takeover have (unsurprisingly) become synonymous with the prominent E.V. company he is in charge of. It might finally be catching up to him—and his pockets. The world’s richest man has lost Schimel’s chances. Nearly every county in the state, even ones that voted for Schimel, shifted several percentage points to the left compared to the 2024 presidential election, when the battleground state delivered a narrow victory to Trump. As a result, the Badger State’s Republicans are worried. “I’m honestly shocked. I thought we had it in the bag,” Pam Van Handel, the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s Outagamie County chair, told Politico. “I thought [Musk] was going to be an asset for this race. People love Trump, but maybe they don’t love everybody he supports. Maybe I have blinders on.” The race “throws up a bunch of warning signs for the midterm election,” said Rohn Bishop, the GOP mayor of Waupun, Wisconsin, and former chair of the Republican Party of Fond du Lac County. “I thought maybe Elon coming could turn these people to go out and vote,” Bishop said, adding “I think [Musk] helped get out voters in that he may have turned out more voters against [Schimel].” Musk also handed out $1 million checks to select voters in the state and paid cash for people to sign a petition against “activist” judges and to canvas for Schimel, but all of it was for nought. He and Trump still tried to spin the loss as a victory, claiming that a ballot measure enshrining voter ID laws into Wisconsin’s Constitution was the real contest