In his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vice President J.D. Vance wrote about his grandmother’s contradictory politics as a resident in rural Ohio. “Mamaw’s sentiments occupied widely different parts of the political spectrum,” Vance observed. She “was a radical conservative or a European-style Democrat,” depending on her mood. These contradictions, Vance argued, were the result of a complex psychology shaped by faith, culture, and community.

Perhaps this anecdote can shed light on the seemingly contradictory election results in Wisconsin on Tuesday. Liberal Susan Crawford beat conservative Brad Schimel by nearly 10 points while a GOP-backed voter ID amendment passed easily. Democrats campaigned against both Schimel and the amendment, but Democratic — or Democratic-leaning — voters only listened to one prescription. What gives?

Wisconsin voters, like any swing-state voters, are ideologically eclectic. They hold conservative views on immigration and crime but are liberal on social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. They favor government intervention when it comes to combatting corporate greed, but at the same time are wary of government overreach and skeptical of systemic change.

These biases played entirely to Democrats’ favor during Tuesday’s election. Crawford made her campaign solely about beating “unelected oligarch” Elon Musk — who poured $20 million into the race and personally campaigned for Schimel — and the threat he poses as President Donald Trump’s hatchet man. She painted herself as the commonsense, impartial candidate taking on the power-hungry Silicon Valley billionaire. And it worked.

Democratic turnout blew past expectations for a spring election in an off year: nearly 70% as many ballots were cast on Tuesday as in the 2024 presidential election. Crawford outperformed Vice President Kamala Harris’s November totals by roughly 10 points, and she flipped 10 counties that voted for Trump.

And she did it by making clear that Musk was the real opponent in the race. “I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin,” Crawford declared to an adoring crowd during her victory speech. Never mind that Crawford received millions from billionaire megadonors George Soros, the Schusterman family, and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (D).

By casting the election as a referendum on Musk and his DOGE-style cuts to the federal government, Crawford was able to stoke fears that Musk, and by extension, Schimel, would cut social services like Medicaid, Social Security, veteran’s benefits, and other entitlements. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin picked up on these fears and hosted several “People vs. Musk” townhalls throughout the state leading up to the election. Attendees held signs saying, “Don’t Let Elon Musk Buy Wisconsin” and “Trump Is Weak on Musk.”

“He’s becoming electoral poison,” Democratic pollster Evan Roth Smith told Politico. “The Democratic Party is going to make Elon a central issue in its messaging, as it should, and Democrats are getting better at focusing on what matters to voters, which is the threat he poses to entitlements.”

While Trump has repeatedly said he will not cut entitlements, voters who depend on such programs look to Musk’s cuts of large swaths of the federal government and worry Social Security or Medicaid is next. Mainstream media outlets don’t help assuage these fears by running sensationalist headlines that cherry-pick the facts.

Besides the entitlement controversy, the perception of billionaires working in government is extremely unpopular. According to an Associated Press poll, nearly six in 10 U.S. adults say billionaires advising President Trump is a “very” or “somewhat” bad thing. And while the rich will always hold positions of political influence, they are typically much more discreet than Musk has been. From wearing brightly colored MAGA hats in the Oval Office to offering potential Schimel voters million-dollar checks, Musk is flamboyantly open about his partnership with and support of President Trump and his agenda — to the mainstream media’s glee. Perhaps Musk should take a page out of leftist megadonor George Soros and other powerful billionaires by passing his agenda behind the scenes.

But the damage has already been done. Democratic strategists and their allies in the media have convinced Wisconsinites — particularly rural Wisconsinites — that Musk is a threat to both democracy and entitlements. And that’s why Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters came out in droves to vote against him. While Musk’s tenure at the White House is set to expire in late May or early June, swing state voters’ association of Republicans with Musk is not. Republican strategists have quite a challenge ahead of them leading up to the 2026 midterms. They’ll have to disentangle hatred of Musk from the GOP’s branding while stirring up the base enough to vote in an election where Trump’s name is not on the ballot.

But not all hope is lost. Given that Crawford voters also backed the GOP-endorsed voter ID measure by substantial margins, it’s possible the American electorate’s ideological contradictions will favor Republicans next time around.