Mixed Results After Trump, Musk Go All In
Tuesday’s special elections saw a big loss in Wisconsin but important wins in Florida.
You win some, you lose some. That could be the takeaway from yesterday’s election results in Wisconsin and Florida. The legacy media will make hay over the results, trying to find some tea-leaf indicator for the future, but let’s face it — these were April elections in two states, albeit with relatively strong turnout. Nobody panic.
We’ll start with the bad news: Dane County Judge Susan Crawford defeated Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel in the race to take a vacant seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, meaning the Left maintains its 4-3 majority. As I explained Monday, this election has huge repercussions for the Badger State with key issues, but also with the U.S. House given the state’s districting fight.
Arguably as important as the result itself, Donald Trump and Elon Musk went all in on Schimel’s behalf, and his defeat is theirs, as well. Trump won Wisconsin by 29,000 votes and almost a full percentage point in November (his narrowest margin), but yesterday’s election wasn’t close. Crawford won by 237,000 votes and 10 points. Ouch.
At nearly $99 million, it was by far the most expensive Wisconsin Supreme Court election in history. Democrats spent heavily to boost their preferred candidate because of the aforementioned consequences. Yet Musk spent heavily, too, using his America PAC to give away money directly to petition signers and millions more to promote Schimel. However, NBC News isn’t wrong to note, “Recent polls have shown Musk’s favorability ratings are lower than Trump’s, both in Wisconsin and nationally, so it makes sense that the pro-Crawford campaign would lean in on Musk in their messaging.”
Democrats, NBC says, may have “found a new electoral boogeyman in Musk.” Frankly, the hatred for Musk that has bled over to terrorism against Tesla is astounding. When deranged psychos target Tesla buyers and voters still turn out against him, that’s bad news.
“I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin, and we won!” Crawford crowed last night in Madison.
Still, there’s good news in Wisconsin, too. Voters handily approved a constitutional amendment to require photo ID at the polls. And when I say “handily,” I mean by a 63-37 margin.
Democrats hate voter ID and have even tried in Congress to ban states from requiring it because it’s the number one election integrity measure. For that reason, the vast majority of voters, regardless of party affiliation, support it. Republicans should be pushing this in every state.
Down in Florida, special elections were held for two House seats to replace two Republicans Trump nominated to take roles in his administration. (Neither of those has worked out particularly well, by the way. Matt Gaetz flamed out before confirmation hearings to become attorney general, while National Security Advisor Michael Waltz was a central player in the Signal snafu episode.)
On Tuesday, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis defeated Democrat Gay Valimont to take the District 1 seat vacated by Gaetz, and Republican state Senator Randy Fine beat Josh Weil to win Waltz’s District 6 seat. Both men pitched themselves as Trump allies, and with most votes counted, they each lead their Democrat opponents roughly 57-43. Of course, the Leftmedia is trumpeting the fact that Trump and the previous two Republicans won both heavily Republican districts by margins exceeding 30 points. Still, as in Wisconsin, Democrats spent heavily only to come up far short.
The result that matters is that Republicans will now have a 220-213 majority in the House, with two vacancies caused by recent Democrat deaths. They’ll need those votes to push through a measure to stave off major tax hikes on most Americans.
If there is a takeaway for Trump and Musk, it’s that they should work harder on the messaging behind their government efficiency project. Both men are former Democrats who have made it their mission to drain The Swamp. That will get even harder if they allow their message to be overwhelmed by Democrat money and media attention.
