MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin might go down as billionaire Elon Musk’s final huge spend on a political marketing campaign.
And it was a flop.
Musk, the richest particular person on this planet, mentioned Tuesday that he would be spending less on political campaigns. The announcement got here as Musk is stepping back from his role within the Trump administration, saying he’ll spend extra time centered on his companies, and simply seven weeks after the candidate he backed in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court docket race lost by 10 percentage points.
Democrats within the swing state mentioned Musk’s feedback present {that a} party-led effort on this spring’s election, dubbed “ People vs. Musk, ” succeeded in making Musk and his cash “poisonous.”
“The folks have received,” mentioned Wisconsin Democratic Occasion Chairman Ben Wikler. “The most important funder in Republican politics is taking his toys and going residence.”
Brandon Scholz, a retired longtime Republican strategist within the state, mentioned that no less than in Wisconsin, “after that court docket race he deserves to be labeled as poisonous.”
However that doesn’t imply Musk couldn’t spend cash on races within the state and nationally once more, particularly if the stakes are excessive and his cash might make a distinction, Scholz mentioned.
“Does he carry with him numerous baggage? Presumably,” Scholz mentioned. “However over time, possibly not as a lot.”
Musk’s spending on this yr’s Wisconsin Supreme Court docket race helped make it the most costly court docket race in U.S. historical past. And it got here simply 5 months after Musk spent at least $250 million to assist President Donald Trump win, reversing losses in Wisconsin and different battleground states 4 years earlier.
Musk was all-in on the Wisconsin Supreme Court docket race, even making a private look in Inexperienced Bay the weekend earlier than the election sporting a cheesehead hat — well-liked with followers of the NFL’s Inexperienced Bay Packers — and personally handing out checks for $1 million to supporters. It was an extension of Musk’s high-profile function within the presidential race, the place he campaigned alongside Trump and headlined a few of his personal rallies.
“It’s an excellent huge deal,” he advised the roughly 2,000-person crowd within the occasion middle, the place a whole lot of protesters have been rallying in opposition to his look exterior. “I’m not phoning it in. I’m right here in particular person.”
However his look — and cash — didn’t work.
The candidate Musk backed misplaced Brown County, the house of Inexperienced Bay, by 3 share factors, happening to lose statewide by greater than 3 times that margin.
After the defeat, Musk has mentioned little publicly in regards to the race and his involvement in it. His reputation has additionally plummeted.
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs poll taken two weeks after the Wisconsin court docket election discovered that simply 33% of adults had a positive view of the Tesla CEO, down from 41% in December.
Musk’s involvement within the race got here on the similar time he was the chain-saw-wielding face of the Trump administration’s effort to downsize the federal authorities.
His Division of Authorities Effectivity, also called DOGE, has enacted deep cuts to the workforce and spending, in some instances in search of to shutter total companies, nevertheless it has fallen far wanting its objectives for decreasing federal spending.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, of Wisconsin, is without doubt one of the most liberal members of Congress and a loud critic of each Trump and Musk.
Pocan is skeptical that Musk actually will again away.
“I don’t consider any of it, initially,” Pocan mentioned. “This simply means they understand how poisonous Elon Musk is and the work he did via DOGE.”
Kelda Roys, a Democratic state senator, was additionally tempered in her pleasure over Musk saying he plans to do a “lot much less” political spending sooner or later.
“There’s a ton of different billionaire bros, I’m certain, prepared and joyful to step up in his place,” Roys mentioned.
Musk might additionally become involved with future races, however in a way more low-profile manner, mentioned Scholz, the Republican.
“In Wisconsin, he had such an enormous, enormous, enormous profile,” Scholz mentioned. “He turned the marketing campaign. He turned the story.”
Musk spent no less than $3 million on the Wisconsin Supreme Court docket race himself. Musk-backed teams America PAC and a Rebuilding America’s Future spent one other $19 million in help of the Republican-backed candidate Brad Schimel. That was a part of greater than $100 million spent on each side.
America PAC spent no less than $6 million on distributors who despatched door-to-door canvassers throughout the state, in keeping with the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Marketing campaign. It was a reprise of what the group did final fall throughout the seven best presidential battleground states, together with Wisconsin, which have been carried by Trump.
Along with his political contributions, Musk paid three particular person voters $1 million every for signing a petition in an effort to goose turnout. Musk additionally provided to pay $20 to anybody who signed up on his group’s web site to knock on doorways for Schimel and posted a photograph of themselves as proof. His group promised $100 to each voter who signed the petition in opposition to “activist judges” and one other $100 for each signer they referred.
Musk himself hosted Schimel on his podcast and solid what was at stake in stark phrases.
“A seemingly small election might decide the destiny of Western civilization,” Musk mentioned in a social media put up on the April 1 election day. “I feel it issues for the way forward for the world.”
Democrats made the race a referendum on each Musk and Trump’s agenda, efficiently electing a choose whose victory ensures the Wisconsin Supreme Court docket will stay below liberal management till no less than 2028.
Coincidentally, Musk’s announcement about spending much less on political races got here simply hours after a liberal choose announced her candidacy for the 2026 Wisconsin Supreme Court docket race.
Wisconsin Appeals Court docket Decide Chris Taylor is difficult a conservative incumbent justice who sided with Trump in his unsuccessful lawsuit that tried to overturn his 2020 loss in Wisconsin. The race will probably be determined in April, months earlier than the midterms wherein Democrats hope unease with Trump and Musk will assist the get together make positive factors.
Taylor gave the impression to be taking an identical method to her marketing campaign that the successful Democratic-backed candidate did this yr.
“My marketing campaign goes to be a marketing campaign in regards to the folks of this state,” she advised The Related Press, “not about billionaires, not about probably the most highly effective.”
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Related Press author Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
