Elon Musk tosses a cheesehead during a town hall Sunday, March 30, 2025, in Green Bay, Wisconsin (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps).
A lawsuit has been filed by a government watchdog group in Wisconsin against billionaire Elon Musk and two of his political organizations. The group accuses them of carrying out a scheme to bribe Wisconsin citizens to vote in the state Supreme Court election, and is seeking a court order to prevent similar cash-for-voting tactics in the future.
The complaint, which spans 40 pages and was submitted in Dane County Circuit Court, claims that Musk, the wealthiest person in the world, injected “tens of millions of dollars” into the judicial election with the aim of supporting Judge Brad Schimel, a Republican candidate, over Judge Susan Crawford, a Democrat.
Formerly in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and parting ways with the Trump administration after a very public dispute with the president, Musk has emerged as a major contributor to Republican candidates and causes in recent times.
The 2025 judicial race in the swing state was particularly significant, as the winner would replace outgoing liberal Judge Ann Walsh Bradley and become the new swing vote on the otherwise-split seven-judge panel.
In order to increase voter turnout, Musk’s political action committee, America PAC, paid registered voters in Wisconsin $100 to sign a petition opposing “activist judges” in the state, as well as an additional $100 for each successful referral of a registered voter who signed the petition.
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The head of Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter) also handed out two $1 million checks to Wisconsin voters, part of nearly $20 million he and his organizations spent in the state, helping make it the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history.
Plaintiffs, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and two registered voters, claim that Musk’s doling out of cash was a blatant violation of the state’s election law, which prohibits “giving and/or promising to give any amount of money over $1 to induce anyone to: (a) go to the polls, (b) vote, and/or (c) vote for a particular person.”
“By offering and paying Wisconsin citizens amounts far greater than $1 to vote, Defendants violated Wisconsin’s election bribery law,” the complaint states. “Defendants’ payments and offers of payment to Wisconsin voters, made with the clear intent to aid one candidate and induce Wisconsinites to vote, threatened the integrity of the election and damaged public confidence in the electoral system.”
The complaint further alleges that Musk’s scheme “distorted” the state’s political process by morphing the once “sacred” election process from a “priceless constitutional right” into a “tawdry display of economic might” in which voters participated in the election due to the allure of possibly hitting a monetary jackpot rather than engaging in the democratic process.
“Defendants’ unlawful conduct creates the risk that Wisconsin elections will become an open auction, where votes go to the preferred candidates of the highest bidders and the election outcome is determined by which candidate has a patron willing and able to pay the highest sum to Wisconsin voters,” the complaint states. “In the context of an election for Wisconsin’s highest court, election bribery — providing more than $1 to induce electors (that is, voters) to vote — undermines voters’ faith in the validity of the electoral system and the independence of the judiciary.”
In addition to a court order enjoining the practice in the future, plaintiffs also requested the court award damages “to the extent supported by law.”
Previous lawsuits seeking to prevent Musk from following through with the promised payments were rejected by state courts in Wisconsin, with the billionaire asserting that the payments merely drew attention to the election and were exercises in free speech that were constitutionally protected.
A spokesperson for Musk’s America PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
