A bipartisan panel at the Wisconsin Elections Commission has determined that billionaire Elon Musk likely violated state law by offering $1 million to voters during the 2025 state Supreme Court election. The commission has referred two complaints to the Brown County district attorney's office, which will decide whether to pursue criminal charges for election bribery.
Musk, founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla, was actively involved in the effort to influence the outcome of the state's highest court race. His favored candidate, Republican-backed Brad Schimel, ultimately lost to Democrat-backed Susan Crawford by 10 percentage points. Musk and affiliated groups reportedly spent at least $20 million on Schimel's campaign.
Following the election, Musk announced plans to reduce his spending on political campaigns. The 2025 state Supreme Court election became the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history, with total spending exceeding $100 million.
The complaints, which are confidential under Wisconsin law, were filed by voters from Milwaukee and Green Bay. Musk distributed checks at a rally in Green Bay shortly before the election. The Wisconsin Elections Commission, composed of three Democrats and three Republicans, voted 5-1 to forward the complaints to prosecutors.
The commission found probable cause that Musk violated Wisconsin law by making a social media post offering $1 million to individuals who voted in the Supreme Court election, with the apparent intent to influence their participation.
While Musk's spokespeople did not immediately comment, reports indicate that three Wisconsin voters received checks. Two of them received payments in person at the Green Bay rally. Prior to the election, Musk's political action committee, America PAC, had offered $100 to voters who signed a petition opposing “activist judges” or referred others to do so.
Crawford's victory maintained liberal control of the state Supreme Court, a majority that was further strengthened by another Democratic-backed candidate's win this year.
Separately, a lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a government watchdog group, seeks to prevent Musk from making future cash payments in the state. This lawsuit, also pending in Brown County, alleges that Musk and two affiliated groups violated prohibitions against vote bribery, unauthorized lotteries, and engaged in unlawful conspiracy and public nuisance.
An earlier attempt by Wisconsin's Democratic attorney general to block Musk's checks was unsuccessful in state courts. Musk's legal team argued that the payments were an exercise of free speech rights and that any restriction would violate constitutional protections. They contended the payments were intended to foster a grassroots movement against “activist judges,” not to explicitly support or oppose any candidate.
Musk's political action committee employed a similar strategy before the 2024 presidential election, offering $1 million daily to voters in Wisconsin and six other swing states for signing petitions related to the First and Second amendments. A judge in Pennsylvania allowed that initiative to proceed, ruling that prosecutors had not sufficiently demonstrated it was an illegal lottery.