Race for state Supreme Court seat most expensive in US history as billionaire pushes to prevent challenges to Trump’s agenda.
Elon Musk has handed $1m cheques to two Wisconsin voters as he promotes a conservative candidate in the state’s upcoming Supreme Court election.
The tech billionaire, a close ally of President Donald Trump, handed out the oversized cheques at a rally in Green Bay on Sunday night, increasing the spending in what is already the most expensive judicial race in US history.
Musk performed a similar move during November’s presidential election. Democrat rivals in Wisconsin – a contested swing state – have failed in their effort to block the handout by claiming it constitutes election interference.
The April 1 election pits conservative candidate Brad Schimel against the Democrats’ Susan Crawford. The liberals currently hold a 4-3 majority on the court.
The billionaire has become heavily involved in the judicial election, which is seen as an early referendum on Trump’s controversial first few weeks in the White House. He also insists that liberals will seek to use the Wisconsin court to change voting districts and thus affect future election results in the swing state, should they win.
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In a speech on Sunday evening, Musk told a crowd that the vote was a “super big deal”.
“What’s happening on Tuesday is a vote for which party controls the US House of Representatives,” he declared.
“Whichever party controls the House … to a significant degree, controls the country, which then steers the course of Western civilisation,” he said, adding that he thinks the vote was “going to affect the entire destiny of humanity”.
Earlier, an effort to block the handouts was denied by the Supreme Court.
Wisconsin Democrat Attorney General Josh Kaul argued in a filing that the Tesla chief’s actions violate state law.
“Wisconsin law prohibits offering anything of value to induce anyone to vote,” Kaul said, adding, “Yet, Elon Musk did just that.”
The Supreme Court declined to take the case, without providing a rationale for its decision.
Trump agenda
The vote comes as the court is expected to rule on abortion rights, union rights, and voting rules, as well as congressional redistricting, potentially affecting the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election.
In the short term, the way the court swings is part of Trump’s broader agenda to prevent judicial bodies from blocking his agenda. Numerous legal challenges are under way seeking to halt the president’s controversial actions on immigration, state institutions, and foreign policy.
Musk argued that if Crawford was elected it would open the way for a liberal court to “redraw the districts, they will gerrymander the district and deprive Wisconsin of two seats on the Republican side”.
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“Then they will try to stop all the government reforms we are getting done for you, the American people,” he added.
Musk also announced that he would pay supporters $20 for every voter they recruit over the next two days.