Photo: Getty Images
Elon Musk is handing out $1 million checks to voters ahead of a Wisconsin Supreme Court election.
During a rally on Sunday (March 30) in Green Bay, Musk doled out the seven-figure checks to two Wisconsin voters as he spoke in support of Brad Schimel, the conservative favorite in Tuesday's (April 1) race for a seat on the state's Supreme Court, per The Guardian.
“It’s a super big deal,” Musk said to crowd of roughly 2,000 people while wearing a yellow cheesehead hat. “I’m not phoning it in. I’m here in person.”
Over $20 million has been spent by Musk and other groups in support of Schimel as the outcome of the race will determine the ideological makeup of the battleground state's highest court. The court is currently controlled four-to-three by liberal justices. Justices are expected to rule on abortion rights, congressional redistricting, union power, and voting rules that could affect the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election in Wisconsin.
“I think this will be important for the future of civilization,” Musk said Sunday. “It’s that’s significant.”
Susan Crawford, the liberal favorite in Tuesday's race, and her allies have argued that Musk is using his influence and power to control who he wants to have on the court. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) attempted to block Musk from handing out the $1 million checks, but the state supreme court refused to hear his case in a ruling that came just minutes before Sunday's rally began.
Two lower courts had already rejected Kaul's legal challenge, in which he argued that Musk's giveaway violates state law.
“Wisconsin law prohibits offering anything of value to induce anyone to vote,” Kaul wrote in his filing. “Yet, Elon Musk did just that.”
Musk's attorneys argued in their filings that the tech billionaire was exercising his free speech rights by handing out the checks.
The payments are “intended to generate a grassroots movement in opposition to activist judges, not to expressly advocate for or against any candidate,” Musk’s attorneys said in court filings.
Musk's legal team had also asked that two liberal justices who previously campaigned for Crawford recuse themselves from the case, arguing that they held "inappropriate bias." Both justices declined the request.
In a statement, Schimel said he does not control “any of the spending from any outside group, whether it’s Elon Musk or anyone else."
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