Democrats Launch Anti-Musk Ad

Remember that straight-armed salute by Elon Musk that was condemned as a Nazi salute?

It’s back, part of a new attack ad launched in the “People v. Elon Musk” campaign announced yesterday by the Wisconsin Democratic Party. The new campaign is a targeted response to the massive spending, more than $5 million and counting, by Musk-funded PACs supporting conservative Brad Schimel in the hotly-contested race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The Democrats have launched what they called “a seven-figure grassroots effort” to oppose Musk and Schimel that will “include a digital ad campaign, town halls across the state, and billboards coming to a highway near you,” as Urban Milwaukee has reported.

The first ad references the firing of air traffic controllers and federal funding cuts initiated by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. “Elon Musk is out of control, and now the power hungry billionaire is unloading millions to buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court,” the ad claims. “He knows MAGA politician Brad Schimel is for sale and will abolish the checks and balances that protect us.”

Oh, and yes, the ad does tell us to vote for Schimel’s liberal opponent Susan Crawford.

A statement from Schimel campaign spokesperson Jacob Fischer denounced the Democrats’ ad as a “mockery of hypocrisy,” no less, because Crawford has accepted support from Democratic billionaires like George Soros and JB Pritzker.” Soros has donated $1 million and Pritzker $500,000 to the state Democratic Party to spend on Crawford’s campaign, the kind of donations that once would have raised eyebrows, but now look miserly compared to what Musk has already spent and is expected to increase by the April 1 election.

All of which has nationalized this race, something Schimel said he planned to do nearly a year ago. This is now a full-out, nakedly partisan battle with both parties spending huge sums in an election that may cost as much as $75 million, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign has predicted. With Musk’s help, it’s looking like Republicans will have much more to spend. They are running ads suggesting Crawford wants to overturn President Donald Trump‘s effort to deport “criminal immigrants,” hoping this will drive Trump voters back to the polls for the April 1 election. Schimel has told supporters he hopes Trump will hold a rally on his behalf. Democrats are betting a campaign linking Schimel to Musk at a time when he is decimating federal funding and laying off workers will drive Democratic turnout and ramp up national donations to the cause.

In short we are likely to see far more visuals over the next four weeks of Musk’s now infamous Nazi-like salute, which came at an event after Trump’s swearing in as US president and was swiftly condemned. The US Anti-Defamation League said Musk’s gesture was a Nazi salute and it was criticized by some German political officials and representatives of Jewish groups. Michel Friedman, a former deputy chair of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, described Musk’s actions as a disgrace and said Musk had shown that a “dangerous point for the entire free world” had been reached, The Guardian reported.

The critics included Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor and Musk responded on X with an insult: “Shame on Oaf Schitz!”

The Wisconsin race has already become nationalized. Could it become internationalized?