Wisconsin AG sues Elon Musk over million-dollar prize in state Supreme Court race

MADISON, Wis. (CN) — Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul sued Friday to keep Elon Musk and his PAC from handing out million-dollar gifts to voters who sign his petition to elect Brad Schimel to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Kaul filed the complaint in Dane County Circuit Court after Musk announced on his social media platform X that he would give $1 million each to two random attendees at his event Sunday.

The tweet, which has since been deleted, said, “On Sunday night, I will give a talk in Wisconsin…I will also personally hand over two checks for a million dollars each in appreciation for you taking the time to vote. This is super important.”

Musk clarified in a follow-up tweet the next day that only those who signed a petition in opposition to “activist judges”  published by his PAC will be able to attend the event, which does not yet have a time or location.

Kaul says that since only supporters of one candidate will be eligible for the prize, the PAC’s monetary incentives violate the law.

Wisconsin state law prohibits any person from offering, giving, lending or promising anything of value to any elector in order to induce them to vote or refrain from voting for or against a particular person.

America PAC, funded by Musk, also promised registered voters $100 for signing the petition, and another $100 for each referral who also signs.

On Thursday, the PAC announced that it had already given $1 million to a registered voter in Green Bay who signed the petition. Scott Ainsworth, now $1 million richer, then filmed a video touting the PAC’s petition and urged Wisconsinites to go out and vote for Schimel.

Musk employed a similar tactic during the 2024 presidential election, offering voters in Wisconsin and other battleground states prizes of $1 million a day for signing a petition supporting Trump policies.

Kaul seeks a temporary restraining order prohibiting Musk and his PAC from making or even promoting any incentive payments to Wisconsin voters.

“The Wisconsin Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that elections in Wisconsin are safe, secure, free and fair,” Kaul said in a statement on X.

Musk’s two PACs have spent over $17 million on ads and canvasing for Schimel in the lead-up to Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election on April 1, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Musk himself gave $2 million to the Republican Party of Wisconsin just two weeks before the election, a portion of which was later transferred to the Schimel campaign, according to reports filed with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission.

With four days until Election Day, America PAC has spent almost $1 million more on this election than the Schimel campaign itself.

Total spending for the race between Schimel, a Waukesha County Circuit Court judge, and Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford has surpassed $80 million, blowing the previous record out of the water.

In all, there is more pro-Schimel PAC spending than pro-Crawford, but that doesn’t mean she lacks high-profile support. Crawford has raised almost $3 million more than Schimel, much of that coming from her party.

In 2023, the race between Justice Janet Protasiewicz and former Justice Daniel Kelly was the first to ring up such an incredible ticket coming in at $51 million. As the U.S. Supreme Court punts more household issues such as abortion rights and gun control to the states, Wisconsin’s contests for the bench have drawn increasing national attention.

Although the high court race is officially nonpartisan, justices tend to lean liberal or conservative. Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, a liberal and the first woman to be elected to the state’s court rather than appointed in 1995, will retire this year. Her tenure is the fifth-longest in the court’s 177-year history.

Voters can continue to turn in early absentee ballots until Saturday evening before regular voting begins on Tuesday, April 1.

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