GREEN BAY, Wis. — Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, delivered $1 million checks to two of his supporters on Sunday evening at his town hall, saying the point of giving out these payments is to “get attention.”
“I should say that the reason for the checks is that it’s really just to get attention,” he said. “And somewhat inevitably, when I do these things, it causes the legacy media to kind of lose their minds.”
A $1 million check, for most people, would be a life-changing sum. For Musk, who is worth $343 billion, this sum is equivalent to the median earner in the United States throwing a quarter in a fountain.
This is, of course, the same playbook Musk used to boost Donald Trump in the 2024 election. Sunday’s checks were for supporters he brought to a town hall in Green Bay to boost Republican Judge Schimel, in advance of Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court election on Tuesday. Musk spoke to a crowd of more than 1,000 people Sunday.
The billionaire and his allies have poured $20 million into the state Supreme Court race — via his Super PAC, America PAC; a dark money group he’s funded called Building America’s Future; and donations to the Republican Party of Wisconsin. They are boosting Judge Brad Schimel, who previously served as Wisconsin’s Republican attorney general.
Musk, who’s leading Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed onstage after a speech by his Trump administration colleague and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who was previously a Wisconsin congressman. Duffy’s Department of Transportation regulates Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla as well as his space company SpaceX. Wisconsin’s Republican senator, Ron Johnson, spoke too.
People were only invited to attend if they had signed a petition from Musk’s Super PAC, America PAC, declaring their “opposition to activist judges.” Signing the petition qualified them for a $100 check.
When the event was initially announced, Musk posted on his social media platform X that he planned to “personally hand over two checks for a million dollars each in appreciation for you taking the time to vote.” That statement quickly drew a lawsuit from Wisconsin’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul. Under Wisconsin law, “election bribery” is a felony, and people cannot offer “anything of value” to voters to induce them to vote in an election.
Musk deleted and subsequently revised his offer, saying instead that he would “hand over checks for a million dollars to 2 people to be spokesmen for the petition” from America PAC. Judges have refused to step in to block the payments.
A few hundred protesters picketed outside America PAC’s event Sunday afternoon. A group held a series of large canvas signs that together said: “WI is not for sale.” One held a sign designed as a TV-style check for Schimel. “$23 million + counting,” it said, signed by Musk, declaring: “I bought Brad!”
One woman, Sandy, held a sign reading: “X-LAX needed to eliminate Musk.” She tells Rolling Stone she came out to protest Musk “because he’s in town — and trying to buy votes.” She adds, “He has no business in Wisconsin trying to influence votes.”
Hundreds of supporters waited outside in the cold, amid intermittent ice-cold rain, hours before the event was set to begin. One woman, Jen, says she came out to “back Elon and President Trump and everything they’re doing.”
A man held a sign declaring: “No child is trans,” from the anti-LGBTQ+ group Gays Against Groomers. He declined to speak with Rolling Stone, suggesting his words would be twisted.
Supporters cheered when a group of attendees drove up in a Tesla Cybertruck. One man who got out of the car posed for a picture in front of it. He subsequently told a friend it was his first time in a Cybertruck, and admitted he had trouble finding the exterior release to open the door, calling it “weird.”
The reason Musk is so interested in the race is that a conservative win, which would flip control of the court, could very well help Republicans retain their gerrymandered congressional majority in Washington, D.C.
Last year, the Wisconsin Supreme Court — which liberals currently control 4-3 — struck down the state’s legislative maps, which were so thoroughly gerrymandered that it was effectively impossible for Democrats to ever gain control of the state legislature. The court found many of the Republican-drawn district lines to be unconstitutional, so the map was redrawn.
Musk said Sunday evening that the Wisconsin judicial election could be “important” not only for the country but the world, arguing that liberals on the court “will gerrymander districts and deprive Wisconsin two House seats on the Republican side.”
He was interrupted several times by protesters inside the town hall. Both times, Musk suggested they were operatives funded by liberal mega-donor George Soros. The Trumpy crowd shouted down the protesters, chanting “USA! USA!”
Democrats are hoping that the state Supreme Court race will become a referendum on Musk. Over the weekend, the Democratic National Committee ran ads in newspapers highlighting the straight-armed salute that Musk made at Trump’s post-inauguration rally in January.
“Elon Musk is trying to buy a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat for Brad Schimel,” says the ad, which presents an image of Musk saluting behind a picture of Schimel. It adds: “Wisconsin Is Not For Sale.”
