How Musk Was Recruited to Back Schimel

Scott Walker claps for a 2024 RNC speaker alongside Paul Farrow (orange hat) and Fond du Lac County DA Eric Toney (with phone). Photo by Graham Kilmer.

Former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who probably still hopes to run for president some day, is always seeking the limelight. The Republican’s latest effort to gain attention won him coverage from the New York Times, in a story suggesting it was Walker and his longtime political strategist Keith Gilkes who might have sold billionaire Elon Musk on getting involved in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election that will determine whether it has a liberal or conservative majority.

Musk was the largest donor in the November 2024 election that brought Republican Donald Trump back to power. He spent some $288 million on the effort, with most of his donations funneled through his America PAC (political action committee).

The PAC hired canvassers to work in swing states, knocking on the doors of voters who were disengaged from politics or not registered to vote. Musk’s effort was one of the most prominent get-out-the-vote campaigns for Trump, helping him win Wisconsin by a tiny margin, just 30,000 voters.

Musk told his advisors he next wanted the PAC to target progressive district attorneys, who he believed were too lenient on crime and are connected to the liberal billionaire donor George Soros. A Supreme Court election in Wisconsin was not on his radar, noted a story by the Washington Post.

Enter Scott Walker. He told the Times he had begun late last year to strategize a way to make Musk pay attention to the court race — and help bankroll the Republican side in the election. He worked on a plan with longtime Republican consultant Gilkes who ran Walker’s successful 2010 campaign for governor, then served as the new governor’s chief of staff, ran Walker’s 2012 recall campaign and helped him with his brief and disastrous run for president in 2016. The two created a plan for Musk’s involvement in Wisconsin high court race that Gilkes circulated to Musk’s team and others.

Their pitch was for Musk to rerun the kind of effort he did in Wisconsin in the presidential election, but this time backing conservative Brad Schimel against liberal Susan Crawford in the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court. As Walker described it: “You were effective in Wisconsin, and you can be effective in this race again in Wisconsin.”

It’s entirely possible that Musk would have gotten involved in the campaign anyway. Precisely when the plan was circulated or when Musk saw it is unclear. And Musk may have heard from Trump, who is backing Schimel in the election. On social media, Musk began to show interest in the Wisconsin court election eight days after Tesla filed a lawsuit in January challenging a Wisconsin law prohibiting any vehicle manufacturers (including Tesla) from owning dealerships. This is an issue a friendly Wisconsin Supreme Court might decide to overrule, should Schimel and a conservative court vote the right way.

Whatever triggered Musk’s interest he is indeed re-running his campaign from November, with “door-knockers, lots of money and even a similar petition” that pays people to sign a petition. America PAC “has laid out $6.6 million so far” and “assembled a canvassing operation of over 500 employees who have knocked on doors, with about 40 paid active canvassers in the Green Bay area, roughly 70 in the Madison area and more in Milwaukee and rural parts of the state,” the Times reports.

“‘I am with America PAC, an organization run by Elon Musk,’ reads part of one question that Wisconsin canvassers are reciting… Later, they ask, ‘Can President Trump and Elon Musk count on you to vote for Brad Schimel?’”

In short, they are again targeting less motivated voters who back Trump — and might have ignored the high court race — and convincing them vote in this election.

The Musk-Trump campaign for Schimel is an unprecedented involvement in a state court race by a sitting president. “We’ve never seen this level of interest in a state supreme court election coming from the White House itself,” as Douglas Keith, who tracks spending on court races for the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, told the Post.

“This is the first major election in which Musk is on the ballot,” said Ben Wikler, chair of the state Democratic Party. “This is an extremely motivating message.”

Certainly there are signs Musk is unpopular with many, including a majority of independent voters in Wisconsin, according to the Marquette Law School poll. But Musk’s spending, which at last count was up to $13 million and rising, has given Schimel the lead in overall campaign dollars. Which is exactly what Walker was aiming to accomplish.