Musk deletes post promising money for voters in Wisconsin supreme court race

Billionaire Elon Musk has deleted a social media post in which he had announced plans to hold a rally in Wisconsin to “personally hand over” 2 million dollars (£1.5m) to a pair of voters who have already cast ballots in the state’s hotly contested Supreme Court race.

Mr Musk deleted the post from his social media platform, X, about 12 hours after he initially posted it late on Thursday night.

He posted that he planned to give 1 million dollars each to two voters at the event on Sunday, just two days before the election that will determine ideological control of the court in the battleground state.

The action was announced despite a Wisconsin law that explicitly prohibits giving anything of value in exchange for a vote.

Mr Musk said that attendance at his talk would be limited only to those who have voted in the Supreme Court election, without explaining how he would verify that.

“I will also personally hand over two cheques for a million dollars each in appreciation for you taking the time to vote,” Mr Musk posted. “This is super important.”

He did not say how the two people were chosen.

The Supreme Court race has shattered previous spending records for a US judicial election and has become a referendum on Mr Musk and the first months of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Mr Trump, a Republican, endorsed Brad Schimel and hosted a telephone town hall with him on Thursday night.

“It’s a very important race,” Mr Trump said in brief remarks by phone, in a call organised by Schimel’s campaign. “I know you feel it’s local, but it’s not. It’s really much more than local. The whole country is watching.”

Mr Schimel, a Waukesha County judge, faces Dane County judge Susan Crawford in Tuesday’s election. Ms Crawford is backed by a wide range of Democrats, including the liberal justices who hold a 4-3 majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and former president Barack Obama.

The retirement this year of a liberal justice puts majority control of the court in play.

Mr Musk earlier this week said he had awarded a voter in Green Bay one million dollars for signing a petition his political action committee created targeting activist judges.

Mr Musk promised 100 dollars to any registered Wisconsin voter who signed the petition or forwarded it to someone who did.

That raised questions about whether the petition violated Wisconsin law that makes it a felony to offer, give, lend or promise to lend or give anything of value to induce a voter to cast a ballot or not vote.

Ms Crawford’s campaign spokesperson Derrick Honeyman, though, called Mr Musk’s visit to Wisconsin a “last-minute desperate distraction”.

“Wisconsinites don’t want a billionaire like Musk telling them who to vote for, and, on Tuesday, voters should reject Musk’s lackey Brad Schimel,” he said.

Mr Musk’s political action committee used a nearly identical tactic before the White House election last year, offering to pay a million dollars a day to voters in Wisconsin and six other battleground states who signed a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments.

During last year’s presidential race, Philadelphia’s district attorney sued in an attempt to stop the payments under Pennsylvania law. But a judge said prosecutors failed to show the effort was an illegal lottery and allowed it to continue through to election day.

Mr Musk and groups he funds have already spent more than 20 million dollars (£15.4 million) in an effort to elect Mr Schimel, while billionaire George Soros has given two million dollars to bolster Ms Crawford, and Democratic Illinois governor JB Pritzker has donated 1.5 million dollars.

Mr Musk got involved in the race just days after his electric car company, Tesla, filed a lawsuit against Wisconsin in an effort to open dealerships in the state.

Ms Crawford and her allies have accused Mr Musk of trying to buy influence on the court given that Tesla’s lawsuit could end up before the justices.

The race comes as the Wisconsin Supreme Court is also expected to rule on abortion rights, congressional redistricting, union power and voting rules that could affect the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election.

Wisconsin is one of a handful of true battleground states, which only intensifies the focus on court races where rules for voting will be decided.