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By Sonam Sheth
Evening Politics Editor
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The veteran Democratic operative David Axelrod said Thursday that Elon Musk's $1 million voter sweepstakes could help determine who wins the swing state of Pennsylvania.
"There are people on the ground, Jake, in Pennsylvania, who believe — Democrats — who believe this could make a 50,000-vote difference in Pennsylvania," Axelrod said in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper. "If that were the case, given the closeness of the race, that could be really, really important."
Musk has promised to pay people $100 if they sign a petition pledging their support to the Constitution, and he's also said he will pay people $47 for every additional person they refer to sign the petition.
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The billionaire SpaceX owner said that everyone who signs the petition — which requires providing personal identifying information including an individual's name, address, phone number, and email address — is automatically entered into a $1 million lottery.
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"It's very, very smart," Axelrod told Tapper, referring to Musk's plan. "What they're doing is they're using the First Amendment and the Second Amendment — free speech and gun rights — as a way of identifying people who they think are likely to be Trump voters."
He added: "They're checking to see if they voted, they're looking for, as you say, low propensity voters, people who might not otherwise vote, and then he is running a get-out-the-vote operation for Trump. And he will then target those voters for particular attention."
The Philadelphia district attorney's office filed a lawsuit against Musk's America PAC earlier this week to block it from doling out $1 million to registered voters. The suit accused the political action committee of "violating Pennsylvania's Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Laws," specifically the state's lottery law.
On Thursday, Newsweek reported that Pennsylvania Judge Angelo Foglietta approved a motion of removal from the state court lawsuit, meaning the state case is paused and will go in front of a federal judge.
Musk's lawyers and lawyers for the Philadelphia DA's office will now make their arguments before a federal judge, and Foglietta said he will be available if the federal judge decides to send the case back to state court.
Axelrod's comments on CNN come as Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are neck-and-neck in the final sprint to Election Day. Both candidates have focused almost all their energy the last several weeks on seven battleground states including Pennsylvania, whose 19 electoral votes could determine the winner in an increasingly close election.
In 2020, Joe Biden carried Pennsylvania by a little more than 80,000 votes. In 2016, Trump won the state by roughly 68,000 votes.
Earlier this week, the Trump campaign notched a legal victory in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, when a judge granted its request to extend the deadline for voters to apply in person for mail-in ballots.
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