With just a few hours to go until polls closed in Wisconsin, the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, declared the Supreme Court election in the US state of 6 million could “determine the fate of Western civilisation”.

If that’s so, the result is a rejection of Musk’s vision for the Western world, with the Democrat-backed judge, Susan Crawford, winning fairly comfortably over her Trump/Musk/Republican-backed rival, Brad Schimel.

Billionaire Tesla chief Elon Musk at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, two days before the judicial election.Credit: Bloomberg

Musk plunged more than $US20 million ($32 million) into this contest, fuelling the most expensive judicial election ever held. His name was synonymous with the Wisconsin campaign.

In doing so, US President Donald Trump’s billionaire sidekick put his image as a conservative rainmaker on the line – and he lost.

It is too soon to tell how much Musk’s profile has been diminished by this failure. But there can be no doubt his stocks are falling. And it was a mess of his own making.

As Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, said on the sidelines of a campaign event last week: “[Musk] is so far in that if he loses this race, if........

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