Wisconsin
Billionaires Musk and Soros push Wisconsin Supreme Court race spending over $100M
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Spending by billionaires including Elon Musk and George Soros has helped to push total spending on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race won by the Democratic-backed candidate over $100 million, the Brennan Center for Law reported Friday.
That is the most ever spent on a U.S. court race and roughly double the previous record of $51 million spent in 2023, also on a Wisconsin Supreme Court election. Both contests were for ideological control of the court in the battleground state.
For perspective, the $100 million spent on this race is roughly the same as was spent on 68 supreme court elections across 26 states in 2021 and 2022 combined, according to a Brennan Center tally.
Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford won the election Tuesday over Waukesha County Circuit Judge Brad Schimel, who had the endorsement of Musk and President Donald Trump.
Musk spent at least $3 million on the race himself and groups he funds spent nearly $19 million more, according to the Brennan Center. Democratic billionaires George Soros and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker spent a combined $3.5 million to help Crawford.
Musk’s America PAC handed out $1 million checks to three Wisconsin voters who signed a petition against “activist” judges. Musk delivered two of the checks in person on Sunday. Signers of the petition were offered $100 each, payments Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general challenged unsuccessfully in court.
Several other billionaires on both sides helped fuel the unprecedented spending that also broke records for turnout in a Wisconsin court race when there was no presidential primary on the same ballot. More than 50% of the voting age population cast ballots in Tuesday’s race that Crawford won by 10 points.
Her victory keeps the state’s highest court under a 4-3 liberal majority as it has been since 2023. It will face several high-profile cases in the coming years, including those affecting abortion rights, union powers, voting rules and congressional redistricting.
Schimel lost despite having a spending advantage of almost $8 million, according to the Brennan Center. Schimel and his supporters spent $54 million compared with $46.2 million for Crawford, the Brennan Center found.
Judicial races used to be low-cost, relatively staid contests but in recent years there has been a major boost in interest and spending.
There is a growing understanding nationwide about the importance of state supreme court races as policy fights over the hottest issues of the day, including abortion rights, are playing out there, said Douglas Keith, senior counsel in the judiciary program at the Brennan Center.
But this year’s Wisconsin race shattered all expectations, moving into territory normally seen in a governor’s race.
Spending on the Wisconsin governor’s race in 2022, won by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, was $164 million, a record high for the state.
nick
April 5, 2025 at 6:45 am
Well , no we know for sure that George Soros was pouring money into this campaign as well as Musk.
It is about time that Soros was mentioned.
Libertarian Guy
April 5, 2025 at 11:20 am
The unfortunate circumstances about the Supreme Court race:
1. Pregnancy in the 21st-century is preventable via a variety of means such as: responsible sexual practices, abstinence, and a myriad of birth control methods. The exceptions to the statement are rape and incest In which, as governor Evers would say, an inseminated person had no choice in the matter. That is, when a crime has been committed. Crawford, Among many others, is on record calling abortion healthcare. That’s really twisted. instead of promoting responsible, sexual practices and birth control, she and most Democrats are advocates for killing babies as a method of birth control and the unborn child, the blessing of life/pregnancy is terminated. Susan Crawford‘s role on the Supreme Court will be to interpret existing law. Abortion was not on the ballot as Democrats contend. It is up to the legislature to change the law.
2. Democrats knew Brad Schimel would win this election, So they made it about Elon Musk and villainize the man who has accomplished many things on behalf of America: electric vehicles, saving the astronauts, giving millions of dollars for hurricane relief, providing phones in disaster areas where Government failed, and attempting to block the bankrupting of America.
3. The last extremely unfortunate thing is the way media, including WIZM purposely fail to report news objectively and fairly. This race was decided by outside money from the likes of Hungarian Born George Soros And the governor of the bankrupt state of Illinois, JB Pritzger. Elon Musk got involved to counter the Democrat steamroller.
Come On Man
April 5, 2025 at 1:02 pm
It’s funny when the other shoe drops, and the news comes out about George Soros was also involved in the Wisconsin election.
The news of this just happens to come out over the weekend when less citizens read the WIZM News Talk.
Confirms what we already knew, fair and balanced news will never be a strong suit for WIZM.
Why is it so damn hard to report both sides of the news story and let the readers decide what to believe?
Didn’t your parents teach you “there are two sides to every story”?
Roy
April 6, 2025 at 9:40 am
The media would answer “We reported on Musk before the election and Soros after the election. That’s fair.”
Libertarian guy
April 6, 2025 at 1:15 pm
Yes, exactly. Just like the media called the Hunter laptop Russian disinformation before the election. After the disastrous Joe Biden won the presidency, only then did the media slowly admit Hunter‘s laptop was real. This is how media manipulates the public and it continues to this day.
walden
April 6, 2025 at 1:48 pm
Well, it turns out Musk gave $3 million. Pritzker and Soros gave combined $3.5 million. So, one would think an actual journalist would tip us off on where the other $93.5 million of the funds came from. Alas, no.
This type of information management is what happens when the actual facts don’t fit the “here’s what we want you to believe today” storyline.
More garbage from the AP regurgitated by WIZM.