Republicans in Wisconsin are telling Politico that they have been surprised to learn that billionaire Elon Musk is not an asset among voters in their state.
Musk over the last several months spent tens of millions of dollars to boost the candidacy of Wisconsin Supreme Court nominee Brad Schimel, only to see him lose the race by double digits to rival Susan Crawford.
Pam Van Handel, Chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s Outagamie County, tells Politico that she sincerely believed that voters would respond well to Musk coming into their state and handing out $1 million checks to voters ahead of the election.
“I’m honestly shocked," she said. "I thought we had it in the bag... I thought [Musk] was gonna be an asset for this race. People love Trump, but maybe they don’t love everybody he supports. Maybe I have blinders on.”
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Rohn W. Bishop, the Republican mayor of Waupun, goes so far as to say that Musk might have made things worse for Republicans than they would have been otherwise.
“I thought maybe Elon coming could turn these people to go out and vote,” he says “I think [Musk] helped get out voters in that he may have turned out more voters against [Schimel].”
Democrats, for their part, aren't hiding the fact that they tried to make the Supreme Court race a referendum on Musk.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said after the race that it's time for the GOP to “walk away from this unelected, unpopular, unhinged and un-American billionaire puppet master."