‘Did Exactly What Elon Musk Told Everyone to Do’: Musk’s PAC Scrambles to Coverup Tracks After $1M Giveaway Recipient Reveals She Was Paid to ‘Vote’ In Wisconsin Supreme Court Election
It’s been a bad week for the world’s richest man.
First, he invested $21 million in the Republican candidate, Brad Schimel, running in a Wisconsin Supreme Court election that would determine the court’s ideological tilt. Elon Musk, using Trump-like hyperbole, raised the stakes considerably when he claimed the race would determine “the future of America and Western Civilization.”
America and Western Civilization lost, at least to Musk’s way of thinking, and some political figures believe Musk played a significant role in progressive Susan Crawford’s win.
Wisconsin voters “stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price, our courts are not for sale,” Crawford told supporters Tuesday.
Crawford-supporting Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, referencing politics, noted that Musk was “not good at this.”
The Tesla CEO and StarLink founder was a fixture on the campaign trail, even appearing two days before the election in a cheesehead hat. Crawford highlighted his opposition, hoping to capitalize on Musk’s growing unpopularity. A recent poll found that 58 percent of respondents disapproved of his work as head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Apparently her strategy worked. But Musk may not have the Wisconsin election in his rear view mirror just yet.
As part of his effort to elect Schimel, Musk, through his political action committee, offered financial incentives ranging from $20 and $100 payouts for signatures and referrals to a pair of $1 million checks that he handed out during his visit to Green Bay on Sunday.
The winner of one of those checks posted a video that could prove to be problematic for Musk.
“I did exactly what Elon Musk told everyone to do: sign the petition, refer friends and family, vote, and now I have a million dollars,” said Ekaterina Deistler in the original version of the now-deleted video that was posted Monday.
The video was pulled and reappeared Tuesday virtually intact, minus one word: “vote.”
That’s because, in Wisconsin, it’s a felony to offer “anything of value” to “any elector” to encourage them to “vote or refrain from voting,” regardless of who receives their vote.
Election experts warned Musk he risked running afoul of state bribery laws after he vowed to hand out two $1 million checks “in appreciation for you taking the time to vote. Wisconsin AG Josh Kaul called it a “clear violation” of election law and attempted to derail the giveaway. Even Grok, the featured AI program on Musk’s social media platform, X, found its creator’s efforts to be shady.
“Elon Musk’s $1M checks for voting in WI’s Supreme Court election likely violate Wisconsin law (Statute 12.11), which bans offering value to induce or reward voting,” Grok wrote after being asked by a user if the move was “election fraud.”
Musk later “clarified” that the winners would not serve as “spokespeople” for his anti-judicial activism campaign.
On Wednesday, Musk downplayed the loss, saying he “expected to lose.” More important, he said, was the approval of a voter ID referendum.
House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told MSNBC that it was time for Republicans “to walk away from this unelected, unpopular, unhinged and un-American billionaire puppet master.”
“Elon Musk was just rejected decisively by the voters of Wisconsin,” Jeffries continued. “He tried to spend his unlimited resources to buy a state Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin and it failed spectacularly.”