(NewsNation) — Ahead of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, tech billionaire Elon Musk handed out $1 million checks to two voters of his town hall in Wisconsin, casting it as critical to President Donald Trump’s agenda and “the future of civilization.”
Musk declared the voters spokespeople for his political group, claiming the move was cheaper and more effective than paying for the same amount of media coverage.
“The reason for the checks is that it’s really just to get attention. It’s like, we need to get attention. And it’s somewhat inevitably, when I do this, these things… it causes the legacy media to, like, kind of lose their minds, and then they’ll run it on every news channel,” Musk said on stage at the town hall before giving out the large checks.
“And I’m like, I couldn’t pay them to, it would cost, like, 10 times more… to get the kind of coverage that we get without distributing the checks,” Musk said.
He added, later: “This is just helpful for getting attention, and then, like, it’s kind of fun to see the legacy media lose their minds over it too.”
Musk appeared to make good on his promise on Sunday to give checks to two members of the audience, all of whom were required to sign his petition against so-called “activist judges” in order to get a seat at the event.
The town hall was held in advance of Tuesday’s critical Wisconsin Supreme Court race, into which Musk and his America PAC have poured millions of dollars to support the conservative candidate, Judge Brad Schimel.
Wisconsin AG: Musk is illegally buying voters
The promise of giving out $2 million caused significant controversy leading up to the event.
Earlier that day, Wisconsin Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul asked the state’s top court to block Musk from giving away the checks at his town hall, arguing they were “illegal payments” to buy votes. Kaul’s appeal came after lower courts declined to block the giveaways as an illegal bribe to voters.
Musk presented the checks to Nicholas Jacobs and Ekaterina Diestler on Sunday evening.
$90M spent in Wisconsin Supreme Court race
Candidates have already spent more than $90 million, a significant increase from the $50 million spent in the 2023 state Supreme Court race. Musk has contributed more than $20 million to Schimel’s campaign.
With a 3-4 liberal majority, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on some major cases, including abortion, voting rules, redistricting, congressional maps and union rights.
Musk has accused Democrats of trying to redraw congressional districts to their advantage, while Democrats continue to criticize Musk, claiming he’s attempting to buy the election, despite both candidates receiving money from billionaires.
“Elections are important, so are the Second Amendment rights, freedom of speech, anything in the First Amendment, freedom of religion. I would like a Supreme Court justice that’s willing to stand up against another evers-like shutdown of churches that happened during covid, and I think Schimel would do that, and I don’t think his opponent would,” said Eau Claire, Wisconsin, voter Linda Oliver. “I don’t usually vote on an issue, but I did this time for Susan Crawford, on abortion.”
According to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis, Crawford has donations from more than 126,00 donors, while Schimel has received contributions from about 12,000.
The Hill contributed to this report.