Despite the repeated warnings of the billionaire Elon Musk according to which “Western civilization” was at stake if the conservative candidate in the Supreme Court of Wisconsin lost, Tesla CEO and principal advisor to President Donald Trump, minimized the defeat of Tuesday elections, writing in an article of the day he “expected to lose”.
The billionaire, who dominated the headlines since he joined Trump’s administration as an aggressive leader of the government’s Ministry of Efficiency, had gone all on the race.
Its political groups have spent more than $ 20 million in an effort to push the conservative candidate Brad Schimel on the finish line – flooding the waves with television advertisements and saturating Google and Facebook with digital stains. He deployed a team on the ground through the state to reveal voters and personally put two $ 1 million vouchers during a rally where he appeared on stage with a cheesehead hat.
But it was not enough.
Elon Musk looks during a meeting of the cabinet in the house of the White House cabinet on March 24, 2025 in Washington.
Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images
Schimel has lost by what could be a two -digit margin, handing over to the richest man in the world an important political setback and inviting questions about how eager republicans will be to adopt the involvement of Musk in future breeds, including the environment.
But despite Tuesday’s result, Musk remains unbeatable in his political ambitions. According to people familiar with his operation, he still plans to play a major role by helping the Republicans to retain control of the room in future races, including mid-terrain of 2026.
Sources said that Musk and his team had entered the Wisconsin race knowing that it would be a difficult battle. Part of the calculation, according to people close to the effort, was that the Democrats of Wisconsin would probably make Musk the face of their attacks, so it was better to face them directly and plead for voters rather than leaving these attacks unanswered.
Musk’s political team had seen warning signs in the last section. A memo of one of his groups obtained by ABC News showed that Schimel had followed the liberal candidate Susan Crawford by two figures earlier in the race and that her number improved after a wave of negative advertising. But in the days preceding Tuesday, the Musk team saw the Schimel number reservoir, which prompted the billionaire to make a media blitz which included several live events and an interview on Fox News.
Now, Democrats are working quickly to capitalize on Crawford’s victory and portray Musk as a responsibility for Trump and the Republican Party.
The head of majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, said that the loss of schimel was a referendum on Musk.
“Wisconsin voters have sent a decisive message to Elon Musk, Donald Trump and Doge by rejecting an extreme republican for their Supreme Court: our democracy is not for sale”, Schumer Written on x.
The governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, a billionaire himself who donated more than a million dollars to the Wisconsin Democratic Party before the race, wrote on X Tuesday evening, “Elon Musk is not good for that.”
Patrick Guarasci, a political agent based in Wisconsin who was chief strategist of the Susan Crawford campaign, echoes this point of view. He said that one of the main dishes to remember for the Democrats nationwide is the importance of directly confronting Musk’s political efforts.
“We did not decide a fight when Elon Musk entered this race. We did not go to seek this fight, but we did not back away. And I think that is probably one of the lessons learned,” Guarasci in ABC News told an interview on Wednesday.
However, Musk’s supporters note that the billionaire also played a central role in Trump’s presidential victory in 2024, focusing in particular on the Pennsylvania with similar tactics.
“”[Musk] I went to Pennsylvania where he spent a month and a half campaign for me … And he is a popular guy, “said Trump during a rally after his electoral victory.” He knows these computers better than anyone. All these computers, these voting metering computers and we ended up winning the Pennsylvania as in a landslide. So it was pretty good, it was pretty good. So, thanks to Elon.
