The liberal-leaning Wisconsin Supreme Court has responded to a request by the state’s Democratic attorney general to halt billionaire Elon Musk’s handing out $1 million checks ahead of a crucial Tuesday election.
All seven members — 4 liberals and three conservatives — rejected AG Josh Kaul’s emergency request on Sunday to prevent Musk from continuing.
The filing came as Musk was set to host an America PAC town hall in Green Bay on Sunday night. There, Musk handed over $1 million checks to two voters who signed a petition against “activist judges.”
“The reason for the checks is that, it’s really just to get attention,” Musk said while holding a gigantic check. “It’s like, we need to get attention….somewhat inevitably, when I do this….it causes the legacy media to, like, kind of lose their minds.”
Wisconsin voters elect Supreme Court justices for 10-year terms, and Musk was there to support candidate Brad Schimel, a Republican and former state attorney general.
In his filing, Kaul asked the state high court to reach a decision “as soon as possible but no later than the planned event on Sunday evening.” The AG argued that Musk’s giveaway violates state election laws, though the two recipients of Musk’s forthcoming checks have already cast their ballots in the election.
“The offer to pay $1 million to two Wisconsin electors, conditioned on their having voted in the upcoming election, is a violation of Wisconsin Statute § 12.11, which prohibits offering ‘anything of value’ in exchange for “vot[ing] or refrain[ing] from voting,” the attorney general’s filing stated, per Fox News.
“Wisconsin law prohibits offering anything of value to induce anyone to vote. Yet, Elon Musk did just that,” Kaul falsely claimed.
In response, Musk’s attorneys maintained that the payments are “intended to generate a grassroots movement in opposition to activist judges, not to expressly advocate for or against any candidate.”
Schimel told “Fox News Sunday” that he does not control “any of the spending from any outside group, whether it’s Elon Musk or anyone else.”
“That’s exactly what I’ve committed to anybody, whether it’s President Trump, Elon Musk or any donors and donors or supporters or voters in Wisconsin,” the candidate added. “That’s my commitment.”
In a statement on X, Musk wrote that “entrance is limited to those who have signed the petition in opposition to activist judges.”
“I will also hand over checks for a million dollars to 2 people to be spokesmen for the petition,” Musk added.
Musk and voter registration activist Scott Presler have been working overtime to motivate Republicans to turn out for the election, with the GOP majority in the U.S. House literally at stake.
America PAC, initially formed to support President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, is spending $1 million to back conservative Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel’s canvassing and field operations.
Another Musk-backed group, Building America’s Future, purchased $1.5 million in commercials to support the conservative candidate.
His opponent is liberal judge Susan Crawford, and whoever takes the race will decide the balance of power in the important swing state’s highest court.
That matters because a Crawford victory means the court’s current 4-3 liberal majority will remain intact and justices will likely approve a gerrymandering of the state’s congressional districts that will cost Republicans at least two U.S. House seats, potentially flipping the chamber to Democrats in 2026.
The state is split between a Democrat governor and a Republican legislature, so the Supreme Court “is the center of the action,” University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Barry Burden told CNN last month. “It’s become a place where a lot of hot-button issues people care about get decided.”
Meanwhile, Presler — who has been credited with helping flip Pennsylvania red during the last election cycle by registering tens of thousands of new Republican voters — is warning that there could be a repeat of a blowout 2023 election in the state in which liberal-leaning Janet Protasiewicz beat conservative candidate Dan Kelly and flipped the balance of the court.
“I tried to warn people in 2023, and here is what I’m saying now: if Wisconsinites don’t pay attention to this race, history is going to repeat itself, and you’re going to have this court stay under Democrat control,” Presler told Breitbart News earlier this month.
The election is Tuesday, though early voting has been going on for around two weeks.
