Elon Musk Loses Wisconsin

Gil Duran -

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Musk's Wisconsin Court Election Meltdown

Some good news: Last night, the voters of Wisconsin handed Elon Musk a humiliating and resounding defeat. From the New York Times:

A liberal candidate for a pivotal seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court overcame $25 million in spending from Elon Musk and defeated her conservative opponent on Tuesday, The Associated Press reported, in a contest that became a kind of referendum on Mr. Musk and his slashing of the federal government.

With turnout extraordinarily high for a spring election in an off year, Judge Susan Crawford handily beat Judge Brad Schimel, who ran on his loyalty to President Trump and was aided by Mr. Musk, the president’s billionaire policy aide.

Mr. Musk not only poured money into the race but also campaigned personally in the state, even donning a cheesehead. But his starring role seemed to inflame Democratic anger against him even more than it helped Judge Schimel.

Musk did his best to hijack the Wisconsin race. He made it all about himself. After dumping over $20 million into the campaign for a Trumpy judge, he paraded around the state wearing the cheese hat and handing out million-dollar checks.

Then came the trademark Musk melodrama: he declared this race would determine "the entire destiny of humanity." Thankfully, Wisconsin voters weren't buying what he was selling. They crushed his hand-picked candidate by ten points.

This is hopefully just the beginning of Musk's political faceplant. The man's got more money than sense and even less self-awareness. Erratic, unhinged, and surprisingly thin-skinned when challenged. He completely misjudged his pull with actual voters. Wisconsin just proved that even the wealthiest tech bros can get their asses handed to them at the ballot box—in a state Trump won, no less.

True to form, Musk took to Twitter last night to accuse his opponents of corrupting the judicial system (through democracy, apparently). That's pretty rich coming from a foreign-born billionaire who just tried – and failed – to buy a judicial race in Wisconsin.

Musk wants to be Trump so badly it's embarrassing. He's trying to mimic the MAGA playbook but doesn't have the charisma or political instincts to pull it off.

The broligarchs' hubristic overestimation of their own abilities may yet help save us.