Elon Musk’s prominent role in the most expensive judicial race in American history has helped turn Tuesday’s election into a battle over national politics.
At face value, an election on Tuesday will decide whether conservatives or liberals control the Wisconsin Supreme Court, a result that could shape the fate of essential policies in the state from abortion to congressional district maps.
But as a torrent of money from outside Wisconsin has made the contest the most expensive judicial race in American history, voters across the state said they had come to see this election to fill a single State Supreme Court seat more as a referendum on the early months of President Trump’s second term.
Fueling that perception is roughly $20 million that Elon Musk and groups allied with him have spent to boost the conservative candidate, Brad Schimel, a judge who also got President Trump’s endorsement not long ago.
