It seems as if the entire country has its eyes on Wisconsin’s Election Day on Tuesday, thanks to Elon Musk’s financial meddling.
The billionaire couldn’t stand to see democracy work on its own, so he chose to give $1 million to two random people who already voted in the local election.
In this case, Musk is aiming to push a conservative majority onto the Wisconsin Supreme Court. However, it didn’t take long for the internet to catch onto how suspiciously curated the winners appeared to be.
The first winner was Nick Jacobs, chair of the Wisconsin College Republicans, whose messaging has been consistent with Musk’s.
“It’s extremely important that everybody, especially young people … vote for Brad Schimel on April 1,” Jacobs said in a video posted to the X profile for America PAC, founded by Musk.
And the other winner, Ekaterina Diestler, is a graphic designer at Belmark, which is a major contributor to local Republican campaigns. The company’s CEO has also been dubbed “anti-abortion activist” and is known for cozying up with former conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly. Belmark’s CEO also contributed $5 million to Kelly’s failed 2023 campaign.
Regardless of how Musk selected these two winners, the legality of his election interference is being widely debated.
Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, plainly called Musk’s actions a “felony” in a guest column for Daily Kos.
Despite legal challenges, including one by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, Wisconsin’s lower courts and Supreme Court have rejected legal challenges to stop Musk’s meddling.
But even Diestler herself spelled out how the tech bro allegedly laid the groundwork for her to get her payday.
“My name’s Ekaterina Deistler. I did exactly what Elon Musk told everyone to do: sign the petition, refer friends and family, vote, and now I have a million dollars,” she said in a video for Musk’s Super PAC, Vote Safe.
Though the video was swiftly deleted by Musk’s team, segments are still floating around online.
While two Wisconsinites may be a $1 million wealthier, the bigger picture is that this election will decide Wisconsin’s political sway for years to come. Musk himself even alluded to rallying voters simply to get legacy media talking about the election.
“It's really just to get attention. It causes the legacy media to kind of lose their minds, and then they'll run it on every news channel. It would cost like 10 times more to get the kind of coverage that we get [without distributing the checks],” he said during his Wisconsin rally on Sunday.
But, of course, Musk also has his own personal investment in the election. Wisconsin law prohibits companies like Tesla from selling vehicles directly to consumers. Instead, they have to sell through franchisees, which Musk is challenging in court.
Now it’s up to Wisconsin to choose: Billionaire or democracy?
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated Ekaterina Diestler’s relationship to Belmark’s CEO.
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