Musk handed the two large checks to voters Nicholas Jacobs and Ekaterina Diestler, describing the act of giving out money in the election as a way to generate cheap publicity for his candidate while mocking so-called legacy media.

“The reason for the checks is really to get attention,” he said during the event, which was broadcast on his X platform, stating it would cost “10 times more to get the coverage we get.”

“It’s kind of fun to see the legacy media lose their minds over it, too,” he added.

Kaul, a Democrat, had filed a petition to stop Musk from making what he called illegal payments to Wisconsin voters. Musk had advertised the event on X as being open to those who voted in the Supreme Court election and the checks as “appreciation for you taking the time to vote.”

The attorney general characterized Musk’s promise to hand out two $1 million checks as a “blatant violation” of Wisconsin law that “forbids anyone from offering or promising to give anything of value to an elector or induce the elector to go to the polls, vote or refrain from voting or vote for a particular person.”

The state’s liberal-leaning Supreme Court unanimously denied the motion without providing a reason.

Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, a Democrat whose seat is the one up for election as she is retiring, issued a concurring opinion explaining: “Some on the court have supported a candidate in this election, which may cause them to consider recusal. However, the rule of necessity overrides recusal in this instance.”

Schimel, a Waukesha County Circuit Court judge and former Republican attorney general for the state, is seeking Bradley’s seat for a 10-year term and is running against Susan Crawford, a Dane County Circuit Court judge who has received the endorsement of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

The election is being held Tuesday.

During the Sunday night event, Musk described the election as important for the future composition of Wisconsin’s Congress, where Republicans hold narrow majorities in both the House and Senate.

He warned that if Schimel was not elected then gerrymandering may see House seats flip to Democrats and imperil his efforts with the Department of Government Efficiency, a temporary organization that has canceled billions of dollars in government spending, often through mass firings, to end what he called waste and fraud. Many of DOGE’s actions have been challenged in court.

“If the Supreme Court is able to redraw the districts they will gerrymander the districts and deprive two House seats on the Republican side,” he said. “The result of that could be the House switches to a Democratic house and then they will try to stop all the government reforms that we’re doing and are getting done for you the American people.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court judges do not directly draw legislative districts. In Wisconsin, the legislature decides legislative districts and the state’s Supreme Court can become involved if those maps are challenged. In 2023, the Supreme Court, in a 4-3 opinion, struck down maps approved by the Republican-controlled state Congress and ordered new maps be drawn up, which Gov. Tony Evers, a Democratic, signed into law in February last year.

During the Sunday night event, Musk said the election is “obviously important in the state of Wisconsin but I think it could actually be important for the country as well, and maybe for the world.”

“What’s happening on Tuesday is a vote for which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives — that is why it is so significant. And whichever party controls the House, to a significant degree, controls the country which then steers the course of Western civilians. I feel like this is one of those things that may not seem that it’s going to affect the entire destiny of humanity, but I think it will.”