As if rescuing astronauts and DOGE'ing the federal government weren't enough to keep Elon Musk busy, he and his PAC are writing the playbook for how the Republican Party wins elections when Donald Trump isn't on the ballot. First up: the crucial Wisconsin Supreme Court election taking place on April 1.
Spoiler alert: the key to winning without Trump, according to Musk's group Building America's Future, is to become Trump. Or, at the very least, align yourself strongly with the president.
While a state supreme court election might not make most voters' pulses race with excitement, the one in Wisconsin is important for a number of reasons, the most important arguably being that it's the first chance the Democrat Party has to start escaping from the political Alcatraz in which they currently find themselves.
And, thus, Democrats and their preferred billionaires (think George Soros and J.B. Pritzker) are pouring gobs of money into the race, which pits conservative Waukesha County Circuit Judge Brad Schimel against liberal Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford. It's a pickup opportunity for the right, and a Schimel win would shift the balance of power on the court to conservatives. Trump won Wisconsin by a very narrow margin—49.7 percent to Kamala Harris's 48.9 percent—so it's likely to end up being a squeaker.
MORE: Wisconsin's Supreme Court Race Is the Most Important Election You Haven't Heard About
While Democrats are piling all of their hopes for a political comeback on this race, Republicans are dipping their toes into the waters of how to win without Trump. Not without Trump completely, of course, since he's president for four more years (or eight if Steve Bannon has his way!), but his name on the ballot undoubtedly drew in voters who might have otherwise stayed home.
Democrats are making the election a referendum on Trump. It's all they have at this point, as their party is in utter disarray trying to counter the momentum of his first two months in office, and they're placing their hopes on voter anger at Trump carrying them to victory in Wisconsin.
By contrast, Republicans are pushing candidates like Brad Schimel to become more like the president. A new memo from Building America's Future lays it out in three easy steps:
The pro-Schimel effort should have three main objectives at this stage:
1) Continue to drive negatives on Crawford and soften her support with center-left voters
2) Consolidate the base and present Schimel as a pro-Trump conservative
3) Remake the electorate to push turnout closer to November 2024 than November 2023
The memo comes at a crucial time for Schimel, who has consistently lagged behind Crawford in polls, but has narrowed the gap to just 5 percent in recent weeks. One of the reasons cited for Schimel's late-stage comeback is a Musk-backed ad that ties Crawford to her record of going easy on sex offenders.
Judge @crawfordforwi said it loud and clear:
— Building America's Future (@bldgUSAfuture) March 14, 2025
She’s proud of her record of giving multiple child sex offenders soft sentences.
Susan Crawford puts criminals over your kids and she doesn’t regret it. pic.twitter.com/mYKHjeS6GW
The next hurdle for Schimel is how to gain the support of the estimated 14 percent of Trump voters in Wisconsin who indicated they would be voting for Crawford. The way to do that, according to Musk's PAC, is to remind them that Schimel "is a strong conservative and Trump ally." An estimated $100 million is expected to be poured into this race, so expect things to get spicy in the closing days.
Having a framework for victory in place ahead of other important races, including some special House elections this year and the midterms that are looming in 2026, is crucial for the Republican Party as they—and Musk—seek to answer the question: Can we win without Trump?
Elon Musk isn't just changing how Republicans approach elections, he and DOGE are bringing much-needed accountability to our out-of-control bureaucracy as they take a chainsaw to rampant waste, fraud, and abuse.
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