Madison, Wisconsin – – Wisconsin could drop in billionaire Elon Musk Last major expenses for a political campaign.
And It was a flop.
Musk, the richest person in the world, said on Tuesday that he Would be less spending on political campaigns. The announcement came while Musk is withdraw from your role In the Trump administration, saying that he will spend more time focus on his businesses, and only seven weeks after the candidate he supported in the Supreme Court of Wisconsin Lost of 10 percentage points.
The Democrats of the State of Swing said that Musk’s comments show that an effort led by the party during the elections of this spring, nicknamed ” People vs musk, “Managed to make Musk and his” toxic “money.
“The people have won,” said the president of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Ben Wikler. “The largest funder in republican policy is to take his toys and go home.”
Brandon Scholz, a long -standing republican strategist for state retirement, said that at least in Wisconsin, “after this legal race, he deserves to be labeled as toxic.”
But that does not mean that Musk could not spend money on state races and again nationally, especially if the issues are high and his money could make a difference, said Scholz.
“Does he bring with him a lot of luggage? Maybe,” said Scholz. “But over time, maybe not as much.”
Musk’s expenses in the Wisconsin Supreme Court of this year have contributed to the most expensive judicial race in the history of the United States. And he came only five months after Musk spent At least $ 250 million To help President Donald Trump to win, reversing defeats in Wisconsin and other states of the battlefield four years earlier.
Musk was all in the race of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, even making a personal appearance in Green Bay the weekend before the elections carrying a Cheese hat – Popular with fans of NFL Green Bay packers – and personally distribute checks of $ 1 million to supporters. It was an extension of the very publicized role of Musk in the presidential race, where he Campaign next to Trump and woven some of his own gatherings.
“This is a very big problem,” he told the crowd of around 2,000 people in the event center, where hundreds of demonstrators gathered against his appearance outside. “I don’t do the Iphoné. I am here in person. “
But his appearance – and his money – did not work.
The Musk candidate supported Lost Brown County, the house of Green Bay, of 3 percentage points, which loses this margin more than three times.
After the defeat, Musk publicly said little about the race and its involvement. Its popularity has also dropped.
A Associated Press-Noc Center for Public Affairs Survey Taken two weeks after the Wisconsin court elections revealed that only 33% of adults had a favorable view of the CEO of Tesla, against 41% in December.
Musk’s involvement in the race came at the same time as he was the to brandish chain saw Faced with the Trump administration effort to reduce the federal government.
His Ministry of Government Effectiveness, also known as Doge, has promulgated deep cuts on workforce and expenses, in some cases seeking to close entire agencies, but it is far from its federal expenses reduction objectives.
The Democrat representative of the United States Mark Pocan, of Wisconsin, is one of the most liberal members of Congress and a great critic of Trump and Musk.
Pocan is skeptical that Musk really backs up.
“I don’t believe anything, first of all,” said Pocan. “It simply means that they do how much Elon Musk is toxic and the work he did in Doge.”
Kelda Roys, a senator from the Democratic State, was also tempered in her excitement compared to Musk saying that he planned to make political expenses “much less” in the future.
“There are a ton of other billionaire brothers, I am sure, arranged and happy to intervene in its place,” said Roys.
Musk could also get involved in future races, but much lower, said Scholz, the Republican.
“In the Wisconsin, he had a huge, huge and huge profile,” said Scholz. “He became the campaign. He became history.”
Musk spent at least $ 3 million on the Supreme Court of Wisconsin himself. Groups supported by America PAC muscles and a reconstruction of the future of America spent an additional $ 19 million to support the candidate supported by the Republican Brad Schimel. It was part of more than $ 100 million spent on both sides.
America PAC spent at least $ 6 million on sellers who sent door to door through the state, according to the Wisconsin non -partisan democracy campaign. It was a resumption of what the group did last fall in the seven states of the most competitive presidential battlefield, including the Wisconsin, which was worn by Trump.
In addition to his political contributions, Musk paid three individual voters to $ 1 million each to have signed a petition in order to speed flesh. Musk also offered to pay $ 20 to all those who have registered on the site of his group to knock on the doors of Schimel and posted a photo of themselves as proof. His organization promised $ 100 to each voter who signed the petition against the “militant judges” and an additional $ 100 for each signatory they have referred.
Musk himself welcomed Schimel on his podcast and threw what was at stake in Stark terms.
“An apparently small election could determine the fate of Western civilization,” Musk said in an article on social networks on April 1st elections. “I think it matters for the future of the world.”
Democrats have raised A referendum on the agenda of Musk and Trump, successfully electing a judge whose victory guarantees that the Supreme Court of Wisconsin will remain under liberal control until 2028.
By coincidence, Musk’s announcement about spending less in political class came a few hours after a liberal judge announced his candidacy For the Supreme Court of Wisconsin 2026.
The judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeal, Chris Taylor, questions a conservative titular justice which went beyond with Trump in his unsuccessful trial which tried to cancel his defeat in 2020 in Wisconsin. The race will be decided in April, months before the middle of the middle where the Democrats hope that the discomfort with Trump and Musk will help the party to make earnings.
Taylor seemed to adopt an approach similar to his campaign that the winning candidate supported by Democrat made this year.
“My campaign will be a campaign on the inhabitants of this state,” she told the Associated Press, “not on the billionaires, not on the most powerful.”
___
The writer Associated Press Thomas Beaumont to monks, Iowa, contributed to this report.