Elections
Musk announces $1 million for Wisconsin voter in Supreme Court race. Opposition calls it ‘corrupt’
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Billionaire Elon Musk says a Wisconsin voter has been awarded $1 million days before the conclusion of a fiercely contested state Supreme Court election that has broken spending records and become a referendum on Musk and the first months of President Donald Trump’s administration.
The payment to a Green Bay man, which Musk announced Wednesday night on his social media platform X, is similar to a lottery that Musk’s political action committee ran last year in Wisconsin and other battleground states before the presidential election in November.
The upcoming election on Tuesday, filing a seat held by a liberal justice who is retiring, will determine whether Wisconsin’s highest court will remain under 4-3 liberal control or flip to a conservative majority. The race has become a proxy battle over the nation’s politics, with Trump and Musk getting behind Brad Schimel, the Republican-backed candidate in the officially nonpartisan contest.
The campaign for the Democratic-supported candidate, Susan Crawford, blasted the $1 million payment from Musk as an attempt to illegally buy influence on the court in a state where Tesla, his electric car company, has a lawsuit pending that could end up before the court.
“It’s corrupt, it’s extreme, and it’s disgraceful to our state and judiciary,” Crawford spokesperson Derrick Honeyman said in a statement.
No legal action against Musk’s payments to voters has been filed in Wisconsin with the Supreme Court election five days away.
Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, said the payments were a last-minute attempt to influence the election.
“Whether or not Wisconsinites will believe this is legitimate or not probably won’t be settled until after the election,” he said. “But this not what a Wisconsin Supreme Court election ought to be decided on. Races for the high court are supposed to be on judicial temperament and impartiality, not huge amounts of money for partisan purposes.”
Musk’s political action committee, America First, announced last week that it was offering $100 to voters who signed a petition in opposition to “activist judges.” He did not say there would be $1 million prizes at that time, but in his post on Wednesday said an additional $1 million award would be made in two days.
It was not clear who determined the winner of the $1 million or how it was done.
Musk’s political action committee used a nearly identical tactic before the White House election last year, offering to pay $1 million a day to voters in Wisconsin and six other battleground states who signed a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments.
It is a felony in Wisconsin to offer, give, lend or promise to lend or give anything of value to induce a voter to cast a ballot or not vote.
The Musk petition says it is open only to registered Wisconsin voters, but those who sign it are not required to show any proof that they actually voted.
The petition says: “Judges should interpret laws as written, not rewrite them to fit their personal or political agendas. By signing below, I’m rejecting the actions of activist judges who impose their own views and demanding a judiciary that respects its role — interpreting, not legislating.”
The petition, while designed to collect data on Wisconsin voters and energize them, also is in line with Trump’s agenda alleging that “activist” judges are illegally working against him. Trump’s administration is embroiled in several lawsuits related to his flurry of executive orders and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency effort to downsize the federal bureaucracy.
During last year’s presidential race, Philadelphia’s district attorney sued in an attempt to stop the payments under Pennsylvania law. But a judge said prosecutors failed to show the effort was an illegal lottery and allowed it to continue through Election Day.
America PAC and Building for America’s Future, two groups that Musk funds, have spent more than $17 million trying to help elect Schimel, according to a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice. Musk also has given the Wisconsin Republican Party $3 million this year, which it can then give to Schimel or spend on the race.
The Brennan Center said that on Crawford’s side, billionaire George Soros has spent $2 million on the race. Crawford has also received support from a state group that has ties to national dark money groups and Lynde Uihlein, a Wisconsin philanthropist, has spent $6.2 million.
More than $81 million has been spent on the race so far, obliterating the record for a judicial race in the U.S. of $51 million set in Wisconsin just two years ago, according to Brennan Center tallies.
Dylan
March 27, 2025 at 1:01 pm
How about the 1 million goes to the border, our veterans, or national defense…
Stop medaling in elections and let the American people decide. In what world is this not buying votes…
walden
March 27, 2025 at 6:00 pm
$1 million of Musk’s own money? Peanuts.
Biden/Harris spent a couple of TRILLION funneling $ to unions (esp NEA), thousands of non-profits to fatten up their headcount and deliver freebees to the public, billions to contractors for EV charging stations that were never built, billions to support illegal immigrants to ensure their future political fidelity, etc. And that was all taxpayer money spent to buy votes. It didn’t work; too bad, so sad the bill just came due and sacrifices are now being made to rebalance the budget.
Kevin
March 28, 2025 at 7:24 am
I am not clear why anyone would think this is ‘medaling’, perhaps meddling, but not medaling, unless one is thinking that it is a blue-ribbon way to bring attention to an election that may or may not bring critical attention to our society’s way of life and how the judicial branch ought to work.
It has occurred to me as of late, that with all the bitching going on in the country about how rotten the system is, how authoritarian Trump is or is not, there seems to be a ‘whole’ lot of money to spread about on nonsense activities.
Who would have thought that the economy is so good that we have money to spare, allowing our government to fund elective surgeries and drug treatments that promotes men thinking they are women, and women thinking they are men? Hell, even pushing it into children to forever foul up their physical and intellectual development. Forcing drugs and surgeries into their lives when they should be learning and playing. The drugs are lifetime commitment for these folks, that we pay for, either in higher insurance premiums, higher clinic/hospital bills, or higher taxes. For a non-life sustaining or even lifesaving treatment. Taking a perfectly healthy body and mind (maybe) and transforming it into something that is unstable and unpredictable.
Who would have thought that the economy is so good, and that money is so plentiful, that we would allow tens of millions of people across our borders and then we, the taxpayer pay for a phone, housing, free education, and health care just to provide, what, diversity in the low wage employee pool.
Who would have thought that we would allow tens of millions of illegal immigrants across our border, unvetted, unvaccinated, from all corners of the globe, no matter what. Doesn’t matter if they are healthy or ill, violent or peaceful, addicted or sober, lazy or ambitious, trafficked or trafficker. We let them in pay for them, fight to keep them here regardless of legal standing.
Rape someone, fine, we will keep you here in our jail and pay for your incarceration. Rob some one great, we will pay for your lawyer, pay for your jailed room and board, pay for your rehabilitation. Kill someone fine, we will find a lawyer for you, fine a good reason that you are not guilty and if you are, it will be someone else’s fault, so you are free to go. Traffic someone and we will applaud your entrepreneurial spirit.
Want to get pregnant 1 time, 3 times, 7 times and abort the baby, at societies expense, fine. We will figure out a way to kill that unborn child so that you, the mother and father, don’t have to inconvenience yourself with responsibility or accountability. Anyone that contests that solution should be hung out to dry, and jailed, even if it is just for praying for your soul and the should of that unborn child.
Want to find waste and fraud in the government, stop that. We like to bitch about that, complain about the corrupt politicians, but don’t go looking for it, and for darn sure, don’t you ever try to balance the budget. If you do, we will have to destroy your business, harass your families,
All these things and more, and the stuff we find to bitch about is someone that creates a lottery that simply informs the voter about activist judges. Judges that want to keep all this money and good will flowing into the people that create and unstable, unpredictable society.
We deserve what we get…. we voted for it…. we applaud it…. we beg for it; we burn down our communities and destroy other people’s property for it. Good job!
Bart
March 30, 2025 at 6:08 am
Kevin and Walden thank you . The EV station waste is spot on.Biden admin gave 8 Billion in 2021 for 500,000 charging stations . As of Oct 2024 , guess how many the Dems admitted were built? Admitted on live TV 7 !!!
Walden, I’m from the local radio era of Earl Hunter, Mike Kearns and Mike Hayes. The best in morning radio for LaCrosse . Now we have the opposite.