Liberal Wins Wisconsin Supreme Court Race in Rebuke of Trump, Musk

Also, it's "Liberation Day," apparently

Author

Matt Davis
April 02, 2025

Good morning! I bought the paper this morning but it went to press too early last night and as a result, the lead story is largely irrelevant a few hours later (the Trump administration wants to kill Luigi Mangione, if they can find a jury in America willing to convict the guy). That’s because the big news on the homepage of the New York Times’s website is now this one:

That’s a nice little blue graph there with a check-mark next to it, eh?

And here it is in the Wall Street Journal:

You know the Journal’s editors loved seeing this today.

And why not? Here’s USA Today:

Break it down for us, Katie Glueck.

Democrats this week achieved their biggest gains to date in the second Trump era, winning a fiercely contested State Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, while also landing relatively strong showings despite losing two Florida special elections.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s a start.

Katie is quick to remind readers that the Democrat’s party popularity is at a generational low, and that victories in off-year races don’t necessarily translate to national success. But “winner is better than losing,” she writes. And ain’t that the truth?

At minimum, the Wisconsin results are a stinging rebuke to Elon Musk, the billionaire and top Trump adviser who spent millions in Wisconsin in support of the conservative candidate. The outcomes made clear that a once-demoralized Democratic base is animated again, on the same night that Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey delighted the party by completing the longest Senate speech on record, a 25-hour tirade and cri de coeur against the president and his administration.

It’s amusing that the words “cri de coueur” are incorporated in this story. Cory Booker made a long speech. You might even call it a cry from the heart, I suppose, if you didn’t want to show off your French.

But in Wisconsin, the race effectively did become a referendum on Elon Musk, and amazingly, Nazis remain unpopular in a state Mr. Trump won in November. I just did a Google Image search for “Elon Musk Nazi” and it turns out, there’s no shortage of results:

Get the picture?

The “bigger question”, Ms. Glueck reports, “is whether there is a real backlash brewing beyond the highly engaged, highly motivated and in many cases highly educated voters who reliably turn out for Democrats in races big and small — but who are not numerous enough to win a national election, as November’s results showed.”

That’s a long way of asking whether voter turnout might be sufficient for the Dems to win big again in ‘26 and ‘28. One reliable way of ensuring that, I suppose, would be for Trump and his friends to continue acting the way they have been since, I don’t know…forever?

Musk in Wisconsin this weekend, giving two $1 million checks to voters. Would you believe people voted overwhelmingly against his interests?

A good quote from the Wisconsin secretary of state summarizes the reason people are mad:

“They are watching how Donald Trump is empowering a billionaire who is unelected to cut their veterans’ services programs, and yet their representatives, these Republican congressional members, aren’t showing up,” said Sarah Godlewski, the Wisconsin secretary of state. “So they’re like, I can make my voice heard in this Supreme Court election.”

On the other hand? Democrats might be skilled at capitalizing on frustration, but that’s “no substitution for an affirmative, economic-focused message and other efforts to connect with working-class voters.”

In other words? “Republicans screwing up is not a Democratic strategy.”

If only there was, I don’t know, a generational leader working hard to broaden her appeal with the Democratic base. Then, we’d be all set.

Moi?

Also it’s “Liberation Day,” which is supposedly when Donald Trump tells us how many tariffs he plans to impose and we get to find out how much that tanks the economy. All the media outlets are bracing themselves to write about whatever ends up happening. Stock futures are down because remember, when he’s failed at something, Trump’s strategy is:

1. Attack, attack, attack.

2. Admit nothing, deny everything.

3. Always claim victory, never admit defeat.

Perhaps we should call today “Victory in Wisconsin Day,” instead?

Matt Davis lives in Manhattan with his wife and kid.

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