Democrats easily won a competitive and much-heralded supreme-court contest in Wisconsin, where the liberal candidate they backed triumphed over a conservative supported by Elon Musk. It’s a humiliating result for the world’s richest man after he spent heavily and campaigned personally in the state for conservative Brad Schimel, who was tied to the DOGE leader’s large and controversial role in the Trump administration. Susan Crawford won by ten points and consolidated liberal control of a crucial battleground state court.

The Wisconsin race was the most expensive judicial contest in American history by a large margin, with nearly $100 million spent. Groups aligned with Musk represented over $20 million of that total. But money aside, Musk all but took over poor Schimel’s campaign, as the New York Times reported a couple of days before the vote:

He brought a billionaire friend, $1 million checks and a Packers cheesehead hat. A pastor prayed for him. A superfan begged him for a follow on X.

Elon Musk........

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