Elon Musk gives a $1 million check made to the order of Ekaterina Diesler during a town hall in Green Bay, Wisconsin on March 30, 2025. (Photo by Robin LEGRAND / AFP)
Green Bay, United States: The world's richest man took to the stage in the US state of Wisconsin on Sunday in a bid to swing the local supreme court to the right, with the help of two $1 million checks for voters.
Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and SpaceX and an advisor to US President Donald Trump, deployed his largesse along with his rhetoric to try to turn out the vote on Tuesday in favor of a conservative judge.
Wisconsin is a swing state, in the balance between the Democratic and Republican parties, and Musk argued that only a supreme court leaning to the right could protect pro-Trump districts from gerrymandering and voter fraud.
"What's happening on Tuesday is a vote for which party controls the US House of Representatives," Musk declared, arguing that the federal congress was so evenly balanced Wisconsin's seats could decide its majority.
"And whichever party controls the House ... to a significant degree, controls the country, which then steers the course of Western civilization," said Musk, who arrived wearing the "cheese head" wedge hat favored by local football fans.
"So it's like, I feel like this is one of those things that may not seem that it's going to affect the entire destiny of humanity, but I think it will."
To back up this ambition, Musk has piled some of his own money into the Wisconsin Supreme Court vote.
The race pits conservative Brad Schimel against liberal Susan Crawford. The outgoing judge was backed by Democrats, so a Schimel win would tilt the court right, while Crawford would preserve its liberal leanings.
Wisconsin was won by Trump in the 2024 presidential election, but its electoral districts could be redrawn before the next mid-term Congressional elections in November next year.
The liberal candidate, 60-year-old Crawford, was campaigning Sunday the old-fashioned way, addressing a crowd at an antiques shop meeting on a rainy morning.
"So Elon Musk, folks, that guy, right? He has now spent more than $25 million, it goes up every day," Crawford told the crowd. "He's working as the unelected right-hand man to the president. He's got an agenda."
