A conservative nonprofit backed by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk is getting involved in a race that will determine the political direction of the highest court in one of the country’s most important presidential battleground states.

Schimel, as Wisconsin’s attorney general from 2015 to 2019, defended the state’s strict voter ID law in court and claimed it was a key reason why Trump won Wisconsin in 2016. He also sent Department of Justice staff to monitor the polls in heavily Democratic areas in that election, which Democrats viewed as voter intimidation.

Wisconsin voters will return to the polls this spring for the first major election in a battleground state since the 2024 presidential race.