Opinion | Elon Musk Made an Election About Him and Wisconsin Said, No, Thanks

Having purchased himself a presidential BFF last year, Elon Musk was pumped to effectively buy himself a State Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin.The voters had other ideas.Musk and his related groups dropped more than $20 million on boosting the conservative candidate, the former state attorney general Brad Schimel.

(Those $1 million sweepstakes giveaways were especially shameless.) Musk held a town hall/rally in Green Bay on Sunday in which he urged folks to back Schimel, and he pitched the race as “one of those things that may not seem that it’s going to affect the entire destiny of humanity, but I think it will.”In helping make this likely the most expensive court contest of all time, Musk also turned it into a referendum on himself and his role in the Trump administration.Schimel, bless his heart, could have been the greatest candidate in the history of democracy — he wasn’t — and it wouldn’t have mattered.

This became all about Elon, with a dash of Donald Trump thrown in.Wisconsinites’ response: No, thanks, bruh.Despite Musk’s hysterical warnings and cheesehead preening, Schimel’s opponent, Susan Crawford, won by about 10 points, securing the court’s liberal majority.Democrats, desperate for a win, are delighted.

But Republicans should be quietly rejoicing as well — especially the members of Congress increasingly unsettled by the unelected billionaire clumsily hacking at government programs that Americans rely on.So many scared and angry constituents.

So many fractious town halls.So much electoral peril.Musk has his money-drenched tentacles wrapped tightly around the president.

To start disentangling him and moving him toward the door, Republican lawmakers need to make the case that he is hurting Trump’s popularity — and threatening the G.O.P.’s unified control of Washington.Musk’s expensive Wisconsin flop is a big, red warning flag for Republican members to wave.

They’d be wise to seize the moment while this failure is raw...