Wisconsin voters sent a clear message to Republicans about Donald Trump's billionaire adviser Elon Musk, according to CNN's Harry Enten.
Liberal candidate Susan Crawford won the state Supreme Court election after Musk spent millions of dollars and campaigned heavily to for conservative Brad Schimel, and the CNN data analyst said that put a damper on the tech mogul's goal of becoming a Republican kingmaker.
"I think it may have backfired," Enten said of Musk's efforts. "Look, I think if there's one thing we should be taking away from the results in Wisconsin and the polling that we have from Wisconsin and national, if you are a Republican candidate running in a swing state, you don't want Elon Musk anywhere near you. Yes, maybe you like the money, but you do not want his presence in your state. Why is that? Elon Musk, simply put, is an unpopular guy – he is political poison."
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"Look in Wisconsin, his net favorable rating, minus-12 points, 12 points underwater," Enten added. "That is an even worse number when you look nationally. Look at that, it's minus-17 points. So if there's one big lesson to take away from Wisconsin is Elon Musk does not help Republicans when he shows up. If anything, the data suggests that he hurts them."
Trump remains popular in Wisconsin, which he narrowly won in November, so Crawford and the state Democratic Party presented the judicial race as a referendum on Musk and his DOGE team's sweeping cuts to the federal government, and Enten said voters responded by delivering a bruising loss to Republicans.
"Republicans stay clear of Elon Musk if you want to win in a swing state," Enten said, "at least in terms of his physical appearance in your state."
Democrats did not win either congressional race in a pair of Florida special elections, but Enten said they clearly made gains in the two deep-red districts.
"What do we see in terms of swings in Florida?" Enten said. "You know, we were talking about Florida Six, and you can see it here, the election margins in the U.S. House district. You know, Donald Trump won the 6th by 30 points. Last night, what do we see? We saw the Republican Randy Fine win by 14 – that's a swing of 16 points. But that's not anywhere near the swing we saw in Florida One. Look at that, Donald Trump won it by 37 points. The republican won last night, but only by 15, that's a 22-point swing. We're talking about an average 19-point swing from the baseline back in 2024. In just a matter of four or five months."
"These are massive shifts, these are massive shifts to the left. Democrats really have to like this, even though Republicans added to their majority in terms of what this potentially means down the road. You take this type of swing, you put it on some swing districts, that's very good news for Democrats."