Elon Musk tried to buy an election – and failed ...Middle East

Elon Musk made no attempt to hide the fact he was trying to influence the outcome of a court race in the American Midwest.

Indeed, the 53-year-old billionaire gave $20m to the Republican-backed conservative candidate, and attended a rally with him over the weekend where he handed out one million dollar cheques to two supporters – something critics alleged amounted to trying to buy the outcome of the contest.

On X, he wrote: “This Wisconsin Supreme Court race might decide the future of America and Western Civilisation!”

As it was, despite all of that money, and despite the backing of both Musk and Donald Trump, their candidate, Brad Schimel, was handily beaten by Democrat-backed Susan Crawford, a county judge from Chippewa Falls, a town with a population of less than 15,000 people.

“Growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I would be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin,” Crawford told jubilant supporters on Tuesday night. “And we won.”

Races such as the one for the state supreme court in Wisconsin, where Democrats were seeking to maintain a 4-3 advantage after the retirement of one of the justices, rarely get national or international attention.

Neither do they attract the eye-dropping $90m, a total amassed by the two sides, that went on advertising and get-out-the vote efforts.

Yet this election was different in several ways. First, it was one of the few opportunities since Trump began his second term for any angry voters to send a message that they were not happy. (The next opportunity will be in November when a number of “off season” elections are set to be held.)

Second, US politics has never had a figure such as the polarising Musk, a man who was barely interested in electoral politics just two years ago, but who now serves as both Trump’s adviser and hatchet man.

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He is ready with his own money to threaten any Republican who steps out of line with a primary challenge, and uses the power of his massive following on X to weigh in on matters great and small.

Many point out Musk’s many conflicts of interest in holding such an unelected, accountable-to-nobody role – not least in Wisconsin where Tesla has challenged a law that prohibits car manufacturers from owning dealerships.

The case is likely to end up before the very court Musk was trying to determine the political make up of. Yet in the current era of American politics, some people appear able to do whatever they want.

Democrats were quick to celebrate their win and enjoyed the chance to thumb their noses at Musk and Trump.

“Wisconsin beat the billionaire,” tweeted Tim Walz, the governor of neighbouring Minnesota, and who had been Kamala Harris’s running mate.

While Trump and his vice presidential candidate JD Vance narrowly won Wisconsin, one of seven battleground states they bagged in November, by 50-49, Crawford beat Schimel by 10 points.

Democrats should be wary of reading too much into Tuesday’s outcome, where turnout will likely have been lighter than in the 2024 showdown between Trump and Harris.

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The involvement of Musk presented an easy target to try and win over voters as they made their case.

And in Florida, where Democrats were hoping to flip two congressional seats, both were easily won by Republicans.

(Musk responded to the result in Wisconsin by posting: “The long con of the left is corruption of the judiciary.”)

At the same time, Democrats don’t have much to cheer about at the moment, and they find with themselves with few levers of power given Republicans control the White House, and both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

In such circumstances one might forgive them their moment of celebration.

“Today Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections and our Supreme Court,” Crawford, who had spearheaded legal fights to protect union power and abortion rights, said as she addressed the crowd.

“And Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price, our courts are not for sale.”

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