APRIL 1, 2025
Proxy battle: Elon Musk and former NFL star Brett Favre have put their weight behind Republican Brad Schimel for the vacant seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court.
Voters go to the polls in Wisconsin on Tuesday to vote in a normally obscure judicial contest that Elon Musk says risks “the entire destiny of humanity”.
The state Supreme Court race has ballooned into easily the most expensive in US history, with billionaires on either side of the political divide pouring more than $90 million (£70 million) into their candidates’ campaigns.
A win for the Democrats could see the congressional map redrawn to give their candidates an advantage in the 2026 mid-term elections, laying the ground for the party to retake control of the House of Representatives and block Mr. Trump’s policy agenda.
“The future of civilisation” is at stake, said Mr. Musk, dressed in a Green Bay cheese hat, at a rally in the state on Sunday.
Elon Musk wears a Green Bay cheese hat at the rally on Sunday – Scott Olson/2025 Getty Images
The election, which pits Brad Schimel, the former Republican attorney general, against Susan Crawford, the liberal judge, is nominally non-partisan.
But that has not stopped big-name donors lining up behind their choice of candidate.
In total, Mr. Schimel and his allies, which include groups backed by Mr. Musk, have spent about $49 million (£38 million), according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
Meanwhile, Ms. Crawford’s campaign, which Barack Obama endorsed earlier this month, has spent over $40 million (£31 million), with help from Democrat mega-donors George Soros, the liberal philanthropist, Illinois governor JB Pritzker and Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn founder.
The race has become a proxy for the nation’s politics, with Democrats framing it as a referendum on Mr. Musk, whose actions as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have sparked protests across the country.
“It’s corrupt, it’s extreme, and it’s disgraceful to our state and judiciary,” said a spokesman for Ms. Crawford, whose supporters have dubbed the race “the People vs Elon Musk”.
Republicans see the race as a threat to Mr. Trump’s legacy. “I know you feel it’s local, but it’s not,” the president told supporters in a video town hall on Thursday. “It’s really much more than local. The whole country is watching.”
The election, triggered by a progressive justice retiring, will determine whether liberals hang on to the 4-3 majority they won two years ago, or if Wisconsin’s highest court flips to a conservative majority.
Under the current Republican-drawn district boundaries, the GOP holds six of the state’s eight congressional seats.
Republicans fear losing the race could enable the court to redraw the key swing state’s electoral map in the Democrats’ favour ahead of the mid-term elections in 2026.
If the map is redrawn, Democrats believe they could flip both the first and third districts, which they lost by 10 and three percentage points respectively at the 2024 election.
With Republicans holding a razor-thin 218-213 majority in the House, gaining two Wisconsin districts in the mid-terms would bring Democrats within one seat of winning back the chamber.
“If we don’t [win], we could lose control of the House and all of the government reforms could be shut down,” Mr. Musk told Fox News.
Control of the House would enable the Democrats to thwart Republican bills and launch investigations and impeachment proceedings, effectively derailing Mr. Trump’s plans for the country.
“It will make an enormous difference to blocking Trump over the following two years,” said Elaine C Kamarck, a senior fellow in governance studies at thinktank Brookings.
“We already know that not everybody is thrilled with his presidency,” she added. “This will show how deep that runs.”
Mr. Musk and groups he funds, including America Political Action Committee (PAC) and Building for America’s Future, have spent at least $20 million (£15 million) to help Mr Schimel.
Elon Musk hands over a million-dollar cheque at the rally in Green Bay on Sunday – Jeffrey Phelps/Copyright 2025 The Associated Press.
The Republican candidate has also received the support of Diane Hendricks, a billionaire businesswoman, and Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein, founders of packaging company Uline.
Brett Favre, former Green Bay Packers quarterback and a staunch Trump ally, has thrown his weight behind the campaign as well.
In addition to the million-dollar cheques, Mr. Musk’s America PAC has offered $100 (£80) to all voters who sign a petition opposing “activist judges”, amid an ongoing battle between the Trump administration and the courts blocking the president’s executive orders.
The scheme mirrors the controversial million-dollar cheques Mr. Musk gave out during last year’s presidential race and has sparked outrage among Democrats, who accused him of an illegal attempt to buy influence on the court.
Mr. Musk appeared to delete his initial X post advertising the giveaway. He later issued a “clarification” that those in receipt of the cheques would become spokespeople for the petition, and that it was not a “token of appreciation for taking the time to vote,” as his initial message suggested.
The tech boss has skin in the game, having become involved in the race shortly after Tesla sued the state in a dispute over a law barring carmakers from operating or controlling vehicle dealerships.
Although Wisconsin attorney general Josh Kaul’s attempt to block Mr Musk from handing out cheques was quashed, the big-money handouts have come under further scrutiny following reports that one of the recipients, Nicholas Jacobs, is the chairman of the Wisconsin College Republicans.
The group was approached for comment.
Brian Schimming, the state Republican chairman, responded to allegations of corruption by accusing Ms. Crawford of hypocrisy, given the slew of billionaire donors who have funnelled money into her campaign.
“Susan Crawford takes her marching orders from George Soros…JB Pritzker, anti-ICE sheriffs, and Defund the Police radicals,” Mr Schimel’s campaign wrote on X earlier this month. “Which side are you on?”
Mr Soros, 94, gave $2 million (£1.5 million) to the Wisconsin Democratic Party ahead of the vote, while Mr Pritzker donated $1.5 million.
Mr. Pritzker, the Illinois politician and Hyatt hotel tycoon, has a long-running feud with Mr. Trump, who frequently pokes fun at his weight, while Mr. Soros has been reviled by conservatives for decades owing to his donations to liberal prosecutors and other Left-wing causes.
Since 2020, Mr. Hoffman has also given the Wisconsin Democratic Party almost $9 million (£7 million), according to the Follow the Money database.
The Democrat donor, who suggested he might leave the country after Mr. Trump’s election victory, is a former friend of Mr. Musk’s and helped him to launch Paypal.
Brad Schimel and his allies have spent about $49 million on his campaign – Scott Olson/2025 Getty Images
The overall spend far eclipses the previous record for a judicial race in the US of $51 million (£39 million), set in Wisconsin two years ago, and is four-and-a-half-times more than the total sum of donations to Britain’s 2024 general election.
The high stakes of the race and big money engagement have generated massive voter turnout, with 48 per cent more early ballots cast than at this point two years ago, when the court flipped to the Democrats for the first time in nearly 15 years.
The prospect of the Democrats winning back the House has set alarm bells ringing in the White House. Last week, Mr. Trump pulled the plug on New York representative Elise Stefanik’s nomination to serve as UN ambassador so that she can continue to serve in Congress.
“I said, ‘Elise, would you do me a favour? We cannot take a chance. We have a slim margin,’” he told reporters.
The president has also launched personal attacks against Ms. Crawford, calling her a “disaster” and a “liberal lunatic” on his Truth Social platform.
The Wisconsin map was last redrawn in 2021, and Democrats have made no bones about their desire to change it back.
“As soon as possible, we need to be able to revisit that and have fair lines,” Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, said in a recent live discussion on X. “The only way for that to be even a significant possibility is if you have an enlightened Supreme Court.”
The involvement of high-profile donors has encouraged both candidates to attack each other for being in hock to the power brokers funding their campaigns.
“I think he wants judges he can control,” Ms. Crawford said of Mr. Trump. “And he has found one in Brad Schimel.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Schimel has sought to distance himself from being closely associated with his donors, saying he has “made no promises to any of them”.
As Mr. Trump grapples with courts across the country to push through his vision for America, the billionaire standoff in this obscure judicial race in the swingiest of swing states could yet determine whether he can cement his legacy.
Courtesy/Source: The Telegraph
