Short-circuiting Democracy

Fresh off his successful purchase of the Oval Office, Elon Musk wants to buy himself a majority on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court

Americans who believe in democracy can unite to defeat Elon Musk’s favored candidate—far-right extremist Brad Schimel—by electing Judge Susan Crawford on April 1. Doing so would not only preserve a critical check on Trump and the GOP’s power—it would preserve a path to a Democratic trifecta in Wisconsin and, perhaps most urgently, shatter the Musk/Trump regime’s delusions of political invincibility and spark the national resurgence of opposition energy needed to sustain the American experiment.

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court elections are nominally nonpartisan, but lavishly funded Republican smear campaigns long ago turned them into deeply partisan battlegrounds—and locked in a GOP-aligned majority for 15 years. In 2023, after the most expensive judicial race in American history, Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated Federalist Society favorite Dan Kelly, tipping the majority and setting in motion the end of the GOP’s gerrymandered state legislative maps. On the new, fair maps adopted in 2024, Democrats flipped more seats in Wisconsin than in any other state in the country: four state Senate seats and ten Assembly seats, wiping out two thirds of the GOP’s margin in each legislative chamber and paving the way towards a trifecta in 2026.

Now, the far right is seeking its revenge. Brad Schimel, who served as Republican attorney general of Wisconsin during Scott Walker’s governorship, is running a scorched-earth campaign to defeat Democratic-endorsed Judge Susan Crawford. Backing Schimel is a rogue’s gallery of MAGA extremists, including Stop the Steal funders Dick and Liz Uihlein; the House Freedom Caucus PAC, which is intent on protecting right-wing House majorities; and now the MAGA malefactor himself, Elon Musk.

Musk joined the fray this week by contributing more than $2 million in ad buys attacking Susan Crawford—with additional buys coming fast and furious. He tweeted about the race. He commissioned polls to test anti-Crawford attack lines. All of which raises a question: Why does the world’s richest man, now serving as the de facto president of the United States, care about a single judicial election in a state that is home to less than 2% of the U.S. population?

Perhaps the answer can be summed up in the form of his biggest fear: accountability.

Less than a month into their reign of terror, Trump and Musk have set about steamrolling every guardrail the founders designed to protect Americans from tyrannical kings. They’ve ignored plainly written laws, made a mockery of the Congressional power of the purse, and even threatened to ignore federal court orders. Congressional Republicans have shown no interest in defending their constitutional obligations. It remains to be seen how the federal judiciary—headed by Republican Supreme Court justices—will ultimately stand up to the assault on its role. States are one of the last lines of defense against a total collapse of checks and balances.

In that context, the Wisconsin Supreme Court race looms large. The Schimel-Crawford showdown is the first statewide election of the new Trump era. If Schimel wins, Wisconsin’s highest court could swiftly become a rubber stamp for Musk’s wishes. And his actions so far make some of those wishes clear.

Musk tweeted that it’s “very important” to vote for Schimel “to prevent voting fraud.” This is MAGA code for ensuring voter suppression, which can tip close statewide elections in the Badger State. Moreover, as MAGA has indelibly demonstrated, when voter suppression fails to tip elections to the GOP, their backup plan is election nullification—which is how Wisconsin came within a single vote on its state Supreme Court of overturning the election after Trump lost in 2020.

In Musk’s message-testing poll, he asked whether it would make voters more likely to support Schimel if they knew “it's the difference between a Republican majority in congress that will pass [Trump’s] agenda and a Democrat majority that will work to defeat his agenda.” This is clearly a reference to Wisconsin’s House maps and Schimel’s willingness to put his own partisan agenda ahead of our democratic rights.

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court will also play an outsized role in preserving abortion access, defending Wisconsinites’ civil rights, and protecting working families from the worst excesses of MAGA government. But it’s likely Wisconsin’s role in 2026 and 2028 that has drawn Musk’s eye—because he may already be sensing that his rampage is generating a political backlash that could become a tsunami. Short-circuiting democracy itself is critical to his long-term plans.

Trump, Musk, and their allies have reacted to their narrow victory amidst a global anti-incumbent wave as though it gives them a mandate to “move fast and break things,” as the tech barons say. Except, in this case, what they’re breaking is people’s lives. Throughout Wisconsin and the country, Americans are suffering the consequences of MAGA’s overconfidence and overreach. Daycare centers and rural health clinics are shuttering. Hospitals and universities are teetering. Disabled veterans are losing their federal jobs. The people responsible for safeguarding everything from air flight to food safety to the nuclear stockpile are being summarily fired.

The consequences of Trump’s strongman shtick are very real, but its political foundation is shaky. Without the law on his side, his power depends on the air of invincibility and the fear of retribution. A popular backlash against his overreach would quickly undercut both.

Judge Susan Crawford spent a lifetime in public service. If she were a federal employee, she would be exactly the kind of fair-minded champion of good government that Musk would target. If, on April 1, she defeats Brad Schimel, Musk’s veneer of political invulnerability will shatter. Friends of democracy and the rule of law will be emboldened. People of good faith everywhere who are considering a run for public office will see the path to victory open wider. And Wisconsin’s highest court will stand ready to do its part to show that in America’s most closely divided state, Musk, Trump, and MAGA are not above the law.