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The Wisconsin Supreme Court contest is shaping up to be a battle of billionaires, with each side in the race casting the other’s most prominent donors as boogeymen.
Liberal megadonors like George Soros and outside groups with ties to Elon Musk have spent millions in the first major race in a battleground state since the 2024 election that both parties will look to as a barometer of the political environment in the opening weeks of President Donald Trump’s administration.
The technically nonpartisan April 1 election will determine the state Supreme Court’s ideological balance for the second time in two years. Brad Schimel, the conservative candidate and a state judge in Waukesha County who previously served as the state’s Republican attorney general, is facing off against Susan Crawford, the liberal candidate and a state judge in Madison.
Thanks in large part to the involvement of megadonors like Musk and Soros, the race is on track to surpass the state’s 2023 contest as the most expensive state Supreme Court campaign in U.S. history. And like that race, the future of several hot-button issues with both state and national significance — including abortion rights, unions and congressional maps — will again be at stake.
Democrats in particular have trained their sights on Musk, the tech billionaire who’s running the controversial Department of Government Efficiency.
This week, the Wisconsin Democratic Party launched what it’s calling a seven-figure investment to link Schimel to Musk. The spending will be geared toward ads, town hall events and canvassing efforts that specifically take aim at Musk.
One digital spot that started running this week lists off a series of actions DOGE has taken or recommended, before slamming Musk as “out of control” and accusing him of “unloading millions to buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court.”
“He knows MAGA politician Brad Schimel is for sale,” the ad’s narrator says.
Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler said the effort was intended to drive turnout among Democrats and other voters who are concerned about the impacts Musk and DOGE could have on the state.
“Democrats are feeling a hair-on-fire sense of emergency around Musk’s power grab and his attacks on their communities. Making sure that they know that Brad Schimel would be Musk’s puppet on the state Supreme Court is a powerful motivator for people to go and cast a ballot,” Wikler said in an interview.
Democrats have had the advantage in ad spending in this race, spending almost $18 million to Republicans’ $12.7 million, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.
A big chunk of the GOP spending has come from two Musk-aligned groups, Building America’s Future and America PAC, that have spent more than $8 million to boost Schimel.
While Building America’s Future is not required to disclose its donations, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal have both reported that Musk helped to fund the group in the past. The group has spent about $2.4 million on ads in the Supreme Court race so far, according to AdImpact.
One of Building America’s Future’s ads takes aim at a particular case Crawford oversaw as a judge involving a man convicted of sexually assaulting a minor.
America PAC, a Musk-funded super PAC that spent more than $261 million during the 2024 election cycle, has dumped more than $4 million into the race, mostly on canvassing and political mailers.
Representatives for Musk, Building America’s Future and America PAC didn’t respond to requests for comment. A White House spokesperson who handles inquiries regarding Musk and DOGE also didn’t respond to questions.
Musk has posted on X about the race, writing in January that it’s “Very important to vote Republican for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to prevent voting fraud!”
Republicans have for years made unfounded claims of voting fraud in Wisconsin, alleging that drop boxes in the state allow people to vote illegally. The issue has appeared before the state Supreme Court multiple times in recent years.
Musk’s electric car company Tesla has challenged a Wisconsin law in state court that bans carmakers from owning dealerships. The case could possibly make its way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Crawford, for her part, has used Musk as a foil at campaign events. At a recent speech in Cambridge, Wisconsin, she said, “You know, when I was a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I’d be fighting the world’s richest man for justice in Wisconsin.”
And at a Milwaukee Press Club event on Wednesday, Crawford said Musk “seems to be an unelected right-hand man to President Trump right now” and that it’s “very concerning when somebody like that wades into a state judicial race.”
On the other side, the Wisconsin Republican Party and aligned groups have drawn attention to the cadre of liberal billionaires who have thrown money into the race, including Soros and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.
“Susan Crawford is a vehicle for Democrats, like George Soros and Reid Hoffman, to implement a dangerously unpopular agenda,” Wisconsin GOP spokesperson Anika Rickard said.
House Freedom Action, the political arm of the conservative U.S. House Freedom Caucus, has begun running ads that specifically take aim at Crawford for receiving support from Soros, Hoffman and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
In one such ad from the group, a narrator slams the trio of “left-wing billionaires” for “putting millions behind Susan Crawford because Crawford is a leftist ideologue who will turn Wisconsin into Illinois.”
That effort came after Soros gave $1 million to the Wisconsin Democratic Party in January. Pritzker gave $500,000 that month, while Hoffman contributed $250,000. State campaign finance laws allow the state parties to transfer cash to the candidate’s committees.
Representatives for Soros, Hoffman and Pritzker didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Schimel campaign spokesperson Jacob Fischer slammed Crawford for taking money from “extremists like George Soros and JB Pritzker.”
“The attempts by Susan Crawford and the Democrats to distract the people of Wisconsin from her extreme views and the radical billionaires funding her are a mockery of hypocrisy,” Fischer said in a statement.
Several other ultrawealthy Americans have also gotten involved in the race, particularly on the conservative side.
For example, Elizabeth Uihlein gave $650,000 to the Wisconsin GOP in January, while Joe Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade, chipped in $500,000. Diane Hendricks, the billionaire businesswoman and film producer who owns ABC Supply, also gave the Wisconsin Republican Party $975,000 that month.
Adam Edelman is a politics reporter for NBC News.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC
