable democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democrats seized on Musk\u2019s presence as a galvanizing force. \u201cPeople do not want to see Elon Musk buying election after election after election,\u201d Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler said ahead of the vote. \u201cIf it works here, he\u2019s going to do it all over the country.\u201d Former President Barack Obama took to X (formerly Twitter) to congratulate Crawford and the people of Wisconsin \u201cfor electing a judge who believes in the rule of law and protecting our freedoms.\u201d Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who also donated to Crawford\u2019s campaign, didn\u2019t mince words in his post: \u201cElon Musk is not good at this.\u201d Crawford, 60, will serve a 10-year term in court. Her win adds to a string of recent Democratic victories across the country, including state legislative races in Iowa and Pennsylvania and the defeat of four Republican-backed ballot measures in Louisiana. While Republicans maintained their grip on two congressional seats in Florida on Tuesday, Crawford\u2019s win could signal that Musk\u2019s deep pockets and increasing alignment with Donald Trump are igniting more opposition than support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wisconsin voters delivered a sharp rebuke to billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday, electing liberal Judge Susan Crawford to the state\u2019s Supreme Court despite a record-breaking flood of cash and campaigning from Musk, who backed her conservative opponent, Judge Brad Schimel. Crawford\u2019s victory ensures a continued 4\u20133 liberal majority on the state\u2019s high court and signals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[64,1423,1422],"class_list":["post-2311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-elon-musk","tag-judge-brad-schimel","tag-judge-susan-crawford","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2312,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311\/revisions\/2312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}