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This Election Will Be a Crucial Test of Musk’s Power
Watch Susan Crawford Debate Brad Schimel
Chris Murphy: ‘If We Continue to Engage in Business as Usual, This Democracy Could Be Gone’
Tell Trump and Musk to Stop Stealing from You

This Election Will Be a Crucial Test of Musk’s Power

March 18, 2025

Editor’s Note: Following are excerpts from a New York Times guest essay outlining the high stakes of the April 1 election to determine control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. (Early voting starts today, March 18,, for that race between Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel and more.) Following are excerpts from the essay by Kate Shaw, a contributing Times Opinion writer and law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. If you have a subscription, you can read the full essay on the New York Times website.

EXCERPTS

Elon Musk has set his sights, and spent tens of millions of dollars, on being involved in national and international elections and politics. Now his focus has turned to a U.S. state election: the race to fill a crucial seat that will determine control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

That election is scheduled for April 1 (early voting begins on Tuesday), and Mr. Musk is supporting the conservative candidate Brad Schimel over the liberal candidate Susan Crawford. A victory for Judge Schimel would flip the court from liberal to conservative control, with potentially enormous implications for access to voting, legislative districts, abortion and more.

The prospect of a billionaire with outsize influence over the federal government also seeking to dictate the direction of state-level democracy should be profoundly alarming to anyone committed to federalism, a core constitutional value. Federalism is especially important right now. With unified Republican control in Washington, D.C., and a Congress that has been a willing participant in its own defenestration, states and state institutions are poised to become ever more critical sites for the preservation of rights and the rule of law.

Mr. Musk’s interjection started in January with an X post urging his followers to “vote Republican for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.” (The contest is nonpartisan, but it was clear what he meant: Vote for Judge Schimel.) He has since unleashed his spending juggernaut on the race: According to recent filings, his AmericaPAC has spent over $6.3 million on it, and the Musk-affiliated Building America’s Future has spent another $4.3 million. Yet another Musk-affiliated PAC, Progress 2028, is airing deceptive ads that purport to support Judge Crawford but in fact appear designed to help Judge Schimel.. . .

. . .These issues of state-level democracy are especially important in light of what happened in the state in 2020, when the state high court came within a single vote of endorsing the Trump campaign’s outlandish claims of election fraud — the only state court to have seriously entertained such claims. Three of the court’s sitting justices at the time would have considered throwing out hundreds of thousands of votes in heavily Democratic areas.. . .

. . . Whether it’s business interests or a desire to expand his influence by installing ideological allies in every conceivable position of power on the national, international and now state stage, Mr. Musk’s effort to exert control over this election should be cause for alarm. The amount of power he is wielding seems flatly inconsistent with core precepts of political equality, government accountability and, above all, popular sovereignty.

The particular stakes in Wisconsin are high: The State Supreme Court has two pending cases involving the enforceability of the state’s 1849 ban on abortion. The state high court could also agree to hear a challenge to Wisconsin’s congressional districts, which were unaffected by the 2023 ruling on state districts and continue to reflect an extreme partisan gerrymander, with six of the state’s eight seats held by Republicans. And a changed court could revisit and perhaps even overrule the recent decision outlawing the previous state legislative maps — paving the way for restoration of Republican supermajorities in the Wisconsin legislature.

We should understand Mr. Musk’s interest in this race as an acknowledgment of the undeniable fact that a great deal of law and policy will continue to be made in the states, whatever happens in Washington. But his entry into the Wisconsin race could serve as a galvanizing moment for voters troubled by this billionaire’s influence in our politics and a way to make their objections known.

Watch Susan Crawford Debate Brad Schimel

March 12, 2025

Chris Murphy: ‘If We Continue to Engage in Business as Usual, This Democracy Could Be Gone’

March 16, 2025

Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy cautioned lawmakers
that continuing to engage in norms during the Trump administration
could bring an end to American democracy. His comments come
after 10 Democratic senators, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer,
voted with Republicans to pass Trump's spending bill and avert a
government shutdown.

"If we continue to observe norms, if we continue to engage in
business as usual, this democracy could be gone," Murphy said
Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press.

Read full article

Contact Tiffany, Johnson, and Baldwin: Tell them to stop Trump and Musk stealing from you

The assault on Americans and on our government has got to stop. Call or write, or better yet, call AND write Representative Tom Tiffany (202-225-3365) and Senators Ron Johnson (202-224-5323 ) and Tammy Baldwin (202-224-5653). You can email all three at https://democracy.io/#!/

Demand that they do their jobs and enforce the balance of power among our co-equal branches of government dictated by the Constitution. Tell them to keep the Legislative branch strong and the Executive branch in check. Tell them to stop Musk and his minions stealing from you.