Diehard MAGA supporters are already spreading unfounded election fraud theories after yesterday’s special election in Wisconsin, where Democrat Susan Crawford defeated Republican rival Brad Schimel to maintain Democrats’ slim majority on the state Supreme Court.
Wisconsinites also voted for a Republican-backed effort to enshrine an existing voter ID requirement in the state’s constitution—a law Crawford sought to overturn while still serving as a private attorney in 2011.
The Supreme Court race was a pet project for Elon Musk, who donated more than $20 million to Schimel and Wisconsin Republicans through various PACs and organizations and gave three voters $1 million checks for participating in the election.
After Crawford overcame Musk’s millions, some members of the online right thought the results didn’t add up.
“Wisconsin votes for Voter ID. But somehow Susan Crawford wins the Wisconsin Supreme Court election?” asked one popular right-wing X account followed by Elon Musk. “Who thinks there needs to be a Federal Audit? This makes absolutely no sense”
“[Democrats] Cheated in Wisconsin,” another X poster claimed, without any evidence. “Voter ID makes no difference when they can manufacture ballots, fake an entire election, which they did.”
At least one prominent elected official fanned the flames of this latest election conspiracy theory.
“Seems strange that Wisconsin voters would elect an avowed opponent of voter ID laws when—on the very same day—they voted to adopt a statewide voter ID law,” wrote Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on X. “Are they trying to keep the universe in check?”
Lee’s replies predictably swelled with posts about “fraud,” “voting machines,” “integrity,” and “cheating.” Neither Lee nor his followers provided any evidence to support these allegations.
For other commentators, including some Republicans, Crawford and the voter ID referendum prevailing together had a simple explanation: many people voted for both of them.
“More than a few Democrats in Wisconsin supported voter ID,” wrote one anti-Trump Republican on X. “And more than a few Republicans in Wisconsin rejected Trumpism.”
“If the Wisconsin race was decided by fraud, then why didn’t the fraud vote down the Voter ID issue, that makes it harder to commit fraud?” a popular pro-Trump account asked, pushing back on the stolen election theories. “A general disconnect and lack of engagement among GOP Voters outside of Presidential Elections is what caused this.”
For his part, Musk was eager to sweep his big election defeat under the rug.
“This was the most important thing,” he wrote on X, referring to the voter ID ballot measure results.
Democrats tend to turn out in droves for off-cycle elections, New York Times pollster Nate Cohn reported this week. And Wisconsin voters are accustomed to splitting their tickets, having voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 while also re-electing Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.).
In a preview of yesterday’s vote, a Wisconsin ballot measure to clarify that only citizens can vote outperformed Trump by more than 20 points last year.
The most conspiracy-minded portions of the online right, though, had their minds made up before the votes were even tallied.
“If we ‘lose’ the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, there should be an immediate investigation into voter fraud,” one right-wing X account wrote yesterday evening. “Nobody can tell me any differently.”
But while fraud fears reigned in the Midwest, conservatives had little to say about sketchy vote totals in response to the two special congressional elections in Florida, where Republicans Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine won solid red districts.
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