Dem
47
GOP
53
Elon Musk thinks big. You have to give him credit for that. He not only wants to run the federal government, he also wants to have power in the states as well. Specifically, on April 1 (no joke), there will be an election for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The Court is nominally nonpartisan, but that doesn't fool anyone. Nothing is nonpartisan anymore. The outcome of this election will determine (partisan) control of the Court. When Janet Protasiewicz won an election to the Court in April 2023, the "Democrats" got their first majority in 15 years. If the liberal candidate wins in April, they will hold it. Otherwise, it will revert to Republican control. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has a number of hot-button issues lined up, including abortion, unions, and the congressional and state maps. Democrats have a shot at flipping the state House next year. And since Wisconsin is a key swing state, the election is very important.
The election is an open-seat election because liberal justice Ann Walsh Bradley is retiring after three 10-year terms. The candidates are the liberal Susan Crawford, a state judge in Madison, and the conservative Brad Schimel, a state judge in Waukesha County.
Enter Elon Musk. Although he doesn't live in Wisconsin, he seems to have a keen interest in this election. What a public-spirited guy! He has been boosting Schimel on eX-Twitter and has also donated an initial $1.5 million to a group he (Musk) controls, Building America's Future, to support Schimel. Musk will not be the only person from outside Wisconsin to be chiming in. The race is already nationalized. George Soros, Reid Hoffman, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) have already backed Crawford. As the race gets more attention, both candidates will be sucking in money from all over the country. If Crawford gets too much, Musk will undoubtedly raise the ante.
This will be the first race in 2025 that is effectively a national race. There probably won't be another one until the Virginia gubernatorial election in November, though the NYC mayoralty race could also be nationalized, depending on how the Eric Adams case plays out. (V)