Update: Later on Friday, Elon Musk walked back part of his plan to pay conservative voters.
Elon Musk is heading back to the campaign trail.
Mr. Musk, the Republican megadonor, said early Friday that he would be going to Wisconsin, apparently to campaign for the conservative candidate in a high-profile judicial contest. The visit, two days before the vote on Tuesday, appears to be his most direct engagement in the State Supreme Court election, which is being watched closely as a test of Mr. Musk’s influence.
Mr. Musk will deliver remarks in the state on Sunday evening, he said on X, without releasing other details. Nor did he mention the candidate, Brad Schimel, by name, saying simply that he would “give a talk in Wisconsin.”
Mr. Musk is reprising a few of the tactics he used in the final weeks of the presidential election, when he traveled across Pennsylvania to assist Donald J. Trump’s campaign with a series of town halls. He is once again issuing personal checks to those who sign a petition that his super PAC is circulating to registered voters and awarding $1 million randomly in sweepstakes-like gifts to signers. (Mr. Musk’s latest petition in Wisconsin is opposed to what he calls “the actions of activist judges.”)
Mr. Musk is also offering a new twist on at least some of these petition payouts: making them conditional not only on signing the petition and being a registered voter, but also on having already voted, a legally contentious escalation of his program. Mr. Musk said in his Friday post that he would “personally hand over two checks for a million dollars each in appreciation for you taking the time to vote.” Mr. Musk’s super PAC has awarded a $1 million check to one Wisconsin voter who signed the petition.
Mr. Musk’s super PAC has been encouraging early voting in the contest, and the post on Friday offered another example of how.
Unlike the Pennsylvania town halls, Sunday’s event would be open only to those who had already voted in the Supreme Court election, Mr. Musk said, without specifying how this requirement would be enforced.
Mr. Musk has been stepping up his words and his spending in aid of Judge Schimel, who if elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court could weigh in on abortion policy, redistricting and even Tesla’s business in the state.
Though Mr. Musk and allied groups have spent more than $20 million on the campaign, he expressed doubt about the chances of victory, saying on Thursday that Judge Schimel’s odds were “difficult, but not impossible.”
