A group with ties to Elon Musk is pouring more than $1 million into Wisconsin’s upcoming Supreme Court race — a sign that even as Musk races to overhaul Washington, his influence extends beyond it.
Musk has directly boosted the Republican-backed candidate in the Wisconsin race on his powerful X platform. And a Republican-aligned group, Building America’s Future, is spending at least $1.5 million in the state, with ads set to start running later this week. Musk has donated to the group in the past, and it has backed some of President Donald Trump’s controversial Cabinet picks.
The new rush of money comes as Democrats put up strong performances in small-bore special elections since Trump took office. The high-stakes Wisconsin bellwether race will be the biggest test yet for both parties — and for Musk, who spent millions of dollars to help Trump win the election and is now looking to influence politics in the states. It’s officially a nonpartisan race, but the Supreme Court weighs in on major questions including redistricting, abortion and labor rights. Democrat-aligned Susan Crawford faces GOP-backed Brad Schimel, and the outcome will determine whether liberals or conservatives control the state’s highest court.
“It feels like a very clear sign that he knows what we know, which is that this is the most important election of the new Trump era,” said Yasmin Radjy, executive director of Swing Left, a Democratic-aligned group working on volunteer efforts targeting the Wisconsin race.
The spending already makes Building America’s Future the second-largest Republican-aligned spender in the race so far, behind Schimel’s campaign. A Building America’s Future spokesperson declined to comment. But the group has already begun throwing its weight around, backing some key parts of Trump’s agenda. It paid for digital ads in December pushing Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) to support Pete Hegseth’s nomination for secretary of Defense, which she ultimately did.
Musk posted on X last month that it was “Very important to vote Republican” in the upcoming Wisconsin race to “prevent voting fraud,” citing the liberal court’s decision to allow absentee ballot drop boxes ahead of the 2024 election. Trump won Wisconsin narrowly in 2024.
“Susan Crawford has nationalized this race on her own, but we can’t control what happens outside of our campaign,” said Schimel campaign spokesperson Jacob Fischer, who added that Crawford has received the backing of Democratic megadonor George Soros, venture capitalist Reid Hoffman and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
On X, Crawford said: “Elon Musk is buying off Brad Schimel.”
Musk emerged as a major political spender last cycle, pouring at least $290 million of his own money into boosting Republican candidates. Most of his funds aimed to help elect Trump, but his America PAC also spent $19.2 million across more than a dozen competitive House races. Musk said on X after the election that America PAC would “keep grinding” in preparation for special elections and the midterms.
The engagement from Musk and money from Building America’s Future are part of a broader national interest in the Wisconsin election — and state Supreme Court races across the map. As more and more political fights are decided by the courts, parties and outside groups see state court elections as increasingly potent centers of power.
The Wisconsin race has already attracted significant outside money. House Freedom Action, the campaign arm of the House Freedom Caucus, dropped at least $50,000 in the past week to attack Crawford. One ad from the group decries her as a “left-wing extremist who will turn Wisconsin into Illinois,” while another names Soros, Hoffman and Pritzker among her financial backers.
Crawford’s campaign has booked $4.8 million in ad reservations, according to data from AdImpact, which tracks political advertising, compared to $4.1 million for Schimel. Major outside spenders already included the liberal group A Better Wisconsin Together, which has spent more than $2.3 million on TV, and the conservative-backed Fair Courts America, which has spent more than $1.3 million.
Building America’s Future is a nonprofit, so its donors have not been disclosed publicly. But Musk gave to Building America’s Future in 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported last October, and other news outlets confirmed. Musk also shared one of the group’s videos on X prior to the November election. Last year, the group was a major backer of several Republican-aligned super PACs, including two groups — Duty for America and Future Coalition PAC — that aimed to boost Trump with minority voters. It also helped fund a third super PAC, Stand For Us PAC, that spent in down-ballot Republican primaries.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court race is perhaps the most significant special election so far this cycle. Republicans are attempting to take back control of the court after Democrat Janet Protasiewicz flipped a seat in 2023, a high-profile race that amounted to the most expensive state Supreme Court race in history. Democrats used their newfound majority to draw new maps, which allowed Democrats to pick up more seats in the state legislature. They have a shot at flipping the statehouse next year. The composition of the Supreme Court could sway maps used in upcoming U.S. House elections in 2026.
The investment from Building America’s Future didn’t come as a total surprise in Wisconsin. Conservative groups were expected to get involved after Schimel recently bemoaned the cost of TV ads in the expensive media market, essentially pleading for outsiders to invest.
“They want somebody on the court who can be part of a majority who’s going to look out for corporations and who’s going to come after basic rights and freedoms,” said Sam Roecker, a Democratic political consultant who worked on past state Supreme Court campaigns, including Protasiewitz’s race.
“This is the first big race of 2025, so there will be national attention on that,” he said.
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