Elon Musk’s super PAC is back.
Mr. Musk, the country’s largest donor during the 2024 election, is returning to campaigns by funding a new effort to help elect Brad Schimel, the conservative candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. It is Mr. Musk’s first public political spending after Election Day.
America PAC spent $1 million on canvassing operations in the state, according to a new campaign finance filing that became public Thursday. Pamphlets distributed to some Wisconsin homes read, “President Trump needs you to get out and vote,” and included a link to a website where voters could register to vote and learn about how to cast ballots early.
A nonprofit organization that has historically been backed by Mr. Musk, Building America’s Future, this week began a $1.6 million-and-counting television campaign to bolster Judge Schimel, a former state attorney general who is now a judge in Waukesha County. But that group has other major donors and is not as directly tied to Mr. Musk as is America PAC, which is funded almost entirely by the billionaire.
Wisconsin Supreme Court elections are officially nonpartisan, but Judge Schimel has been endorsed by the Republican Party of Wisconsin, which is allowed by state campaign finance law to transfer unlimited sums to his campaign. The liberal candidate, Susan Crawford, has been endorsed by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Judge Crawford sits on a court in Dane County, Wisconsin’s most Democratic county, which includes Madison.
The April 1 election for a 10-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court carries higher stakes than any election this year until the November contests for governor of New Jersey and Virginia. There is now a four-to-three liberal majority on the court, but Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, a liberal who has sat on the court since 1995, is retiring, putting the court’s majority on the ballot.
The state’s abortion laws, as well as its legislative and congressional district lines, are likely to be determined by whichever faction controls the state high court in coming months.
In January, Mr. Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, sued Wisconsin to challenge a state law forbidding manufacturers from owning dealerships. Eight days later, Mr. Musk wrote on his social media site, “Very important to vote Republican for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to prevent voting fraud.”
The election is expected to be the most expensive judicial contest in American history, breaking a record set two years ago by Wisconsin’s last Supreme Court election. That year, $55 million was spent on a race that put Justice Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal, on the court and flipped majority control for the first time in 15 years.
On election night in November, Mr. Musk, who spent close to $300 million to aid Mr. Trump, said he intended to keep his super PAC going.
“America PAC is going to keep going after this election — preparing for the midterms and any intermediate elections, as well as looking at elections at the district attorney and sort of judicial levels,” he said that night, and added, referring to George Soros, “Something has to be done to counter the damage that Soros has done to the American system.” Mr. Musk’s group is “going to aim to weigh in heavily on the midterms and intermediate elections.”
