A nonprofit with links to billionaire and GOP megadonor Elon Musk is spending over a million dollars in the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, a high stakes contest that will decide whether liberals or conservatives control the state's highest judicial body.
Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler said in a statement Monday that the news is a sign that Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump know the Wisconsin Supreme Court could be a check "on their lawless coup"—likely in reference to efforts by Musk and the Trump administration more broadly to radically reshape the federal government in recent weeks.
The dark money group, Building America's Future—which was a financial backer for several Republican-alignedsuper political action committees (PACs) during the 2024 cycle—is spending at least $1.5 million in the state, including on ads that are slated to start running later this week, Politicoreported Wednesday. Wisconsin outlets first reported that Building America's Future was involved in the race on Monday.
The ads are expected to be in support of GOP-backed candidate Brad Schimel, who is facing off against liberal-aligned candidate Susan Crawford, and whom Musk has boosted on social media.
In October 2024, multiple outlets reported that Musk gave millions to Building America's Future. According to Reuters, those donations started in 2022, "illustrating quiet financial support for right-wing causes even before the billionaire entrepreneur in July endorsed former President Donald Trump's bid for reelection."
"Musk's attempt to buy Wisconsin's Supreme Court is a red alert that his attack on democracy isn't limited to gutting the federal government," Wikler said. "He wants it all."
In a similar vein, Crawford's campaign spokesperson Derrick Honeyman told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that "it's not surprising that Schimel is groveling for the support of shady special interests—he's already been caught begging on his knees for far-right donors to give him cash, and now Elon seems to be answering his pleas."
At a recent event in Jefferson County, Schimel "all but begged" conservative groups to get involved in the race and lamented the cost of TV ads, according to the Journal Sentinel.
Crawford herself has weighed in, writing on X on Tuesday, "Elon Musk is buying off Brad Schimel."
Dark money groups were expected to wade into this race given the Wisconsin Supreme Court's prominence in national politics in recent years.
In April 2023, elected Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, flipping majority control of the body from conservative to liberal for the first time in 15 years. Groups like unions and the political arm of Planned Parenthood donated money in support of Protasiewicz—an outspoken supporter of abortion rights, ballot access, and union protections.
In summer 2024, the state Supreme Court moved to reinstate the ability to return absentee ballots via drop boxes in Wisconsin, a state the U.S. President Donald Trump narrowly won that November.
In January, Musk re-posted a social media comment about Protasiewicz's victory and the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision to reinstate the drop boxes for absentee ballots and wrote: "Very important to vote Republican for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to prevent voting fraud!"
The race is one of the first high-profile special elections to take place after Trump's victory in November, and looking ahead, the ideological makeup of the Wisconsin Supreme Court could influence the maps used in elections for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026, per Politico.
