An Elon Musk-backed group is offering voters in Wisconsin $100 to sign a petition opposing “activist judges” just two weeks ahead of a state Supreme Court election.
Musk’s Super PAC made a similar offer to swing state voters during last year’s election campaign. The political action committee, America PAC, revealed the petition in a Thursday night post on X. It says that each voter in the state who signs the petition will receive $100 in addition to another $100 for every signer they refer.
The campaign of the Supreme Court candidate backed by the Democrats, Susan Crawford, argued that Musk was attempting to buy votes ahead of the April 1 election. The offer was shared two days after the start of early voting in the race, pitting Crawford against the Republican-and-Musk-backed candidate, Brad Schimel.
The race will decide if the court stays liberal or switches to conservative control. Important legal fights on abortion, public sector unions, voting rules, and the boundaries of congressional districts are all coming up. Before the presidential election last year, the Musk PAC offered $1 million a day to voters in Wisconsin and the six other swing states if they signed a petition backing the First and Second Amendments.
The district attorney of Philadelphia sued, trying to block the payments under Pennsylvania law, but a judge argued that the prosecutors were unable to show that the measure was an illegal lottery. The effort carried on through Election Day.
Two groups funded by Musk, America PAC and Building for America’s Future, have spent more than $13 million on electing Schimel, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
Derrick Honeyman, a spokesperson for the Crawford campaign, said that Musk is “trying to buy a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court to secure a favorable ruling in his company’s lawsuit against the state.”
Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, sued Wisconsin because of its decision not to allow the manufacturer to open dealerships in the state. The suit came just days before the Musk-funded groups started spending on the Supreme Court race.
Eight days before the lawsuit was filed in January, Musk wrote on X: “Very important to vote Republican for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to prevent voting fraud.”
The Crawford campaign has emphasized the links between Schimel and Musk, with the Wisconsin Democratic Party putting out a new ad this week accusing Musk of trying to buy the seat.
Earlier this week, Schimel appeared at an event alongside Donald Trump Jr., who argued that his eleection election was vital to the Trump agenda. America PAC has made similar arguments in flyers handed out to voters in the state.
Similarly, Building America’s Future said in a memo Thursday that to win the race, the group has to “present Schimel as a pro-Trump conservative.”
The petition pushed by the Musk-aligned groups states that “Judges should interpret laws as written, not rewrite them to fit their personal or political agendas. By signing below, I’m rejecting the actions of activist judges who impose their own views and demanding a judiciary that respects its role — interpreting, not legislating.”
The petition is intended to energize voters in the state and collect information about them, but it’s also aligned with President Donald Trump’s claims that “activist” judges are working against him and his administration, which is currently part of several lawsuits regarding the efforts of the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency to cut down the size of the federal government.
This week, Musk donated to several Republican members of Congress who have supported articles of impeachment against federal judges, according to The Washington Post.
The billionaire is supportive of Trump’s escalating attacks on the courts. Trump called for the impeachment of federal judge James Boasberg this week after the judge ordered that the government turn around planes carrying Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
