Elon Musk’s Attempt to Buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court Reaches a New Low

Daniel McGregor-Huyer/ZUMA Press

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Elon Musk has already spent more money—$20 million and counting—to flip the Wisconsin Supreme Court than any individual donor in the history of US judicial races.

His tactics go well beyond the usual campaign spending. First, he offered to pay voters $100 each for signing a petition from his America PAC opposing “activist judges.” Even the Musk and Trump-backed candidate, Brad Schimel, said he wouldn’t feel comfortable signing it. Then Musk said he’d awarded Scott Ainsworth, a mechanical engineer from Green Bay, $1 million for signing the petition.

“It’s clear what the intention is,” Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler said. “He’s trying to bribe voters. He’s trying to buy an election. This is totally out of line. This should not be how American democracy works.”

On Friday, he dramatically escalated this controversial tactic, saying he would travel to Wisconsin on Sunday to “personally hand over two checks for a million dollars each in appreciation for you taking the time to vote.” Unlike paying a Wisconsin resident to sign a petition, these million-dollar checks were contingent on someone actually voting.

Legal experts in Wisconsin and nationally quickly pointed out that Musk’s pledge violated the state constitution, which prohibits offering “anything of value…in order to induce any elector to…vote or refrain from voting.” Musk then abruptly backtracked, saying the $2 million prizes would only be offered to those who signed his petition, although the registration page for his town hall on Sunday in Green Bay asked how people planned to vote, which made it seem, once again, like attending the event and winning the money was contingent on voting.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul sued Musk on Friday afternoon, calling his vote-buying scheme “a blatant attempt to violate” Wisconsin law and alleging that “neither Musk nor America PAC have announced that the plan to make two $1 million payments to Wisconsin electors who have voted in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election has been cancelled.” 

Wisconsin Democrats pointed out that Musk’s initial pledge still violated the law, regardless of whether he retracted it. “It’s clear what the intention is,” Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler told me in Kenosha on Friday. “He’s trying to bribe voters. He’s trying to buy an election. This is totally out of line. This should not be how American democracy works.”

It’s increasingly clear that Musk will do almost anything to put his preferred justice on the court and extend his plan for oligarchy to the states—at the same time that Tesla is suing Wisconsin over a law preventing the company from selling its cars directly to consumers in the state.

Musk’s money, however, may also have a counter-effect: Wisconsin Democrats hope that Musk’s involvement in the race will motivate Democratic and progressive voters to turn out for the election given the unpopularity of his actions in Washington. “Musk is trying to buy Schimel a seat on the Supreme Court,” said a recent ad from Schimel’s opponent, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, “because he knows Schimel always helps his big campaign donors.”

In the campaign’s final days, the race has become even more of a referendum on Musk. “Voters casting a ballot for Susan Crawford are not only voting for their own freedom and their own democracy in their own state,” Wikler said, “they’re also sending a national message about whether wealth has unchecked power in this country, or whether the people still rule.”

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