MADISON 鈥 Billionaire likely broke Wisconsin law when he handed out to voters in the 2025 state Supreme Court election, a bipartisan panel has found.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission last week referred two complaints to the Brown County district attorney鈥檚 office, which can choose to bring criminal charges over violating the state law against election bribery. Prosecutors have 40 days to report back to the commission.
Musk, the and CEO of Tesla, was in the effort to flip majority control of the highest court in battleground Wisconsin.
The tech titan and groups he supported spent at least $20 million on the candidate backed by Republicans, Brad Schimel. However, he lost by 10 percentage points to Democratic-backed candidate Susan Crawford.
A month after the lopsided loss, Musk announced that he would be on political campaigns. Spending on the election topped $100 million, making it the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission, consisting of three Democrats and three Republicans, voted 5-1 in closed session on Thursday to refer the complaints to the district attorney, the commission鈥檚 spokesperson Emilee Miklas said.
The motion said the Commission found probable cause that Musk broke Wisconsin law by making a social media post offering $1 million to people who voted in the Supreme Court election 鈥渋n order to induce them to vote in that election.鈥
Spokespeople for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Musk鈥檚 spending on the 2025 race has already resulted in filed by a government watchdog group, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which seeks to prohibit him from ever again offering cash payments in the state.
That lawsuit is pending in Brown County.