Madison, wis. (AP) – Wisconsin can decrease as the last major costs of billionaire Elon Musk for a political campaign.
And it was a flop.
Musk, the most rich man in the world, said on Tuesday that he would spend less on political campaigns. The message came when Musk withdrew from his role in the Trump administration, saying he would spend more time focused on his business, and only seven weeks after the candidate, which he supported in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, lost at 10 percentage points.
Democrats at Swing State said Musk’s comments show that the efforts led by the party’s election party this spring called “People Against Musk” managed to make Musk and his money “toxic”.
“People have won,” said Democratic Party chairman in Wisconsin Ben Wicker. “The biggest funding in Republican politics is to get his toys and go home.”
Brandon Scholz, a retired longtime Republican strategist in the state, said that at least in Wisconsin “after this judicial race, he deserves to be labeled as toxic.”
But this does not mean that Musk cannot spend money on racing in the state and again on a national scale, especially if the bets are high and his money can make a change, said Scholz.
“Does he carry a lot of luggage with him? Probably,” Scholz said. “But over time, maybe not so much.”
Musk’s expenses in this year’s Wisconsin Supreme Court competition helped in this most expensive judicial race in US history. And it came only five months after Musk spent at least $ 250 million to help President Donald Trump win by turning losses to Wisconsin and other countries on the battlefield four years earlier.
Musk was all-in at the Wisconsin Supreme Court competition, even made a personal expression in Green Bay over the weekend before the election wearing a Cheesehead hat-popular among Green Bay Packers fans to NFLs personally giving checks for $ 1 million to supporters. It was an extension of Musk’s high -profile role in the presidential race, where he agitated with Trump and headed some of his own rallies.
“It’s a super big deal,” he told about 2000 people at the center of events, where hundreds of protesters gathered against his appearance outside. “I’m not calling him. I’m in person here.”
But his appearance – and the money – did not work.
Candidate Musk supported Lost Brown County, the Green Bay House, with 3 percentage points, continuing to lose throughout the country more than three times larger than this margin.
After the defeat, Musk said a little public about the competition and his participation in it. Its popularity also decreased.
The Associated Press Center for Public Affairs, taken two weeks after the Wisconsin Court election, found that only 33% of adults had a favorable look at Tesla’s CEO, which was lower than 41% in December.
Musk’s participation in the race came at the same time as he was a person who was chaired with a chain to reduce the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal government.
Its Ministry of Government Efficiency, also known as DOG, has imposed deep redundancies to the labor force and costs, in some cases seeks to close entire agencies, but it is far from its goals to reduce federal costs.
US Democratic Representative Mark Invite from Wisconsin is one of the most liberal members of the congress and a strong critic of both Trump and Musk.
The invitation is skeptical that Musk will really back away.
“I don’t believe anything first,” an invitation said. “It just means that they are aware of how toxic Musk Elon and the work he does through Dodge.”
Kelda Royce, a senator of a democratic country, was also hardened by his excitement by Musk, saying he plans to make “much less” political costs in the future.
“There are many other billionaire brothers, I’m sure they want and I’m glad to stand up in his place,” Royce said.
Musk could also be involved in future races, but a much lower profile, said Scholz, the Republican.
“He had such a huge, huge, huge profile in Wisconsin,” Scholz said. “He became the campaign. He became the story.”
Musk spends at least $ 3 million for the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Groups supported by Musk America PAC and restore the future of America have spent another $ 19 million in support of the candidate supported by Republicans Brad Shimel. It was part of over $ 100 million spent on both sides.
America PAC has spent at least $ 6 million on suppliers who sent door-to-door canvases throughout the country, according to the non-party campaign for Wisconsin’s democracy. It was a repression of what the group did last fall in the seven most competitive countries on the presidential battlefield, including Wisconsin, which were transferred by Trump.
In addition to his political contributions, Musk paid three individual voters $ 1 million to sign a petition in an attempt to choose it. Musk also offered to pay $ 20 to anyone who has registered on his group’s website to knock on Shimel’s doors and publishes a photo of himself as proof. His organization promised $ 100 to each voter who signed the application against “activist judges” and another $ 100 for each signature they have indicated.
Musk himself hosted Shimel in his podcast and threw what was strictly embedded.
“Apparently small elections can determine the fate of Western civilization,” Musk said in a social media publication on the day of the April 1 election. “I think it matters to the future of the world.”
The Democrats made the race a referendum for both Musk and Trump’s agenda, and successfully selecting a judge whose victory guarantees that the Wisconsin Supreme Court would remain under liberal control until 2028.
By chance, Musk’s message for spending less for political competitions came only hours after a liberal judge announced his candidacy for the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2026.
Wisconsin Court of Appeal Chris Taylor challenged the conservative acting justice, which came to Trump in his unsuccessful court case, which tried to cancel his loss in 2020 in Wisconsin. The competition will be resolved in April, months before the average deadlines in which Democrats hope anxiety with Trump and Musk will help the party get profits.
Taylor seems to be taking a similar approach to his campaign, which has won the winning candidate, supported by Democrats this year.
“My campaign will be a campaign for the people of this country,” she told the Associated Press, “Not for billionaires, not for the most powerful.”
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The writer of the Associated Press Thomas Bomont in de Moine, Iowa, contributed to this report.