"Democrats' Anti-Musk Strategy Gets First Test in Wisconsin Election"

... and it's up to all of us to make sure the test result points the way for Dems nationally. .

The Wall Street Journal today ran a story on how Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race constitutes the first test of Elon Musk’s political toxicity—and whether it outweighs his political contributions.

Susan Crawford’s campaign has received zero (0) dollars from Elon Musk. Brad Schimel, on the other hand, has, as of the article’s publication, received $6.2 million from Musk’s America PAC, and benefited from $6.3 million in ad spending from Musk-linked dark-money group Building America’s Future.

How has Schimel reacted?

Schimel said in an interview he is “grateful” to have Musk’s financial support, but has never spoken to him. He declined to promise to recuse himself, if elected and Musk has business before the court, because such questions are “tough in the abstract.”

And then, maybe to cover his tracks given that Musk has a Tesla lawsuit working its way through the Wisconsin court system, added:

The judge said that if Musk is “looking for someone that’s going to give him an automatic win on his cases, he might be supporting the wrong guy.”

For our part, we’ve been punching back—linking Musk directly to Schimel, with ads, billboards, grassroots organizing, and media-generating town halls—including one tomorrow with Tim Walz in Eau Claire. You can RSVP for that here, by the way:

As I said in the story:

“This will be a test of whether Musk’s unlimited bank account can overcome the intense rage that he has generated among Democratic voters,” said Ben Wikler, the state’s Democratic Party chairman.

We’re seeing enormous energy on the ground. This weekend, thousands of volunteers fanned out across the state and knocked on more than twice as many doors as we’d knocked during the equivalent week in 2023—a year when we broke our own records for organizing in a Wisconsin spring election.

If you want to help, whether via national phone banks or in-Wisconsin canvassing in these last two weeks, sign up to volunteer (or chip in, or share your story) at PeopleVMusk.org.

In a moment when so many grassroots Democrats are infuriated by the sense that their own party isn’t fighting back with the energy this moment requires, Wisconsin could light a torch that illuminates the path forward. We don’t have to roll over. We don’t have to play dead. Our job is to punch back. In the Badger State, that’s exactly what we’re doing. And if it works—when it works—it could show our allies and partners across the country that they can do it, too.