like this one. >> the monster. >> faces 100. >> years. >> in prison. >> but judge. >> susan crawford.et walking distance from a school. and judge crawford. she wants. a promotion. susan crawford. >> dangerous decisions. >> wrong for wisconsin. >> now, the target of that multi-million dollar effort by musk and his partners. judge susan crawford. she joins me now. it's great to see you, judge crawford. thank you so much for taking the time. and i played that. i thought about not playing it, but i played it because i wanted people to see what kind of scorched earth ads and how much money is being put behind them. what impact are you seeing of this? >> well. >> jen, you know. >> this is unprecedented. >> i think in wisconsin politics, particularly in judicial. >> elections. >> to see. >> somebody like. >> elon musk, the richest man in the world, wading in to try to buy a justice on the wisconsin supreme court. i have. >> a lot of. >> confidence in wisconsin voters. i think they're going to see through this effort and do the right thing and make sure that we have a fair and impartial. >> s

it's on april 1st, susan crawford versus brad schimel.rting brad schimel that that susan crawford actually represented planned parenthood. >> in a case called. >> planned parenthood versus brad schimel when he was the republican attorney general of the state. they will clock in and they will vote. you can you can turn voters on to this election, and we can organize our way to victory, because this is not a presidential race. this is something where even with all of his might, and i should add, elon musk added another million dollars just in the last few hours with his group america pac. so the torrent of money is just begun. but we can. >> fight back. >> by doing the on the ground organizing, by chipping in a few bucks with a whole bunch of people doing it, and actually beat elon musk for the first time in this dark, modern moment. and if we do that, it sends a shockwave of energy through the whole country by showing that he's not invulnerable, that that is the stakes in this race. it is the question of whether he can just buy every level

. >> susan crawford. >> facing. >> who is a liberal facing off against the waukesha county circuit judgeschimel, who's the conservative in this race. this is a nonpartisan race, but there are plenty of political actors who are getting involved. perhaps the most prominent this week was trump ally elon musk, who has recently posted on social media encouraging people to vote republican in this race and also pouring in a lot of money. there's one group that's allied with him that's airing $1.6 million in tv ads that started this week. and another group that he's tied to is spending about $1 million on field operations and canvasing. but it's not just the conservative and republican side getting involved. you also have a mega-donors like george soros and even illinois governor j.b. pritzker sending money to the democratic party in wisconsin, which can then dole out some campaign money to susan crawford. you also have vice president kamala harris fundraising outlet sending an email to donors saying, to get involved in this race, this will really be a key test of enthusiasm for both republicans

. >> court candidate, susan crawford. you know. >> i've been in red.t with. >> farmers and union members. >> i've met with activists and federal employees. >> i've knocked on doors in. >> western pennsylvania for our candidate. >> who is. >> going to win and help. >> us win. >> back the majority. you know, the reality. >> is, is. >> we've got to. >> get. >> the dnc. >> out of dc. to pete's. >> point. >> if we want to talk to voters. >> and connect with them, we need. >> to. >> meet them where they're at. and guess what? >> they're not. >> in traditional news. >> spaces or. >> information spaces. >> they're throughout. >> the digital world. they're in all these online spaces that. >> we have to start competing in. and pete is. absolutely right. >> you know, a lot of these online. >> communities don't. >> talk all the. >> time. about politics. >> they're talking. >> about a whole host. >> of other things. and as a result, our party has ignored. them over the past. we've got. >> to change. >> our way of thinking. >> you know what? i'm a hunter. >> people

supreme court race supporting conservative candidate brad schimel over the liberal candidate susan crawfordmmending what they consider to be lenient. lenient prison sentences from the bench. crawford has also received donations from out of state billionaires like philanthropist and mega-donor george soros. democratic governor jb pritzker of illinois and linkedin co-founder reid hoffman. the outcome of the election, which will be held on april 1st, will decide the balance of the wisconsin supreme court, which is then expected to decide cases on union rights, redistricting and abortion rights all later this year. joining us now, chair of the democratic party of wisconsin, ben wikler. ben, good morning. thank you for joining us. let's talk here. starting with elon musk's influence in this race. we know he bankrolled quite a bit of the trump operation this past fall. what are you seeing on the ground there in wisconsin. >> from what we can tell. >> elon musk is by. >> far the biggest funder now. >> he has. >> a million and a half dollars in tv ads. $400,000 in. >> radio ads, $1. >> million. >>

. >> susan crawford, thank you for joining me, helping us understand this important race to watch. that, of course, does it for me tonight. chris hayes will be back next week. and i'll be back on sunday at noon. monday at eight. the rachel maddow show starts right now. hey, rachel happy friday. >> hey, jen. >> happy friday indeed. >> thank you for. >> sticking with that wisconsin supreme court story. that is a such an important and interesting and sort of perverse. story that the courts. >> are being. >> impacted that way. i'm so. >> glad you've been. >> on it. >> perverse is such a good way of describing it. ari berman last night, he's been reporting on this a lot. also warns this could happen in other places, so it's an important one to watch, even though it seems like a small one. it's an important one. >> yes. >> yeah, exactly. >> it's one of those things where you actually need. >> to turn the telescope around the other way to see how. >> bad. >> to see how. >> big. >> it is. it is potentially. >> a huge deal. jen, thank you very much. have a great weekend. looking forward to