Democrats crowed with glee after Wisconsin voters rebuffed Elon Musk’s attempt to spend his way to victory in a critical election for a seat on the state Supreme Court.
The Tesla and SpaceX billionaire had reportedly poured a record $21 million into Tuesday’s race between a Trump-backed judge, Brad Schimel and the liberal Susan Crawford, who won by about 10 percentage points. To the chagrin of MAGAworld, the result maintains the 4-3 liberal majority in the state Supreme Court.
Musk had personally campaigned in the state, even wearing a cheesehead hat at one rally, and warned in a tele-town hall appearance on the eve of the election that defeat would be “catastrophic.”
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Crawford referenced his failure in her own victory speech. “Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale,” she said.
“As a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin. And we won.”
True to form, Texas Democrat Jasmine Crockett was more forthright in her message. “Well well well, I guess Wisconsin agreed on the message for old Elon: “F’ off!” she wrote on X.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) called the Democrat-backed liberal judge’s clear win an “a**-kicking.” He added on X: “Where else does Elon want to try and buy an election?”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries went on TV to drag the Tesla CEO. He told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell that Republicans should “walk away” from the “unelected, unpopular, unhinged and un-American billionaire puppet master.”
“Elon Musk was just decisively rejected by the voters of Wisconsin. He tried to spend his unlimited resources to buy a state Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin—and it failed spectacularly," he added.
“The voters rejected Donald Trump, they rejected Elon Musk and the rejected the rapidly deteriorating Republican brand.”
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker used less words to make the same point. “Elon Musk is not good at this,” he wrote on Musk’s own social media platform.
Former President Barack Obama had been plugging Crawford in the lead-up to the critical vote. He was more demure in his victory message, writing: “Congratulations to Judge Susan Crawford on her victory, and to the people of Wisconsin for electing a judge who believes in the rule of law and protecting our freedoms.”
Despite literally saying the vote could “determine the fate of Western civilization,” Musk quickly changed his tune after his embarrassing loss.
Musk, who in the lead-up to polling even handed out $1 million checks to voters, highlighted a Wisconsin ballot measure that enshrined voter ID laws in the state constitution.
“This was the most important thing,” he wrote in a post on X, ignoring the fact that Wisconsin already demands voters produce ID.
