EXCLUSIVE — OCONOMOWOC, Wisconsin — How did a state court race, that in any other circumstance would be ignored by the White House, end up on President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s radar?
Turns out, it was the brainchild of two men: former Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Keith Gilkes. The latter is the longtime head of Walker’s political operation who also oversaw Musk’s efforts in Wisconsin last year, ultimately helping deliver a win for the president over former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Walker and Gilkes began strategizing last fall how to get then-candidate Trump to focus on the contest, and by extension, how to get enough money flowing into the race to make it competitive.
Before any pitches were made, the duo had to wait and see how well Trump performed in the brutal battleground state, where both sides fought hard for every vote. Trump ended up winning Wisconsin by about 30,000 votes.
It was then that Walker, Wisconsin’s 45th governor, and Gilkes, a respected Republican political strategist, kicked their plan into high gear.
“The Trump White House is not unlike any others in the past where they are always reluctant to get involved in races that don’t appear to be directly connected to them,” Walker told the Washington Examiner. “Normally if you’re an incoming president, you worry about the Senate and House first, just to keep the majorities you have or to build them up, and maybe secondarily, help elect governors to keep them as allies but you don’t get far beyond that. So, a Supreme Court race for any president is huge.”
Not only was getting the president — any president — to focus on a state court race difficult, Walker had the added complication that conservative candidate Brad Schimel was behind in the polls.
While Schimel had name recognition as the state’s former Republican attorney general, his liberal opponent Judge Susan Crawford had very rich donors, including billionaires George Soros and Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL).
Walker believed that if Republicans could mobilize at least two-thirds of Trump’s base to vote for Schimel — combined with a massive cash infusion and a strong ground game — they could win. But he needed more to persuade the president.
He had to frame the race as a referendum on Trump, positioning a victory for Schimel as a win for the president and his conservative agenda.
Walker was aided by Crawford’s own words, highlighting her ability to influence the redrawing of congressional districts and threaten the GOP House majority.
He told the Washington Examiner that comments made by Crawford during a briefing with Democratic donors billing the race as a “chance to put two more House seats in play” showed that she was committed to redrawing congressional districts to benefit Democrats.
He also pointed to comments made by Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) telling Wisconsin voters to elect Crawford so that she and other justices could redraw congressional districts in a way more favorable to the party.
If Democrats succeed in redrawing the districts, they could regain control of the U.S. House in next year’s midterm election. A flipped House would make it increasingly difficult for Trump to advance his agenda through Congress.
“All of those things brought a lot of attention to the voters but also to the president and in turn Elon Musk,” Walker said. “[Musk’s] main reason for getting involved is that he likes the president and doesn’t want to see his agenda get thwarted and it doesn’t hurt that Gilkes, my former campaign manager, chief of staff, helped the operation for his group last November here in Wisconsin.”
Walker praised the billionaire and his political group’s “creative” ways of finding voters during his interview with the Washington Examiner.
“Their focus in Wisconsin and in other battleground states was very much from a business standpoint of how do you do unique things to identify your customers and in this case, customers being voters, and they were very very effective in doing that,” Walker said. “In turn, I think, they have been very effective in trying to identify people who voted for Trump but don’t typically vote in the Supreme and that’s why you’ve seen it be effectively a tie race.”
Walker spent part of last week on Schimel’s massive election bus visiting voters across the state.
A win for Schimel would flip the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s current 4-3 liberal majority. If Musk is successful in his approach, it will cement him as a conservative kingmaker, and his efforts in Wisconsin could become the blueprint for the midterm elections. If he fails, it would give Republicans license to distance themselves from him and some of his more controversial actions.
So far, Musk has spent about $20 million to back Schimel, making him the single largest spender in the race. His super PAC, America PAC, has spent over $6.6 million on the election. The group created a canvassing operation of more than 500 employees who have relentlessly knocked on doors in rural areas of the state and in left-leaning Madison and Milwaukee.
Musk is expected to attend a rally in Green Bay on Sunday night.
Democrats have been tracking every move Musk makes, ready to pounce on anything they believe crosses the line.
Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general sued Musk on Friday, asking the court to stop him from promoting a $1 million giveaway to two residents who had already cast their ballots in the state’s Supreme Court race.
“The Wisconsin Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that elections in Wisconsin are safe, secure, free, and fair. We are aware of the offer recently posted by Elon Musk to award a million dollars to two people at an event in Wisconsin this weekend,” Attorney General Josh Kaul posted on X, Musk’s social media platform.
Musk initially said in a Friday early-morning post on X that he planned to “personally hand over” $2 million to a pair of voters during his visit to the battleground state. Musk later posted a clarification, saying the checks would go to people who would be “spokesmen” for America PAC.
After first saying the event would only be open to people who had voted in the Supreme Court race, he said attendance would be limited to those who have signed the petition America PAC has circulated against “activist judges.”
Despite the drama, Schimel has leaned into Musk’s support.
During multiple campaign stops across Wisconsin last week, Schimel told supporters that Trump called him, spoke to him about the race, and then handed the phone to Musk, who only asked him if he was against “activist judges,” before passing him to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Democrats have been hammering Schimel for taking money and support from Trump and Musk, something Walker said is “an odd strategy for them to be ending with.”
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“I don’t know if it’s their own obsession or they are hoping it drags their voter base up but I think to voters, they look at Musk and say, that’s the guy who saved those astronauts, the guy who made interesting cars and trucks, who’s employed hundreds of thousands of people,” Walker said. “It’s just odd to me. Unlike Soros, where people couldn’t even tell you what he’s done other than spend money on politics.”
Multiple calls and emails to Crawford’s camp and Wisconsin’s Democratic Party for comment were not returned.
