- Elon Musk is offering voters in Michigan $100 to sign a petition. It’s a smaller version of the $1 million payments he offered to select swing-state voters in 2024 and shows an increased willingness by the world’s richest man to push for a large role in the governmental process.
Elon Musk’s America PAC is offering registered voters in Wisconsin $100 each if they sign a petition against “activist judges who impose their own views.” Those payments come as another Musk-backed group is spending heavily in the state ahead of a Wisconsin Supreme court race.
At the same time, The Washington Post reports Musk has donated to several Republican senators who have moved to impeach federal judges.
The push comes as Donald Trump called for the impeachment of a federal judge earlier this week after the justice ordered the government to turn around planes that were deporting Venezuelan immigrants. Trump ignored that order, earning a rebuke from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Musk called a separate ruling by a judge that blocked Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military “a judicial coup,” adding, “We need 60 senators to impeach the judges and restore rule of the people.”
Paying people to sign a petition echoing his thoughts is becoming a go-to play for Musk. Last fall, he offered voters in swing states the chance to win $1 million each when they signed a petition his PAC put out “to support free speech and the right to bear arms.”
Prosecutors in Pennsylvania argued those payments were illegal, but a judge said the district attorney failed to present proper evidence and allowed Musk to continue making the offer.
Musk was the largest donor in the 2024 election and, while these contributions are small in comparison, they indicate an increased likelihood he intends to play a significant role in the midterm elections next year.