Wisconsin Democrats Frame Supreme Court Race as ‘First Referendum on Musk-ism’
If possible, Musk has eclipsed Trump as Public Enemy Number One among the Democrats. So much so, in fact, that Wisconsin Democrats consider his influence to be a key issue the upcoming Supreme Court Justice election in the state.
Ever since his headlong leap into national politics last summer with his high-profile endorsement of President Donald Trump, Elon Musk has been making liberal heads explode. The activities of his handpicked team of tech wizards, aka the Department of Government Efficiency, have only exacerbated the situation.
If possible, Musk has eclipsed Trump as Public Enemy Number One among the Democrats. So much so, in fact, that Wisconsin Democrats consider his influence to be a key issue in the upcoming Supreme Court Justice election in the state.
Speaking to a group of progressive activists in Sauk City, Wisconsin, last week, the state’s Democratic Party chairman Ben Wikler went so far as calling the race “the first referendum on Musk-ism,” according to left-wing blog Mother Jones. He told the group:
So many Democrats feel this deep fear combined with an incandescent fury at what’s happening to the country, and they want an outlet that allows them to fight back. This Supreme Court race … gives people who believe in democracy a chance to defeat the oligarchs who are trying to end democracy for good.
Wisconsin voters will head to the polls on April 1 to decide which party will control the state’s Supreme Court. Currently, Democrats have a 4-3 majority. Democrat-backed Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford and Republican-backed Waukesha County Circuit Judge and former Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel are vying for the open seat being vacated by liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley.
A Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce poll released on Wednesday showed the candidates tied 47-47, with 5% of voters undecided.
"Like many Wisconsin statewide elections, this race is very close and will come down to the wire. This is a winnable race for either candidate right now, and will simply boil down to whichever side does a better job of getting out their voters." https://t.co/BKk9y6SqDg
— WMC (@WisconsinMC) March 12, 2025
The Associated Press reported that Musk has poured $10 million into the race via two conservative political action committees to support Schimel while billionaire George Soros has donated $1 million to back Crawford.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board finds it “odd” that Democrats are focusing their fire on Musk when there are so many larger issues such as abortion, election laws, and the power of public unions involved. According to the editors:
Trying to nationalize local elections is an old tactic, but slamming Mr. Musk is especially notable in this case because it’s an obvious diversion from the real issues at stake. Supreme Court races in the spring tend to be low turnout affairs, and Democrats are trying to mobilize turnout among low-propensity progressive voters by running against the Trump Administration.
Also, much of Mr. Musk’s funding is going toward canvassing and door-knocking operations, the kind of get-out-the-vote efforts that Democrats otherwise see as democracy in action.
Republican strategist Matt Gorman told the Associated Press that this strategy “makes sense” in an off-year, spring election where voters may be unfamiliar with the candidates or less engaged.
“You’ve got to tie it to national themes,” he said. “The overall strategy is, how can you scare your base into making sure they show up at the polls?”
I understand that many Democrats are opposed to what DOGE is doing, and left-leaning outlets are trying their best to cast both Musk and the department he runs in the most negative light possible. For instance, Politico reported on a Quinnipiac poll released this week that showed 54% of voters see DOGE as harmful to the country while only 40% consider it helpful.
However, Quinnipiac also reported that only 42% of voters currently approve of Trump’s handling of the presidency, while 53% disapprove, resulting in a net disapproval rating of 9%.
Meanwhile, the RealClearPolitics average of approval/disapproval polls shows Trump with 47.8% approval and 48.5% disapproval, yielding a much narrower net disapproval of just 0.7%.
Several weeks ago, a Harvard-Harris poll found that 76% of respondents supported “undertaking a full-scale effort to find and eliminate fraud and waste in government expenditures.” In other words, they like what DOGE is doing.
Did 36% of voters suddenly change their minds over the past two weeks?
I suppose we’ll find out on April 1.
In the meantime, Cheeseheads will likely be bombarded with political ads in the next couple of weeks.
On Wednesday, WisPolitics.com reported that nearly $59 million has been poured into this race, already surpassing the $56 million spent on the equally contentious April 2023 race (the last time there was a vacancy on the state Supreme Court). According to WisPolitics, much of the spending “has been shaped by wealthy donors and national interests.”
You may recall that Janet Protasiewicz, the Democrat-backed candidate won the 2023 election by hammering the issue of abortion. Her victory delivered the majority to the liberals for the first time in 15 years.
Hopefully, Schimel can win it back for the conservatives.
BREAKING: Janet Protasiewicz wins Wisconsin Supreme Court election, NBC News projects, giving liberals control of the high court for the first time in 15 years. pic.twitter.com/cLqtoX9FwT
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 5, 2023
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
April 1 is a good day to decide the future of the world.
Democrats are used to having their own way. Anytime they don’t get their own way, they stamp their feet, call names and make faces.
And they pass obnoxious gas from both ends.
Of course Democrats hate an African American and are desperate to see him punished.
The one congress critter who blatantly said that Musk wasn’t an American and should go back to where he came from wins the “I don’t know what the word immigrant means” award for 2025.
Musk is representative of the kind of immigration America needs.
It’s more of a WI decision on whether to elect a Soros proxy.
Anyone who thought that Trump could deliver 2 trillion in spending cuts without inflicting a lot of pain in the process believed him when he claimed that he would end the Ukraine/Russian war on his first day. It should be obvious to any idiot that you can’t defeat socialism without ending all of the socialist programs – like Medicare, Medicaid/Obamacare and Social Security, along with fringe programs like government funding of student loans. At best, all they’re going to do is a little trimming around the edges, accompanied by howls of pain and rage from all the beneficiaries, the media, and the Democrats. It’s always the same: Everybody’s in favor of cutting spending except on their own favorite grift.
“It should be obvious to any idiot..”
BWAAHAAHA.
Well, obviously, it is.
But to thinking people, not so much.
Thanks for the chuckle, idiot.
So…. you’re a socialist. Got it.
You might also consider that there are a lot of Americans who don’t grift in the first place. We are the ones who support Trump and Musk in their efforts. Social Security isn’t a grift for most of us. It is stolen money that is slowly being returned. As a scientist, my take is that there is a very high correlation between the intensity of the screaming and defending, and the extent that the source of them is deep into the grifting going on. I also suspect that the protests will wind down soon as the grifted monies used to pay for said protests is starting to run out. I went by the construction supply place last week and their yard was full of pallets of half bricks with no customers. Such a shame.
You have a point, but the real situation is that people are collecting far more in benefits than they paid into the program, and we’re running low on “contributors”. The left has conned people into thinking they’re entitled to OPM, and the “conservatives” are scared witless of actually ending or even seriously reducing any of the programs I mentioned, even including Obamacare, that they campaign against and still never touch. By grifters, I don’t mean people who have no choice but to participate in these programs; I mean the ones who advocate and profit from them – the Marxists.
good post
the entitlement crown goes to leftists who are leeches who couldnt survive unless they are hurting others
Sore head loser, you probably lost your grift.
I have seen Susan Crawford stories about how she let child molesters go free or some such
Thank you for the article, Elizabeth. It seems like Wisconsin is a bellwether, battleground, or microcosm of the country as a whole.
“For instance, Politico reported on a Quinnipiac poll released this week that showed 54% of voters see DOGE as harmful to the country while only 40% consider it helpful.”
They’re oversampling USAID grant recipients.
A fake poll was required, and Quinnipiac obliged. “Outlier” would be an understatement.
People need to start referring to the democrats as the “anti-American party”. They are more of an enemy to this nation than any one else we’ve actually gone to war with.
Between $2T annual deficits and immigration policies that
Angela Merkel would be proud of, you are right.
musk is just another african that they hate
but its easier to say so publicly cause he is of lighter tan
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