Contact The Editor
Articles By This Author
Liberal demonstrators for weeks have been holding up signs declaring that "No one voted for Elon Musk." On Tuesday, voters in Wisconsin got the chance.
Musk's chosen candidate lost decisively in the state's Supreme Court election, delivering by far the biggest rebuke to a billionaire who has hovered over American politics since last July and potentially raising questions about his future role in the Trump administration.
The election unexpectedly developed into a clash between President Donald Trump's personality-driven politics, as represented by Musk's flashy style, and the time-honored traditions of American democracy. At least for a moment, those traditions reasserted themselves.
The role of Musk - who is overseeing a controversial government cost-cutting operation for Trump - made the race in part a referendum on him, said Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin's Elections Research Center.
"He is such an unusual person and he has this outsize influence in what is going on," Burden said of Musk, who is listed by Forbes as the world's richest man. "So that concern fit the narrative of what he was doing in the Wisconsin race, throwing his weight around and using his wealth. It was just a step too far for a lot of voters."
In Tuesday's vote - which will likely cement liberals' control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court for the next three years - Susan Crawford, the liberal candidate supported by Democrats, defeated Brad Schimel, who had the enthusiastic backing of Trump and Musk, by 55 percent to 45 percent.
No one has personified Trump's determination to circumvent the traditional processes of government and politics more than Musk. An ostentatious and powerful personality, he has been slashing and rearranging the federal government and attacking individual agencies, despite holding no official position, and making sweeping and often false pronouncements.
After 10 weeks of frustration by those trying to slow the billionaire's high-flying push, the question is whether Tuesday's result is the beginning of a bigger loss of influence.
In a statement after the polls closed, Wisconsin Republican Party chairman Brian Schimming blamed the vast amounts of money poured into the race and a difficult political environment for the outcome, rather than citing Musk's role in helping make it the most expensive court race in U.S. history.
"Coming off a successful November, we knew the April elections would be challenging," Schimming said.
Much of the more than $100 million poured into the race came from Musk, who spent an estimated $25 million on the campaign - an extraordinary amount for a state judicial race.
"It's a good question if this will sour the relationship between him and Trump," Burden said. "Trump has supported everything Musk has done. He has stood by him at all points. This election could be the start of a slow divorce between the two of them."
Musk has been designated a "special government employee," a status that enables him to avoid financial disclosure requirements but lasts only 130 days, giving him a deadline of sorts in several weeks.
Crawford supporter Jennifer Krey, 33, reveled in the outcome Tuesday and called Musk's spending "disgusting" and an "unchecked use of power." Krey, an elementary schoolteacher from Madison, said she would have voted no matter what but that Musk has gotten her more involved in politics.
She has been calling her congressman and senators every day to ask them to issue subpoenas to Musk and his "Department of Government Efficiency," she said, adding that Tuesday's results could suggest that some Trump voters are changing their minds about the president.
"I think that there are people that were thinking that Donald Trump was in their court, on their side, and what we're seeing is that he's on the side of billionaires," Krey said.
Despite predictions that Trump would soon tire of Musk's antics and grow weary of sharing the spotlight with him, the tech mogul has held onto his unique role for the entire opening act of Trump's second presidency. Democrats have relished dubbing Musk the "co-president," but Trump has been content to let him tear a swath through the government - and attract much of the criticism for it.
A brief uprising by Trump Cabinet officials when Musk demanded weekly updates from their employees was rapidly quelled by the president. Internal disputes over the size and shape of layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services ended when firing notices went out Tuesday. Protests from Democrats and demonstrations at Musk's Tesla dealerships have helped sink Tesla stock but otherwise had little effect.
If Musk's style is showy - he sports dark glasses, fires off jargon-laden posts and at one point waved a chainsaw onstage to dramatize his budget-cutting - state judicial races have long been among the more humdrum events in American democracy. In Wisconsin, however, they have gained in intensity in recent years, given the state's role as perhaps the most closely divided in the country and the court's role in resolving political disputes.
Musk, who has been flexing his political muscle in various ways since last summer, and especially since the inauguration, chose to insert himself into the Wisconsin election in a colorful fashion. The result was to make it about him to some degree.
Musk may have been influenced by the extraordinary success of his unexpected intervention in the presidential campaign last July, when he endorsed Trump and spent at least $288 million backing him. That move paid off enormously when Trump won and immediately handed Musk unprecedented power to reshape the government.
Besides spending millions on the Wisconsin race, Musk used his social media platform, X, to post numerous messages about the race and its importance.
He also brought his trademark showmanship to the campaign, donning a foam cheesehead that is a quirky favorite of Wisconsinites and Green Bay Packer fans. He delivered $1 million checks to two voters - one of whom is the chairman of the state College Republicans - and declared that the race "might decide the future of America and Western Civilization!"
But polls suggest that Musk is not a political asset, and possibly the opposite. In a recent AP-NORC poll, 39 percent of respondents viewed the tech mogul favorably and 55 percent unfavorably.
A hallmark of Trump's first 10 weeks has been avoiding or circumventing the ordinary processes of government.
He has issued executive orders rather than seeking to push legislation through Congress. He has overseen mass firings, rather than following the long-established procedures for laying off civil service employees. Rather than deferring to the courts, he has insulted and harangued judges.
And he has tapped Musk, a top political donor whose companies do billions of dollars in business with the federal government, to oversee a far-reaching stripping down and reorganization of the federal workforce. Critics have said the role at the least requires Senate confirmation, but the White House has brushed off such criticism.
Tuesday's results raise the question of whether the political system will impose the restraints on Musk that other forces so far have not.
Krey, the Crawford supporter, said Musk's activities are starting to resonate with voters.
"It's a worry if we allow unelected people to dabble in government and hire people who are also not receiving background checks," she said. "It's like a slippery slope of who has access to what information, who has access to our private information."