Wisconsin Supreme Court: They’re calling him “Elon Schimel”

Elon’s in for $10.2 million and counting to beat Susan Crawford. But Wisconsin can’t be bought.

This week, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election beat the record—a record set just two years ago in Wisconsin. It is now the most expensive judicial election in American history.

On one side, Brad Schimel—now known as “Elon Schimel” because of Musk’s eight-figure investment in putting him on the court. The most extreme, MAGA, and pro-Trump candidate we’ve ever seen. (He even dressed as Trump in a garbage truck driver costume for Halloween.)

On our side, Judge Susan Crawford, the kind of common-sense judge that any defendant would want behind the bench.

On Wednesday night, Brad Schimel and Susan Crawford faced off for the Supreme Court’s one debate.

Brad Schimel repeatedly defended the 1849 abortion ban as “valid.”

Asked whether the case in which the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election was correctly decided, Schimel answered “I don’t know.”

Asked if he embraces Elon Musk’s endorsement, Schimel hemmed, hawed, and said "It is expensive and it's difficult to get your message out”—a veiled thank-you to the richest man in the world, who happens to be shredding the Social Security Administration, the Veterans Administration, and our Constitution, all while his own court case affecting his bottom line moves through the Wisconsin court system.

Crawford, meanwhile, reminded us why she’s exactly the right person to serve on the Supreme Court: clear answers, Wisconsin values, and great care to make clear that she wouldn’t prejudge cases that might come before her.

You can watch the full debate here, or our super-quick highlights reel here:

Susan Crawford won the debate walking away. But only a tiny number of voters watched the debate, and nearly all of them already knew who they were supporting before the first question began. To win this election, it’s on all of us to reach the hundreds of thousands of committed Democrats—and friends of freedom and democracy—who didn’t watch it.

Elon Musk’s millions are standing in the way.

Musk’s strategy is two-fold. First, millions of dollars in relentless ads trying to suppress support for Susan Crawford by lying about her record as a judge. Secondly, a huge mail-and-door-hangers campaign targeting Republicans with a simple promise: “BRAD SCHIMEL WILL SUPPORT PRESIDENT TRUMP’S AGENDA!”

Here’s one of their mailers:

Is it working?

Well—a right-wing dark-money group posted their poll saying the race is tied, 47-47. If Democrats and Republicans vote in equal numbers, that might in fact be the case.

But our job is to out-organize and out-communicate the Republicans—and clean Schimel’s clock by driving up turnout for Judge Susan Crawford.

That’s why billboards like this one went up this week around Wisconsin:

And that’s why the we’ll be out in every community in the state this weekend, knocking on doors, calling phones, and spreading the word to friends—that a vote for Crawford is a vote for freedom, democracy, and the rule of law, and a vote for Schimel is a vote for abortion bans and Elon Musk.

If you haven’t signed up for a volunteer shift yet, do it now, right here.

Nobody has a reliable way to measure in advance which side will have more energy in this race, or who will ultimately vote. But in special elections so far this year, margins have swung towards Democrats by an average of nine points. And all it takes is a gut check to know that we Democrats are furious about what Musk, Trump, and the GOP are doing to this country. If we channel that outrage into electoral energy, we’ll win this race.

And the whole world will see that no amount of Musk spending is enough to deter us from defending the country that we love.

Let’s get out there. 18 days to go.

In solidarity,

Ben

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We need all hands on deck to defeat Brad Schimel and defuse Elon Musk’s money bomb.

Electing Judge Susan Crawford will take resources to reach voters across Wisconsin.

Help fuel WisDems’ efforts. Chip in here.

Note: a version of this article originally appeared on Daily Kos.