Madison, Wisconsin (AP) – Judge Susan Crawford preserved the narrow majority of the liberals on the Supreme Wisconsin Court Tuesday by beating the curator Brad Schimel, but in a way, the real loser in the election was billionaire Elon Musk.
Musk and his affiliated groups sank at least $ 21 million in the normally low -profile race and paid three individual dollars to three individual voters each to have signed a petition in order to speed flesh In the Pivot competition of the Battleground state. This made the race the first major test of Musk’s political impact, whose prominence in the administration of President Donald Trump has skyrocketed with his chaotic cost reduction Initiative that reduced federal agencies.
Crawford and the Democrats who supported it made musk The objective From their arguments to hold the siege, saying that he “bought” the election, which established records for the most expensive judicial race in history.
“Today, Wisconsinites have rejected an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair equations and our Supreme Court,” Crawford said in his victory speech. “And the Wisconsin got up and said strongly that justice has no price, our courts are not for sale.”
Trump approved Schimel when the race has turned into a fight against national political problems. The High Court of the State can rule on cases involving voting rights and redistribution in a state likely to be at the center of both The mid-term elections next year and the 2028 presidential competition.
But the involvement of Musk composed these dynamics Until 11: “An apparently small election could determine the fate of Western civilization,” the billionaire said on Tuesday in a last call to voters on his social media site X. “I think that counts for the future of the world.”
In particular, the America PAC, the Super PAC supported by Musk, spent at least $ 6 million on sellers who sent door to door through the state, according to the non -partisan democracy campaign of Wisconsin. It was a resumption of what the group did in the seven states of the most competitive presidential battlefield, including the Wisconsin, which was worn by Trump in November.
But the final results of this time were not good for musk. Despite the millions he spent on Schimel on Tuesday evening, the candidate of the Supreme Court lost four more percentage points than the other candidate on the level of the state supported by the Republican, Brittany Kinser, who also failed in his offer for the superintendent of public education.
The defeat of the Musk court race was not only thanks to overwhelming demrained democratic margins in deep blue cities like Madison and Milwaukee. The margins of Crawford were higher in places where the group supported by Musk America Pac had been active, including the county of Sauk, just north of Madison, that Crawford was carrying 10 points after Trump won him under 2 points in November.
In Brown County, Green Bay’s house where Musk titled a campaign rally with 2,000 people on Sunday, Crawford beat Schimel. Trump won the county of 7 percentage points last year.
Overnight, Musk posted on his X platform that “the long idiot of the left is the corruption of the judiciary”. In another comment, he seemed to gain comfort from the approval of voters to raise the requirement of identifying the state of the state of the state law to the constitutional amendment. The platform was criticized by Trump’s opponents for his involvement in the race.
“Please send @elonmusk to all narrow races!” Jon Favreau, former speech editor of President Barack Obama, wrote.
“Elon Musk is not good in this area,” said JB Pritzker, Democratic Governor of Illinois and a billionaire who donated Crawford, published on X.
Voters definitely had musk in their minds.
“There is a crazy situation with the Trump administration, and has the impression that Elon Musk is trying to buy votes,” said Kenneth Gifford, a 22 -year -old student from Milwaukee College, when he voted on Tuesday. “I want a real and respectable democracy.”
Others may not have made their vote by the billionaire, but were too aware of the money paying in their state.
Jim Seeger, a 68 -year -old retiree who previously worked in communications and marketing, said he had voted for Schimel because he wanted the Republicans to keep their majority disproportionate in the Wisconsin Congress Delegation, which could be at risk if Crawford wins and the court orders cards. But, he added, it was disappointed that the elections became a “financial race”.
“I think it’s a shame that we have to spend so much money, especially for a legal race,” said Seeger voting in Lireau.
The Wisconsin Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, heard To prevent Musk from paying for voters if they have signed a petition against “militant judges”. The Supreme State of the State unanimously denied To reign over the case on technicality.
Musk plunged into the race shortly after the inauguration of Trump. The Republicans were pessimistic to be able to win the seat. They have lost a long -standing conservative majority at the High Court of the State in 2023, and the Democrats excelled in the drafting of their educated coalition and politically settled in dark elections such as that of Wisconsin.
Musk duplicated and expanded some of the methods he used in the last weeks of last year’s presidential race when he spent more than $ 200 million on behalf of Trump in the seven swing states, including Wisconsin.
This time, in addition to checks of $ 1 million, Musk proposed to pay $ 20 to all those who registered on his group’s site to knock on the doors of Schimel and posted a photo of themselves as proof. His organization promised $ 100 to each voter who signed the petition against the liberal judges and an additional $ 100 for each signatory they have referred.
Democrats were happy to make musk a lightning rod in the race.
“People don’t want to see Elon Musk buy the elections after the elections,” the president of the Wisconsin Democratic Party said on Monday, Ben Wikler. “If it works here, he will do it throughout the country.”
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Riccardi has reported to Denver. The writer Associated Press Meg Kinnard in Washington contributed to this report.
