Elon Musk and Gov. JB Pritzker among billionaires spending in pivotal Wisconsin Supreme Court race
Two groups funded by the world’s richest man and polarizing Trump adviser have spent more than $13 million in support of Schimel, the former state attorney general, according to a tally from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Musk, who has taken his metaphorical chain saw to the federal government and lashed out at judges who’ve blocked the president’s swift moves, is far from alone in funneling money from outside Wisconsin into an officially nonpartisan state Supreme Court election. Liberal financier George Soros has given $1 million to the Wisconsin Democratic Party ahead of the April voting, and billionaire Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker — who previously signed a state law banning out-of-state campaign contributions to Illinois judicial candidates — gave the Wisconsin Democrats $500,000 in January.
Pritzker’s cash is not the only impact Illinois is having on the high-profile Wisconsin race.
Conservative megadonors Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein of Lake Bluff together have given $1.3 million to the Wisconsin Republican Party this year. And on the ground, Democratic volunteers from Illinois have gone door to door in the Milwaukee area on recent weekends supporting Crawford as part of Operation Swing State, which brings reinforcements from the deep-blue Chicago area to battleground states, said Ben Head, the group’s co-lead.
The first high-profile campaign since the November election, this off-year court race has become a national proxy battle and a bellwether of voter sentiment in perhaps the swingiest of swing states in the early days of the second Trump era. At the same time, the outcome could play a pivotal role in deciding the future of a range of issues important to Wisconsinites, including abortion, union rights and the partisan makeup of the state’s legislature and congressional delegation.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/03/23/wisconsin-supreme-court-race/
= new reply since forum marked as read
