A good way to win a local election...Run against Musk.
Musk drops $1.5M into MAGA Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate's campaign. Will it be the kiss of death?
According to my own internal polling, Elon Musk is now officially the most awful and despised human being on the planet, narrowly beating out Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu.
Scotland’s former prime minister, Humza Yousaf, has even described him as "one of the most dangerous men on the planet.”
Yolanda Díaz, Spain’s Minister of Labor and Social Economy, announced she would quit X after “the entire world witnessed Elon Musk mimicking a Nazi salute during Donald Trump’s inauguration.”
Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, in response to Musk’s increasing involvement in European political issues, such as his support for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). "I find it worrying that a man with enormous access to social media and large financial resources is so directly involved in the internal affairs of other countries."
If more proof is needed…when I just tried to type Musk’s name into this blog post, it showed up on the computer screen as Elong Mush, and Grammarly did nothing to correct it. This shows that even my computer and AI think ill of him.
If I were a local candidate running as a progressive in a red or swing state, I’d hope that Musk would come out openly in support of my opponent. Case in point: Musk just tossed in a reported $1.5 million in TV ad buys across the state of Wisconsin to support Brad Schimel, a MAGA former Attorney General running for the State Supreme Court against progressive candidate Judge Susan Crawford in one of the most critical elections of 2025. The race is for an open seat on the Court, which currently has a 4–3 progressive majority.
Before the contribution, Crawford was 5 points behind. But since then, she has been running even with Schimel with a bullet. ⬆
I’m no campaign strategist, and I know that $1.5M — chump change for the world’s richest man — in your opponent’s war chest in a neck-and-neck is hard to beat. I’m also aware that Musk’s involvement could energize the state’s MAGA anti-immigrant, anti-abortion base. But I’m predicting that the Crawford campaign will be able to turn Musk’s support for Schimel into a kiss of death.
Musk critics like Janet Protasiewicz (a current Wisconsin Supreme Court justice) have accused Musk of trying to "buy" the court for an "extreme agenda" (e.g., banning abortion and attacking labor unions). Wisconsin is a swing state with a recent history of polarized politics, but the state Supreme Court shifted to a liberal majority (4-3) after Protasiewicz’s 2023 win.
If voters, including moderate Republicans (are there any left?), perceive Schimel as beholden to Musk’s agenda, his support will backfire, particularly if Crawford campaigns on a platform of judicial independence and opposition to outside influence. If Crawford leverages the Musk donation to portray Schimel as a puppet of Musk and Trump, it could sway many of the 25% who currently poll as undecided voters.
As Wisconsin’s Attorney General from 2015 to 2019, Schimel defended the state’s taxpayer-funded private school voucher program as constitutional. This program, allows public funds to be used for private school tuition (primarily religious schools).
Schimel, like Musk, is virulently anti-union. He has defended Act 10, the state’s right-to-work law. The Act, passed in 2011 under right-wing Governor Scott Walker, significantly curtailed public sector unions’ rights by limiting their collective bargaining abilities and prohibiting automatic deduction of union dues from workers’ paychecks. This law delivered a major blow to union power in Wisconsin.
If the state’s unions, especially Black and Latino union members in the cities, turn out strong for Crawford, she will win. But that’s a big IF. Remember back in 2016 how Hillary Clinton’s neglect of this potential voting bloc cost her the state of Wisconsin and practically handed Trump the election? I never underestimate the Democrats’ ability to blow an election.
That cannot/must not happen again.
