Some GOP lawmakers privately hope Election Night goes poorly for Republicans to wake President Donald Trump up to the need to boot tech billionaire Elon Musk out of power, CNN anchor and analyst Kasie Hunt told panelists just ahead of the first poll closings.
Republicans face their first statewide election since 2024 with a Wisconsin Supreme Court contest heavily targeted by Musk and a pair of Florida special elections for deep-red districts that Democrats were hopeful to outperform in despite all odds.
"Wisconsin is going to be the place where in that 50/50 state, it's going to be a tough call how this will shape up because on the one hand, you've got Elon Musk just pouring tons and tons of money into that," said CNN anchor Abby Phillip.
"More than $20 million," fellow anchor Jake Tapper cut in.
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"Yeah, I mean, and way more than the vaunted George Soros," agreed Phillip. "But clearly, turnout is up. People are engaged and the backlash factor against Elon Musk, who is perhaps the most unpopular aspect of this Trump administration, is going to be huge. Down in Florida, the energy, you see it in the money as well. But on the Democratic side, where these candidates on the Democratic side are — have raised so much money, it shows you that there's something happening here. And it's not centered on Washington. It's centered on the people who actually are pretty disgusted with all of Washington."
"I think the most interesting thing that I've been hearing, as we've been preparing to, to cover this, is the degree to which that there are House Republicans who very privately, but also very sort of vocally and nervously, are saying that they actually wouldn't mind if this result woke up President Trump and woke up the White House,. as to Elon Musk and the challenges that he is creating for them with voters."
"I had one member in a tough district basically say, you know, if this night went really bad for us, maybe they'd throw Musk out before, you know, we have to get to reconciliation, before we have to get to the midterm elections," she continued. "It sounded like a little bit of wishful thinking to me, but I think it speaks to the fear and the nervousness."
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