Demonstrators protest outside the KI Convention Center before the start of a town hall meeting with Elon Musk on March 30, 2025 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Democrats and Republicans both claimed victory and the support of voters nationwide following closely watched elections on Tuesday in Wisconsin and two Florida congressional districts.
Dane County Judge Susan Crawford securing a seat on Wisconsin’s highest court over a challenger backed by billionaire Elon Musk was broadly cheered by Democrats as a clear sign voters have rejected GOP policies just months after that party secured control of Congress and the White House.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said during a floor speech Wednesday the Wisconsin Supreme Court results were a signal from the American people that they are not happy with how President Donald Trump and other Republicans are running the country.
“Yesterday was a sign Democrats’ message is resonating,” Schumer said. “When Democrats shine a light on the fact that Republicans are taking vital programs away from the middle class simply to cut taxes for the ultrarich, the public doesn’t like it. When we shine a light on Republican attacks on Medicaid, on Social Security, on veterans’ health care, simply to cut taxes for the rich, Americans listen and they’re aghast of what they see.
“That is one of the main reasons that the results in Wisconsin came in as resoundingly as they did.”
Schumer didn’t mention Republicans winning two U.S. House special elections in Florida.
Ticket splitting in Wisconsin
Wisconsin voters have a history of ticket splitting, including during November’s presidential election, when the state favored Trump, but also voted to send Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin back to Washington.
Trump won the state by less than 30,000 votes out of more than 3.3 million cast. Baldwin secured another six-year term by roughly the same margin.
Crawford received 55% of the vote in this election, winning by about 238,000 votes out of nearly 2.4 million votes cast, according to data from The Associated Press.
GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida told reporters Tuesday evening shortly after the results came in that he’s not reading too much into the narrower margin of victory for the two newly elected Republicans in his home state and he doesn’t believe it tells lawmakers anything about what might happen in the 2026 midterm elections.
“Remember, they’re special elections. It’s hard, you know … when there’s a presidential race, everybody knows to vote, even a governor’s race,” Scott said inside the U.S. Capitol. “But when there’s a special election, it’s hard for people to go out and vote.”
Former Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis defeated the Democratic candidate in the state’s 1st Congressional District after receiving 56.9% of the vote, according to the Division of Elections’ unofficial results. The GOP lawmaker who won that district in November did so with 66% of the vote.
In the 6th Congressional District, former state Sen. Randy Fine secured election with 56.6% of the vote, a smaller margin of victory than the 66.5% the former Republican congressman who occupied the seat received in November.
Trump focuses on Florida
Trump hailed the GOP wins in Florida in a social media post, but didn’t mention Wisconsin, where special government employee and close political ally Musk campaigned late last month.
“BOTH FLORIDA HOUSE SEATS HAVE BEEN WON, BIG, BY THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE,” Trump wrote. “THE TRUMP ENDORSEMENT, AS ALWAYS, PROVED FAR GREATER THAN THE DEMOCRATS FORCES OF EVIL. CONGRATULATIONS TO AMERICA!!!”
DNC Chair Ken Martin wrote in a statement the Wisconsin Supreme Court election results show voters in the state “squarely rejected the influence of Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and billionaire special interests.”
“Democrats are overperforming, winning races, and building momentum,” Martin wrote. “We’re working hard to continue the trend in the Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey elections this year and then — with the people on our side — to take back the House in 2026.”
Martin, similar to Schumer, didn’t mention the Florida congressional district races won by GOP politicians.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella released a statement pointing to Florida as solid evidence the party is on the right track.
“Florida’s resounding Republican victories send a clear message: Americans are fired up to elect leaders who will fight for President Trump’s agenda and reject the Democrats’ failed policies,” Marinella wrote. “While Democrats set their cash ablaze, House Republicans will keep hammering them for being out of touch — and we’ll crush them again in 2026.”
Jeffries targets 60 districts
U.S. House Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, didn’t release any statements on the Florida election results. But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said during a press conference Wednesday that the Democratic candidates in the Sunshine State “dramatically overperformed” how Trump did in those areas in November.
“There are 60 House Republicans who hold districts right now that Donald Trump won by 15 points or less in November. Every single one of those Republicans should be concerned,” Jeffries said. “The American people have rejected their extreme brand and their do-nothing agenda and they’re going to be held accountable next November.”
Susan Crawford’s win in Tuesday’s record-smashing Wisconsin Supreme Court election paves the way for the court’s liberal majority to continue to flex its influence over state politics.
The Dane County Circuit Court judge’s victory guarantees that liberals will control the court until at least 2028.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is at the center of state politics. It has been since 2020, when it denied Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and has continued to make headlines — especially since flipping to liberal control in August 2023.
For the past two years, Justices Rebecca Dallet, Jill Karofsky, Janet Protasiewicz and Ann Walsh Bradley — who collectively make up the court’s liberal majority — have flexed their authority and remade Wisconsin’s political landscape. Crawford, who will be sworn in on Aug. 1, will replace the retiring Walsh Bradley, who has served on the high court for 30 years.
Here’s what Crawford’s victory could mean for some key issues.
1. Abortion rights
The Wisconsin Supreme Court seems poised to, in some form or the other, strike down the state’s 1849 abortion law — which bans almost all abortions in the state.
The court’s current justices in November 2024 heard oral arguments in the lawsuit challenging the statute. It was filed by Attorney General Josh Kaul in the days after Roe vs. Wade was overturned. The lawsuit asks the court to determine whether the 1849 law applies to consensual abortions. It also asks whether the 1849 ban was “impliedly repealed” when the Legislature passed additional laws — while Roe was in effect — regulating abortion after fetal viability.
A Dane County judge ruled in late 2023 that the 1849 statute applied to feticide, not consensual abortions. Abortion services, which were halted in the state after Roe was overturned, have since resumed.
Crawford’s opponent, conservative Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel, argued during the campaign that the liberal majority was delaying its ruling in the case “to keep the 1849 law a live issue” in the race.
While working in private practice, Crawford represented Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin in litigation related to abortion access.
Crawford’s victory on Tuesday ensures the court’s upcoming ruling is likely to remain intact — at least for now — meaning abortion will remain legal in Wisconsin.
2. Congressional redistricting
The liberal majority’s decision to throw out the state’s Republican-gerrymandered legislative maps, breaking a GOP lock on the state Legislature, has been its most influential ruling since taking power. As a result, Democrats picked up 14 seats in the Assembly and state Senate in 2024 in a good Republican year nationwide.
However, during the same time period, the high court denied a request to reconsider the state’s congressional maps without stating a reason. The maps were drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, but under a “least change” directive from a previous conservative court, so they remained GOP-friendly. But in the liberal court’s legislative redistricting decision, it overturned the “least change” precedent. Crawford’s victory opens a window for Democrats and their allies to once again challenge the maps, potentially using the argument that the current lines were drawn under rules that have since been rejected.
The future of the congressional districts were a key issue in this year’s state Supreme Court race.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice-elect Susan Crawford, left, celebrates alongside Justice Rebecca Dallet after her win in the spring election on April 1, 2025, in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Elon Musk, who spent some $20 million to boost Schimel’s candidacy, said at a rally in Green Bay last weekend that a potential redrawing of the maps is what made the race so important.
He called Tuesday’s election “a vote for which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives.”
Democrats have pushed a similar idea.
The Democratic leader in the U.S. House, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, last week called Wisconsin’s congressional lines “broken.”
“As soon as possible we need to be able to revisit that and have fairer lines,” he said during an event with DNC Chair Ken Martin. “The only way for that to be even a significant possibility is if you have an enlightened Supreme Court.”
Crawford’s win makes the court friendlier to a potential congressional redistricting lawsuit.
3. Labor rights
A Dane County judge ruled late last year that provisions of Act 10, a Scott Walker-era law that kneecapped public sector labor unions, violated the state constitution. Under the ruling, all public sector workers would have their collective bargaining restored to what it was before the law took effect in 2011.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court in February declined to fast-track an appeal in the case, meaning it must first be decided by a conservative branch of the state Court of Appeals, likely ensuring it won’t come before the high court before the end of the current term.
That means Crawford, who challenged aspects of Act 10 while working as a private attorney, will be on the court when it comes before the justices.
She didn’t answer directly when asked during the race’s only debate if she would recuse herself from the case. But she did note that the provision currently being challenged is different from the one she brought a lawsuit over.
“If the same provision that I was involved in litigating back in those early days was challenged again, I most likely would recuse,” she said.
But with conservative-leaning Justice Brian Hagedorn having already recused from the case, Crawford could step aside and liberals would still have the votes needed to overturn the law.
4. Environmental issues
The high court is currently also considering a case about enforcement of the state’s “Spills Law.”
Enacted in 1978, the law requires people or companies discharging a hazardous substance “to restore the environment to the extent practicable and minimize the harmful effects from the discharge to the air, lands or waters of this state.”
The lawsuit was filed by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state’s powerful business lobby, in 2021. It argued that the DNR could not require people to test for so-called “forever chemicals” contamination — and require remediation if they’re present — because the agency hadn’t gone through the formal process of designating the chemicals, known as PFAS, as “hazardous substances.” The court’s liberal justices seemed skeptical of WMC’s position during oral arguments in January.
WMC has been a perennial spender in state Supreme Court races. It spent some $2 million targeting Crawford during this year’s race.
Any forthcoming ruling in favor of the DNR is likely safe with Crawford on the court. She was endorsed during the campaign by Wisconsin Conservation Voters.
The Democratic-backed candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court defeated a challenger endorsed by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday, cementing a liberal majority for at least three more years.
Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge who led legal fights to protect union power and abortion rights and to oppose voter ID, defeated Republican-backed Brad Schimel in a race that broke records for spending, was on pace to be the highest-turnout Wisconsin Supreme Court election ever and became a proxy fight for the nation’s political battles.
Trump, Musk and other Republicans lined up behind Schimel, a former state attorney general. Democrats including former President Barack Obama and billionaire megadonor George Soros backed Crawford.
The first major election in the country since November was seen as a litmus test of how voters feel about Trump’s first months back in office and the role played by Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency has torn through federal agencies and laid off thousands of workers. Musk traveled to Wisconsin on Sunday to make a pitch for Schimel and personally hand out to $1 million checks to voters.
Crawford embraced the backing of Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights advocates, running ads that highlighted Schimel’s opposition to the procedure. She also attacked Schimel for his ties to Musk and Republicans, referring to Musk as “Elon Schimel” during a debate.
Schimel’s campaign tried to portray Crawford as weak on crime and a puppet of Democrats who, if elected, would push to redraw congressional district boundary lines to hurt Republicans and repeal a GOP-backed state law that took collective bargaining rights away from most public workers.
Crawford’s win keeps the court under a 4-3 liberal majority, as it has been since 2023. A liberal justice is not up for election again until April 2028, ensuring liberals will either maintain or increase their hold on the court until then. The two most conservative justices are up for re-election in 2026 and 2027.
The court likely will be deciding cases on abortion, public sector unions, voting rules and congressional district boundaries. Who controls the court also could factor into how it might rule on any future voting challenge in the perennial presidential battleground state, which raised the stakes of the race for national Republicans and Democrats.
Musk and groups he funded poured more than $21 million into the contest. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, campaigned for Schimel in the closing weeks and said electing him was essential to protecting the Republican agenda. Trump endorsed Schimel just 11 days before the election.
Schimel, who leaned into his Trump endorsement in the closing days of the race, said he would not be beholden to the president or Musk despite the massive spending on the race by groups that Musk supports.
Crawford benefitted from campaign stops by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the vice presidential nominee last year, and money from billionaire megadonors including Soros and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
The contest was the most expensive court race on record in the U.S., with spending nearing $99 million, according to a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice. That broke the previous record of $51 million record, for the state’s Supreme Court race in 2023.
All of the spending and attention on the race led to high early voting turnout, with numbers more than 50% higher than the state’s Supreme Court race two years ago.
Crawford was elected to a 10-year term replacing liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley who is retiring after 30 years on the bench.
Wisconsin enshrines voter ID in state constitution
Wisconsin’s photo ID requirement for voting will be elevated from state law to constitutional amendment under a proposal approved by voters.
The Republican-controlled Legislature placed the measure on the ballot and pitched it as a way to bolster election security and protect the law from being overturned in court.
Democratic opponents argued that photo ID requirements are often enforced unfairly, making voting more difficult for people of color, disabled people and poor people.
Wisconsin voters won’t notice any changes when they go to the polls. They will still have to present a valid photo ID just as they have under the state law, which was passed in 2011 and went into effect permanently in 2016 after a series of unsuccessful lawsuits.
Placing the photo ID requirement in the constitution makes it more difficult for a future Legislature controlled by Democrats to change the law. Any constitutional amendment must be approved in two consecutive legislative sessions and by a statewide popular vote.
Voters wait in line and cast their ballots at the Villager Shopping Center during the spring election on April 1, 2025, in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Republican legislators celebrated the measure’s passage.
“This will help maintain integrity in the electoral process, no matter who controls the Legislature,” Sen. Van Wanggaard, who co-authored the amendment, said in a statement.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who is leading Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal government, also noted the outcome on his social media platform, X, saying: “Yeah!”
Wisconsin is one of nine states where people must present photo ID to vote, and its requirement is the nation’s strictest, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Thirty-six states have laws requiring or requesting that voters show some sort of identification, according to the NCSL.
State schools chief Jill Underly wins reelection over G0P-backed rival
Jill Underly, the Democratic-backed state education chief, defeated her Republican-aligned opponent, Brittany Kinser.
Underly will guide policies affecting K-12 schools as Trump moves to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. Her second term comes at a time when test scores are still recovering from the pandemic, Wisconsin’s achievement gap between white and Black students remains the worst in the country and more schools are asking voters to raise property taxes to pay for operations.
Jill Underly, Wisconsin State Superintendent of Public Instruction, speaks to reporters following the State of Education Address on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Wisconsin is the only state where voters elect the top education official but there is no state board of education. That gives the superintendent broad authority to oversee education policy, from dispersing school funding to managing teacher licensing.
Underly, 47, had the support of the teachers union in the general election after failing to secure it in the three-person primary. She also was backed financially by the state Democratic Party.
Underly, who was first elected as state superintendent in 2021, ran as a champion of public schools. Kinser is a supporter of the private school voucher program.
Underly’s education career began in 1999 as a high school social studies teacher in Indiana. She moved to Wisconsin in 2005 and worked for five years at the state education department. She also was principal of Pecatonica Elementary School for a year before becoming district administrator.
Kinser, whose backers included the Wisconsin Republican Party and former Republican Govs. Tommy Thompson and Scott Walker, previously worked for Rocketship schools, part of a national network of public charter institutions. She rose to become its executive director in the Milwaukee region.
In 2022 she left Rocketship for City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee nonprofit that advocates for charter and voucher schools. She also founded a consulting firm where she currently works.
Kinser tried to brand Underly as being a poor manager of the Department of Public Instruction and keyed in on her overhaul of state achievement standards last year.
Underly said that was done to better reflect what students are learning now, but the change was met with bipartisan opposition including from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who was previously state superintendent himself. Evers did not make an endorsement in the race.
High turnout leads to ballot shortage in Milwaukee
A voter enters Centennial Hall at the Milwaukee Central Library to vote on Election Day, April 1, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Kayla Wolf / Associated Press)
Unprecedented turnout led to ballot shortages in Wisconsin’s largest city Tuesday as voters cast ballots in “historic” numbers.
The race for control of the court, which became a proxy battle for the nation’s political fights, broke records for spending and was poised to be the highest-turnout Wisconsin Supreme Court election ever.
Early voting was more than 50% ahead of levels seen in the state’s Supreme Court race two years ago, when majority control was also at stake.
Seven polling sites in Milwaukee ran out of ballots, or were nearly out, due to “historic turnout” and more ballots were on their way before polls closed, said Paulina Gutierrez, the executive director of the Milwaukee Elections Commission.
Clerks all across the state, including in the city’s deep-red suburbs, reported turnout far exceeding 2023 levels.
A state race with nationwide significance
The court can decide election-related laws and settle disputes over future election outcomes.
“Wisconsin’s a big state politically, and the Supreme Court has a lot to do with elections in Wisconsin,” Trump said Monday. “Winning Wisconsin’s a big deal, so therefore the Supreme Court choice … it’s a big race.”
Crawford embraced the backing of Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights advocates, running ads that highlighted Schimel’s opposition to the procedure. She also attacked Schimel for his ties to Musk and Trump, who endorsed Schimel 11 days before the election.
The results of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice-elect Susan Crawford’s victory over Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel are shown at the Crawford watch party on April 1, 2025, in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel hugs supporters after making his concession speech Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Pewaukee, Wis. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)
Schimel’s campaign tried to portray Crawford as weak on crime and a puppet of Democrats who would push to redraw congressional district boundary lines to hurt Republicans and repeal a GOP-backed state law that took collective bargaining rights away from most public workers.
Voters in Eau Claire seemed to be responding to both messages. Jim Seeger, a 68-year-old retiree, said he voted for Schimel because he’s concerned about redistricting.
Jim Hazelton, a 68-year-old disabled veteran, said he had planned to abstain but voted for Crawford after Musk — whom he described as a “pushy billionaire” — and Trump got involved.
“He’s cutting everything,” Hazelton said of Musk. “People need these things he’s cutting.”
What’s on the court’s agenda?
The court will likely be deciding cases on abortion, public sector unions, voting rules and congressional district boundaries.
Last year the court declined to take up a Democratic-backed challenge to congressional lines, but Schimel and Musk said that if Crawford wins, the court will redraw congressional districts to make them more favorable to Democrats. Currently Republicans control six out of eight seats in an evenly divided state.
Musk was pushing that message on Election Day, both on TV and the social media platform he owns, X, urging people to cast ballots in the final hours of voting.
There were no major voting issues by midday Tuesday, state election officials said. Severe weather prompted the relocation of some polling places in northern Wisconsin, and some polling places in Green Bay briefly lost power but voting continued. In Dane County, home to the state capital, Madison, election officials said polling locations were busy and operating normally.
Record-breaking donations
The contest is the most expensive court race on record in the U.S., with spending nearing $99 million, according to a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice.
Musk contributed $3 million to the campaign, while groups he funded poured in another $18 million. Musk also gave $1 million each to three voters who signed a petition he circulated against “activist” judges.
Elon Musk speaks at a town hall Sunday, March 30, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (Jeffrey Phelps / Associated Press)
Schimel leaned into his support from Trump while saying he would not be beholden to the president or Musk. Democrats centered their messaging on the spending by Musk-funded groups.
“Ultimately I think it’s going to help Susan Crawford, because people do not want to see Elon Musk buying election after election after election,” Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler said Monday. “If it works here, he’s going to do it all over the country.”
State Superintendent Jill Underly won a second term in office Tuesday evening. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Incumbent Jill Underly, who had the backing of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, won a second term as state superintendent on Tuesday, defeating education consultant and Republican-backed candidate Brittany Kinser.
“I’m just deeply honored and humbled for the trust you have placed in me to continue as state superintendent for public instruction,” Underly told supporters at her Election Night party. “This victory belongs to all of us who believe in the power of public education, but for every educator, family, and most importantly, kids across our state.”
The Associated Press called the race at 10:05 p.m. with Underly leading by more than 5 points and with more than 80% of the votes counted.
Kinser’s campaign released a statement shortly before 10:30 p.m. in which she acknowledged the result was “not the outcome I had hoped for.”
“Our kids’ future shouldn’t rest on the politicization of our education system, but on the belief that our kids deserve so much better than they currently receive,” she said.
The state superintendent, a technically nonpartisan position, is responsible for providing guidance for the state’s 421 public school districts, leading the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) — an agency responsible for administering state and federal funds, licensing teachers and developing educational curriculum and state assessments — and also holds a position on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents.
Underly received the endorsement from Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the state’s largest teachers’ union, and AFT-Wisconsin. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin contributed over $850,000 to her campaign. While Underly had the backing of the state Democratic party, Democrat Gov. Tony Evers refused to endorse in the race.
WEAC said in a statement that the “victory inspires the public school educators who work with students every day to be even more visible and more involved in education policy deliberations to solve staffing shortages and the state funding crisis that forces communities to referendum every year to keep the schoolhouse doors open” and that the result is a rejection of “the school voucher lobby in favor of educators, so all students – no exceptions – have the opportunity to learn without limits and unlock their dreams.”
Kinser had never worked in a traditional Wisconsin public school and received criticism during the campaign for never holding a Wisconsin teachers’ license and allowing her administrator’s license to lapse, though she eventually updated it. She had also worked mostly in charter school circles in recent years, including as principal and executive director of Rocketship schools in Milwaukee and as a leader of the City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee-based advocacy group that has lobbied in favor of increasing funding for the state’s voucher program.
Brittney Kinser prepares to addresses the media and supporters the April 2025 election results come in. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
With her background, Kinser, who describes herself as a moderate, found support from Republicans and school choice advocates, receiving over $1.6 million in contributions from the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
While decisive, Underly’s victory was by a narrower margin than her first election in 2021, while Kinser did better than past DPI candidates who have run with the backing of the state’s powerful school choice lobby.
Underly said her takeaway from the closeness of the race is that “we need to just communicate better.”
Throughout the campaign, Underly faced criticism from her opponent, Republicans and others for her recent approval of changes to state testing standards and poor communication with school districts.
“There’s a lot that goes on at the agency that I think in years past, maybe state superintendents took for granted, but I think it’s important that we are communicating more,” Underly told the Wisconsin Examiner.
Underly said that the agency is working on rebuilding its relationship with legislators.
“The Legislature and the relationship with the state superintendent hasn’t always been that great…,” Underly said. “We meet with them frequently. We meet with the governor’s office quite frequently also. I’m just going to go back to the fact that I hope that we all want the same things, regardless of where we are on the political spectrum.”
Underly said that she also respected Evers’ decision not to endorse in the race and that her working relationship with his office is “fine.”
Throughout her campaign, Underly defended her decisions during her first term and said that she has served as “the No. 1 advocate for public education” and will continue to do so. Prior to being elected to the top DPI position, Underly worked as assistant director in DPI. She also previously served as a principal and superintendent of the Pecatonica Area School District and taught in public schools in Indiana.
Underly leaned on her advocacy for public schools while making the argument for her reelection. She introduced a budget request for the state that would have invested over $4 billion in public education, saying that it’s what schools deserved. Republicans and Evers both said it was too large.
Democratic lawmakers said Underly’s victory is a sign of Wisconsinites’ support of public schools and will hopefully bode well for the future of securing improved funding for public education.
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) told the Wisconsin Examiner that Underly’s victory was a vindication of her first term in office.
“She’s had to make do with some really tough choices, and she’s done a great job for kids and for teachers,” Hesselbein said.
“We know public schools unite communities, and when we have strong public schools, we have strong communities,” Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) said. “We’ve got a state superintendent who’s going to be looking out for every learner in our state, and so I’m also looking forward to the transparency and accountability that will come with ensuring that public dollars are for public schools.”
Hong said that the lack of communication between Republican lawmakers and Underly is the fault of lawmakers who are not interested in meeting the needs of students. She said that Underly’s win and “Republicans needing to answer to their communities who care about their public schools again” could encourage them to work across the aisle. She noted that Wisconsinites have repeatedly raised their property taxes to ensure schools have funding in lieu of reliable state investments.
Hong also said that she thought Underly’s victory showcased that “public dollars going to private schools was a deep concern for a lot of Wisconsinites.” During her campaign, Underly criticized her opponent for her lobbying for and support for Wisconsin’s school choice programs. She also expressed her opposition to the growth of those programs, saying it is not sustainable for the state to fund two school systems and that she would oppose dedicating more money to private school vouchers.
Underly said it’s clear that her opponent “cares about kids and she cares about kids learning,” and that something she would take away from the race is that “we all want the same things. Ultimately, we want kids to be successful.”
Members of SEIU and Voces de la Frontera arrive at the Capitol Tuesday | Wisconsin Examiner photo
Online rumors warning of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) patrols around polling places in Milwaukee and Madison appear to be unfounded. The reports circulated on social media claiming that there would be “more than 5,000 ICE agents patrolling the areas” in the two cities, as voters went to the polls to cast ballots in the April 1 election for candidates running for Wisconsin Supreme Court, state superintendent, and referendum questions focusing on voter ID.
Anxieties about ICE activities have been heightened under the Trump Administration. Recent weeks have seen videos showing plain-clothes, masked ICE agents detaining people on the street. Some of the detainees had been arrested after participating in activist activities, such as protests calling for an end to the war in Gaza. Fears of ICE raids have increased in Milwaukee and Madison, as in other cities.
Spokespersons for Milwaukee and Madison city government told Wisconsin Examiner that they have not heard any reports, complaints, or notifications about ICE agents at polling places. A spokesperson for the ICE office in Milwaukee said, “due to our operational tempo and the increased interest in our agency, we are not able to research and respond to rumors or specifics of routine daily operations for ICE.”
Meanwhile, turnout in Milwaukee has been so high that local news outlets are reporting that polling sites across the city have run out of ballots. The city’s Election’s Commission is arranging for fresh ballots to be sent to polling stations. In Tuesday’s election Republican-backed Supreme Court candidate and former Wisconsin attorney general Brad Schimel is facing off against Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, who has the backing of state Democrats. In the state superintendent’s race, incumbent Jill Underly is facing challenger Brittany y Kinser. Wisconsinites will also get to decide whether the state’s constitution should be amended to codify a voter ID requirement.
City of Milwaukee election officials process absentee ballots at one location on Election Day, which sometimes means ballots are still being fed into tabulators late that night or early the next morning. Results are reported once processing finishes.
Conservative Brad Schimel, who faces liberal Susan Crawford in the April 1 Wisconsin Supreme Court election, suggested the late counting was malfeasance, a long-debunked claim.
Schimel on March 18 urged supporters to vote early “so we don’t have to worry that at 11:30 in Milwaukee, they’re going to find bags of ballots that they forgot to put into the machines, like they did in 2018, or in 2024.”
Schimel lost his attorney general re-election bid in 2018. Republican Eric Hovde lost to U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., in the Nov. 5, 2024, election.
State law prohibits municipalities from preparing absentee ballots before Election Day. A bill that would allow an earlier start has stalled.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Brittany Kinser discussed her plans for leading the state education department at a forum with reporters Tuesday. On many issues she said she "is not an expert" and would need to learn more.High school classroom. (Dan Forer | Getty Images)
State Superintendent candidate Brittany Kinser said Tuesday she would support Milwaukee schools and advocate for reform to the state funding formula if elected, but declined to explain what she would specifically advocate for, saying that she needs more information and isn’t an expert.
Kinser, an education consultant, is challenging incumbent Jill Underly for the nonpartisan position in the April 1 election. The state superintendent is responsible for overseeing the state’s 421 public school districts, leading the state Department of Public Instruction and has a seat on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regent.
At an hour-long event hosted by the Milwaukee Press Club, the Rotary Club of Milwaukee and WisPolitics, Kinser answered questions from WisPolitics President Jeff Mayers and the audience about her stances. Both DPI candidates were invited to take part, but Underly declined. The two candidates participated in a conversation hosted by other groups last week.
Kinser has outraised her opponent partially due to the contributions she’s brought in from the Republican Party. According to recent campaign finance filings, Kinser raised $1,859,360 from Feb. 4 through Mar. 17. The Republican Party of Wisconsin contributed $1.65 million, and other political organizations $8,380, while individuals contributed $200,980.
Underly raised $1,063,866 in the same time period, with $850,000 coming from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
Mayers asked Kinser, who has previously called herself a moderate, whether the support makes her “uncomfortable” because she is being cast “as the conservative Republican individual” in the race.
“I’m very thankful for all of my supporters. I’m thankful for the Republicans, the Democrats, the independents who have supported me,” Kinser said.
Kinser spoke to some of the issues that Milwaukee Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, has faced in recent years, including the financial crisis that led to audits by the state, recent results from the “nation’s report card” that show wide racial achievement gaps in the district, and reports of lead in schools. Kinser, who has worked in the charter school sector in Milwaukee in the past and is from Wauwatosa, has repeatedly criticized her opponent for problems in the district.
Kinser said she thinks some of the problems are a result of the governance and leadership of the district and said she is excited about the recently hired MPS superintendent.
Brenda Cassellius, a former superintendent of Boston Public Schools and former Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Education, started her tenure earlier this month — taking over a vacancy left by the former superintendent who resigned after details emerged of a financial crisis at the district.
“We all need to support her because her successes are children’s success, so we need to make sure that she has the support she needs,” Kinser said.
She said she hasn’t spoken to Cassellius yet.
“I’ve been a little busy, but I hope to meet her,” Kinser said. “If I get elected, she’ll be definitely on the top of my list to reach out to.”
Kinser said that she hopes Cassellius will “create very clear goals on what she wants to see with operations and academics, financials, and that she can meet those goals.” If the problems persist after some time, that would be the time for the state to step in, she said.
Kinser said she hasn’t supported splitting up the district — as Republicans have proposed in the past — but she would be open to discussing the possibility.
“I think that would actually cause more bureaucracy,” Kinser said. “If that’s what the community wanted, I’d be supportive as long as we could show the kids would have better results, that kids can learn how to read, they’re not going to be poisoned by lead — all of those things.”
Kinser said she wants to open a DPI office in Milwaukee to work with the district.
When it comes to funding, Kinser said MPS gets a lot of money per child, but said special education is underfunded.
“I want to make sure we have an increase,” Kinser said. She has said that she thinks the current reimbursement model for special education costs is outdated and would want to look to other states to see if there is another way to do it.
Kinser again said that she would want to help modernize the state funding formula, but she didn’t provide specific suggestions. She said she would want to look at other states and consult with others when asked about her ideas for modernizing the funding formula. She named Florida, Colorado as states with funding models she would want to look at.
“I would hire someone to help me do this work because I am not a financial expert in school funding and so would have to look and see what they’re doing in other states,” Kinser said.
She also emphasized that the ultimate decision wouldn’t be made by the state superintendent.
“We could provide ideas. The Legislature and the governor have to sign off. I’m not a lawmaker,” Kinser said. “People talk about this role as if it were a lawmaker.”
While the state superintendent recommends an education budget, the final proposal comes from the governor’s office. For the 2025-27 budget, which state lawmakers will take up starting in April, Underly submitted a proposal to increase public education by $4 billion. Gov. Tony Evers trimmed that back to more than $3 billion before submitting his draft budget.
Kinser declined to weigh in on whether Evers’ recommendation was “right or wrong.”
“I haven’t created my own state budget,” said Kinser, who is making her first run for public office. “I just started this 100 days ago, but I would want to make sure that it’s something that is possible because you want to be taken seriously by the Legislature and the governor.”
Across the state, many school districts have held referendum votes in the last couple of years to increase local property taxes, covering budget shortfalls.
Kinser said she agrees there are too many referendums, but also said she hadn’t thought about whether the state is relying too much on property taxes for school funding. Asked if the state should rely more on sales tax or the income tax to fund schools, Kinser said she thinks the state would probably need to rely on both.
“I don’t know. Like I’m telling you, I’m not an expert in that,” Kinser said. “I promise to learn more about it [and] try to find the best way for communities, but I don’t want to say something that I’m not an expert in.”
She added that she would seek advice on such matters. “I promise to have experts around me to answer these questions that you’re [asking], talk with Republicans, Democrats, independents, anyone that owns a home, that has children, worried about their kids,” Kinser said.
Kinser has never held a teacher’s license in Wisconsin, and she recently updated her Wisconsin administrator’s license after a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report that her license had lapsed in 2024.
She emphasized that there is no requirement in state law that the state superintendent hold a teacher’s or administrator’s license
“We’re not trying to be a teacher or a principal in the school. You don’t need that. You just need to be a citizen of Wisconsin,” Kinser said. She added that she has a varied background with experience as a special education teacher as well as a charter school principal and leader, but that getting licensed in Wisconsin was difficult.
Kinser, who supports school choice and has lobbied for increased funding to voucher schools, was also asked about a report from the Journal Sentinel published Tuesday morning. The report found that a Milwaukee-based virtual private school received millions of dollars from the state despite being virtual — blurring the lines between the state voucher program, which uses state funds to send students to private and charter schools, and homeschooling, which isn’t eligible for state funding.
“Does that bother you as an educator that there’s this virtual school that’s getting this much state money?” Mayer asked.
“I would have to look into this,” Kinser said. “I did not read the article today. I was not made aware. Sounds like there’s some controversy there.”
Wisconsin voters will weigh in on a constitutional amendment to enshrine the state’s photo ID requirement to vote in the state Constitution in the April 1 election.
On ballots this spring, voters will be asked “shall section 1m of article III of the constitution be created to require that voters present valid photographic identification verifying their identity in order to vote in any election, subject to exceptions which may be established by law?”
If approved, the state Constitution would be changed to include the provision that “no qualified elector may cast a ballot in any election unless the elector presents valid photographic identification that verifies the elector’s identity and that is issued by this state, the federal government, a federally recognized American Indian tribe or band in this state, or a college or university in this state.”
The provision would give the Legislature the authority to determine which types of ID qualify as acceptable. Current law includes state issued driver’s licenses and photo IDs, U.S. Passports, military IDs and unexpired university IDs (expired student IDs are allowed if proof of current enrollment such as a tuition receipt or course schedule is provided).
In several recent elections, Wisconsin Republicans have put constitutional referenda on the ballot in an effort to make policy changes without needing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ signature.
Wisconsin has had a state law requiring voters to have an acceptable photo ID to register to vote and cast a ballot since 2011. During debate over the law, Republican lawmakers discussed its potential to help the party win elections by suppressing the vote of minority and college-aged people who tend to vote for Democrats.
Democrats and voting rights groups said the law amounted to a “poll tax.” A 2017 study found that the law kept 17,000 people from the polls in the 2016 election.
Since its passage, a number of court decisions have adjusted the law, leading the state to ease restrictions and costs for obtaining a photo ID — particularly for people who can’t afford a high cost or don’t have proper documents such as a birth certificate.
Republicans in Wisconsin and across the country have increasingly focused on photo ID requirements for voting since conspiracy theories about election administration emerged following the 2020 presidential campaign.
The process to amend the state constitution requires that a proposal pass the Legislature in two consecutive sessions and then be approved by the state’s voters in a referendum.
If passed, the amendment would change little for Wisconsin voters because the existing law has been on the books in its current form for nearly a decade. When the amendment was proposed, Republicans said its goal was to protect the photo ID law from being struck down by the courts.
“I cannot say for certain how the Wisconsin Supreme Court would rule on voter ID laws, but I’m also not willing to risk the Wisconsin Supreme Court declaring voter ID laws unconstitutional,” Sen. Van Wanggaard said at a public hearing on the proposal.
But Democrats say it’s unnecessary to amend the constitution to add something that’s already in state law and accuse Republicans of including the referendum on the ballot in this election in an effort to increase Republican turnout in the contested races for state Supreme Court and superintendent of schools.
“It’s my feeling, and it’s a feeling of most people, that you don’t legislate via changing the constitution,” Rep. Lee Snodgrass (D-Appleton) said at a March 17 panel on the referendum. “I think that there is pretty wide evidence that this is hitting the ballots for political reasons. I think that the majority party is afraid of what happens if we get into the majority and if we decide that existing law needs to be amended or changed or overturned entirely.”
Snodgrass added that “we are essentially wasting everybody’s time by adding this to the ballot. And I think we’ve had five of these now already. So it’s a pattern, and it’s politically motivated.”
900 people crowded into Eau Claire's Pablo Center March 18 for a town hall with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
About 900 alarmed and angry Wisconsin voters, searching for an answer to their political helplessness, crowded into the Pablo Center in Eau Claire Tuesday evening to attend a town hall with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz hosted by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
At the event, voters said they were scared of how cuts made by the administration of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will affect their health care, children’s education and the future of the country.
Taking place on the same day early voting started in Wisconsin’s spring election, which will decide the ideological swing of the state Supreme Court, Democratic officials repeatedly said that the April 1 election gives Wisconsinites a chance that few Americans will have this year — to reject the aggressive cuts to government programs and agencies that Trump and Musk have already made and promised to deepen.
Musk has now spent more than $13 million supporting the campaign of Waukesha County Judge and former Republican attorney general Brad Schimel. Democrats and the campaign of Dane County Judge Susan Crawford have repeatedly pointed out the ties between Schimel and Musk.
Schimel has said he doesn’t have control of how people spend outside money on his campaign, but in several campaign appearances, he has directly tied himself to Trump. He told a group of canvassers associated with the right-wing Turning Point USA that he’d be a “support network” for Trump, and said to supporters in Jefferson County that Trump was “screwed over” by the state Supreme Court when it decides against overturning the results of the 2020 election. In a radio appearance this week Schimel alleged that elections in Milwaukee are frequently rigged for liberal candidates.
“In the rest of the country, people are protesting, which is great, but essentially, they don’t have a way to fight back at the ballot box in this moment,” Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler told the Eau Claire crowd. “In Wisconsin, uniquely in this country, we’re the only state with a statewide election, all the way until November of this year, we’re the only state where we can go to the polls, recruit everyone we know to go to the polls and send a message to the GOP [against] this extremism, this assault by Republicans on our democracy.”
Exactly 223 days after he was in Eau Claire for his second campaign appearance as the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee, Walz pushed attendees to support Crawford in the election, criticized Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden for not holding town halls in the district and said he was searching for how Democrats can re-assert themselves as a party that makes government work for people.
“We’re here for a very specific reason, we know what’s at stake,” Walz, who has made similar appearances across the country in recent weeks, said. “I’m not going to whistle past the graveyard here and tell you things are fine. I’m also having the most unsatisfactory I-told-you-so tour in the history of the world … You came here because, you know the fight’s still on, and you know that you love your country, and you wanted to be here in front of your member of Congress, because the First Amendment to the Constitution gives you that right and responsibility to address your congressman.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz addressed 900 Wisconsin voters Tuesday, saying the state’s April 1 election was a chance for “America’s first chunk of cleaning” up after President Trump and Elon Musk. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
During his remarks, Walz called Musk a “dipshit” and an “unelected South African nepo baby” before comparing the state’s April 1 election to cleaning the house, saying “America’s first chunk of cleaning is Wisconsin’s Supreme Court.”
In a statement, the Schimel campaign said Crawford is being “propped up” by leftists.
“Tim Walz, the leftist Governor of Minnesota and failed Democratic Vice Presidential candidate is now propping up dangerous Susan Crawford in an attempt to dismantle our state the same way he ruined Minnesota,” the campaign said.
Prior to the event, a group of four men wearing Make America Great Again hats and other pro-Trump apparel tried to get into the auditorium before being asked to leave by staff. Republicans said the denied entry showed Democrats’ “hypocrisy.”
Joe Oslund, a spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said the men were asked to leave because they were clearly looking for trouble.
“Four individuals who arrived with the clear intention of inciting a confrontation were asked to leave the event,” Oslund said. “We welcomed more than 900 people in Eau Claire last night, and I’m certain that we had folks in the audience who didn’t agree with us on everything. We’re always happy to engage folks with different points of view, but when you show up to cause a scene, we’re going to save ourselves the trouble.”
While the April 1 election will be the first test across the country of the voting public’s mood after the first months of the second Trump administration, people in attendance said they were desperate for something more to do.
During the event’s question and answer period, one man compared the Trump administration to Nazi Germany, saying this is “our World War II to save the world from Trump” before inviting people to a weekly protest outside the federal building in Eau Claire.
Menomonie resident Shari Johnson said that after the November election she and a group of politically minded friends started having dinners to discuss ways to counter Trump. She told the Wisconsin Examiner that she’s found her answer, saying that on Saturday she’s going to start marching through her town wearing a six-foot tall inflatable chicken costume while carrying signs that promote justice and fairness in the political system.
Helen Durden said she skipped work to attend the event because “I feel terrified, angry and lost. What do I do to fix this? Besides a vote, there’s got to be something else. There’s got to be something more. And I’m looking for answers from our leaders to help me figure out, where do I step in to make that change?”
Joe Wendtland, a teacher who lives in Chippewa Falls, said he attended because he’s trying to find ways to be part of the solution. One part of that, he said, is voting in a spring election he usually would have sat out.
“Quite honestly, in the past, I wouldn’t have bothered with the coming up election. Just, I wouldn’t have shown up unless it was a presidential election year,” he said. “But what I’m seeing is the Republican Party and current administration is just chipping away at all the little options that are out there. And this is me saying, ‘You know what, I’ve got a responsibility to protect what we have.’ And this is one of the few ways that I can really make a difference, is to vote in this election. So I’m gonna be there April 1.”
During a question and answer session , attendees fretted about losing Social Security and Medicaid benefits, how cuts to programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will affect kids and the dismantling of government agencies like the Department of Education.
Walz said that he believes the Democratic Party should respond to Trump by loudly acting as an opposition party, declaring forcefully that public service is noble and working to strengthen labor rights.
“Look, I understand what I have. I have a platform and a megaphone, and my goal of doing this now also is I was hearing that primal scream of God dang it, do something,” he said.
“They’re destroying our country, taking our freedoms,” he added, noting that Republicans are complaining about being called fascists. “Quit exhibiting fascist tendencies and we won’t say that.”
Voting carrels set up at Madison's Hawthorne Library on Election Day 2022. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
In-person absentee voting in Wisconsin’s spring elections began Tuesday, allowing voters across the state to cast absentee ballots at their municipal clerk’s office or other designated locations.
Each municipality sets its own hours and locations for early voting access, local details can be found at the websites of local governments, the state election commission, or myvote.gov.
On the ballot this spring are races for the state Supreme Court, state superintendent of schools, a proposed constitutional amendment codifying the state’s law requiring a photo ID to vote and local races for city council, school board and circuit court judgeships.
To cast an in-person absentee ballot, voters need to be registered, which can be done online at MyVote.wi.gov or at a municipal clerk’s office. Voters also need to show a photo ID to receive a ballot. Acceptable IDs include a state-issued driver’s license, military ID card, U.S. passport and university IDs (only student IDs that expire within two years of issuance are accepted. If a student ID is expired, you may use it along with proof of current enrollment such as a tuition receipt or course schedule).
In-person absentee voting ends March 30 and the deadline to request an absentee ballot by mail is March 27 — though if a request is made that late there will likely not be enough time for a voter to receive and return the ballot through the mail. Absentee ballots can also be returned to a municipal clerk’s office, a voter’s poll location on Election Day or to absentee ballot drop boxes in municipalities that use them.
Spending by candidates and outside groups combined will break records again in this year's Wisconsin Supreme Court race. (Getty Images)
Spending in the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race could be two times as high as the record-breaking $51 million spent in the last election for a seat on the state’s highest court, and outside spending is dwarfing what the candidates themselves have raised so far this year.
The race, between Dane County Judge Susan Crawford and Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel, will determine whether the Court maintains a 4-3 liberal majority that flipped two years ago or reverts to a conservative majority that was in place for more than a decade previously.
“We’re watching money just flood from out of state into Wisconsin,” said Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, in a briefing Monday about campaign finance trends with two weeks to go before Election Day April 1. “It would not be crazy to say that this race could be double what the last Supreme Court race was, especially with the trends and especially with the track that we’re on.”
Crawford is ahead in fundraising by the campaigns themselves, raising $7.36 million. Among her donors, 35 have given the maximum Wisconsin allows an individual to donate to a single candidate, $20,000.
Schimel’s campaign has raised $4.93 million. There are 47 donors who have given him the maximum allowed under Wisconsin law.
The Court race is officially nonpartisan, but over the last couple of decades candidates have divided along partisan as well as ideological lines. Crawford’s campaign has received $3 million from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s Political Action Committee (PAC), and the Wisconsin Republican Party PAC has given $1.68 million to Schimel’s campaign.
Independent expenditures, however, have so far favored Schimel over Crawford by roughly 3 to 1. Independent expenditures, which explicitly favor or oppose a candidate, are spent by groups outside the campaigns.
Independent groups supporting Crawford have spent $7.79 million on pro-Crawford or anti-Schimel advertising — as much as her campaign has raised so far. But independent groups’ spending on Schimel’s behalf is almost three times that: $21.45 million.
With 15 days until Election Day, the independent expenditure total in the 2025 race is more than twice what it was at the same point in the 2023 state Supreme Court contest: $29.24 million compared with $14.4 million.
“Credit” for the trend goes to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case that unleashed corporate and union spending on campaigns and to a 2015 rewrite of state law that brought on “this wild west of campaign spending here in Wisconsin,” Ramos said.
The data also shows the outsized influence of billionaires on state politics, he said. Among the biggest spenders in the race are groups funded by Elon Musk and Richard Uihlein, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign reports.
The top two biggest-spending independent groups favoring Schimel are linked to billionaire Musk: America PAC, spending $6.53 million so far, and Building America’s Future, spending $4.54 million, according to the Democracy Campaign.
Three other pro-Schimel organizations have been funded by Uihlein, owner of the office supplies company Uline: Fair Courts America, Americas PAC IEO, and American Principles Project PAC. Another Uihlein organization, Restoration PAC has also contributed to the American Principles Project PAC, according to the Democracy Campaign.
Launched 30 years ago, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign tracks political spending in the state. The nonpartisan organization also promotes campaign finance reform as well as voting rights and access, along with other pro-democracy policies.
Ramos said voters shouldn’t let the immense sums that a few are plowing into the race discourage them from going to the polls or to believe their vote won’t matter. “At the end of the day, money does not vote, people do, and your power and your voice is that vote,” he said.
Early voting starts Tuesday in Wisconsin, and the Democracy Campaign is taking part in campaigns to encourage people to vote early and “for folks to just continue to be civically engaged,” Ramos added.
The Democracy Campaign also tracks spending on issue ads — advertising that does not include direct messages to vote for or against a candidate, but highlights information that paints candidates in a favorable or unfavorable light.
Issue ad spending is more difficult to track, and donors behind issue ad spending aren’t required to be disclosed under Wisconsin law. Total issue ad spending data will probably not be available until the summer, said Molly Carmichael, the Democracy Campaign’s communications director.
“Phony issue ads flood our airwaves with disinformation and, somehow, have even less reporting requirements than other forms of spending,” said Ramos. “It’s another part of our unregulated, unruly money in politics problems we’re going to need to clean up.”
One set of issue ads in the Court race has come under scrutiny for masquerading as a pro-Crawford campaign while it’s funded by a conservative group with ties to Musk.
The Facebook and Instagram ads as well as related text messages “are labeled as coming from a group called Progress 2028 and are made to look like authentic messages of support” for Crawford, the Associated Pressreported March 5. But records for the ads showed they were underwritten by a conservative PAC for which Musk is a major contributor, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The ads describe Crawford as a “progressive champion,” the AP reported, while they focus “on hot-button issues” and use language “that potentially diminishes her standing with moderate or conservative voters.”
High court spending dwarfs superintendent race
Spending in the hotly contested race for the office of state superintendent is just a fraction of the money being spent on the state Supreme Court race. That election will choose the person to head the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
Incumbent Jill Underly has raised $139,495 as of Monday, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Kinser, a former charter school leader and school choice lobbyist, has raised more than double that, $316,316.
As with the high court race, the DPI contest is officially nonpartisan, but each candidate has been favored by one particular political party. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has given Underly $56,118 from its PAC. The Republican Party has given Kinser $2,500.
Kinser has also benefited more from independent expenditures, with $40,518 spent to promote her or oppose Underly. Independent spending in favor of Underly or opposing Kinser has been about half as much, $23,177.
Elon Musk and President of Argentina Javier Milei speaking at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. | Photo by Gage Skidmore
Fresh from spending nearly $300 million to influence the 2024 elections, the richest person in the world has set his sights squarely on Wisconsin. Elon Musk is apparently not content with taking a chainsaw to the lives of thousands of hard-working federal employees engaged in providing health care to rural American children and veterans, with slashing Medicaid for millions of our most vulnerable citizens, with cutting projects seeking desperately needed cures for cancer, Ebola and other deadly diseases and with eviscerating foreign assistance that thousands of people all over the world rely on for survival. Musk is now also carpet bombing Wisconsin with millions of dollars for negative ads and cash infusions to influence the outcome of the upcoming April 1 election to fill an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
After 30 years of distinguished service, the Court’s most senior justice, Ann Walsh Bradley announced her retirement last year. Now, with the fast-approaching election to determine her successor in just a matter of days, voters will decide the ideological composition of the majority on the court and therefore the future direction of Wisconsin and quite possibly the nation.
In January, when Musk announced he was invading our state, he falsely proclaimed on Twitter: “Very important to vote Republican for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to prevent voting fraud.” He’s wrong on all counts. In the first place, candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court don’t run for election with party labels. Our judicial elections are nonpartisan – at least they are supposed to be. Secondly, voting fraud does not occur in our state because we have long had strong safeguards in place to prevent it. Voting fraud is a complete and total non-issue in Wisconsin and a distraction from real and serious attacks on democracy such as ongoing voter suppression proposals and laws that already make it more difficult to vote here than previously.
But the unelected Musk, whose craving for national attention and power rivals that of his partner Donald Trump, has a direct financial interest in a matter that could end up before the state’s high court. Wisconsin is one of nearly half the states in the nation that prohibit auto manufacturers from being able to directly sell their vehicles to the public because it would provide those manufacturers with a competitive advantage over independent dealers. Musk’s car company, Tesla, has sought and been refused an exemption to the law by state courts, most recently in December. A sympathetic Wisconsin Supreme Court influenced by Musk’s heavy spending in the current election – already well over $12 million and rising — is in his crosshairs as well as enhanced overall political influence and power beyond our state.
In a campaign that is already the most expensive judicial election anywhere in the nation in U.S. history, Musk may end up as the single largest campaign spender through his “Building America’s Future” Super PAC and other avenues to influence the outcome in Wisconsin with his limitless out-of-state millions. How much will he spend? No one knows. But it is very important that Wisconsinites know that Musk has quickly emerged as the single most dominant source of campaign cash and political influence in this election and in our state.
It will be up to Wisconsinites to decide if they approve or not of this unelected richest person in the world buying control of our highest court while at the same time continuing his unprecedented destruction of so many vital national services and safeguards Wisconsinites depend on.
The voters of Wisconsin can prevail over Musk and his millions by turning out in force – by returning their absentee ballots in time to be counted, or by showing up and voting early in person or at their polling place on the first day of April – Election Day. At the ballot box, each of us still has more voice and control over our destiny than even the richest person in the world who can’t vote here and who knows and cares little or nothing about Wisconsin other than as a place for him to sell more Teslas and ruin more lives.
On the evening of March 6 Musk’s multimillion dollar Space X Starship exploded in the skies over the coast of Florida shortly after it was launched. Thank goodness no lives were lost but it was nonetheless a spectacular failure. The April 1 Wisconsin Supreme Court election could be another spectacular failure for Musk and his gargantuan bankroll. It is entirely in the hands of Wisconsin voters to decide.
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel addresses canvassers at an early March event. (Screenshot)
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel told a group of canvassers in Waukesha County last weekend that he needs to be elected to provide a “support network” for President Donald Trump and shared complaints about the 2020 election that have been frequently espoused by election deniers.
In a video of the remarks, Schimel is speaking to a group of canvassers associated with Turning Point USA — a right-wing political group that has become increasingly active in Wisconsin’s Republican party.
On the campaign trail, Schimel, a Waukesha County judge and former Republican state attorney general, has repeatedly said he is running for the Supreme Court to bring impartiality back to the body. He’s claimed that since the Court’s liberals gained a majority after the 2023 election, it has been legislating from the bench on behalf of the Democratic party.
But in more private events and to more conservative audiences, he’s often spoken more openly about his conservative politics.
At the Turning Point event, he said that prior to the 2024 presidential election, the country “had walked up to edge of the abyss and we could hear the wind howling,” but that the Republican party and its supporters helped the country take “a couple steps back” by electing Donald Trump.
Democrats and their “media allies” still have “bulldozers waiting to push into all that,” he said, by bringing lawsuits to stop Trump’s efforts to dismantle federal agencies without the approval of Congress, end birthright citizenship and fire thousands of federal workers.
“Donald Trump doesn’t do this by himself, there has to be a support network around it,” Schimel said. “They filed over 70 lawsuits against him since he took the oath of office barely a month ago, over 70 lawsuits to try to stop almost every single thing he’s doing because they don’t want him to get a win. They’re so desperate for him to not get a win that they won’t let America have a win. That’s what they’re doing. The only way we’re going to stop that is if the courts stop it. That’s the only place to stop this lawfare.”
When Schimel was the state attorney general, he lobbied the Republican-controlled Legislature to create the position of solicitor general under the state Department of Justice to help him file lawsuits against Democratic policies enacted by then-President Barack Obama. Republicans cut the position after Democrat Josh Kaul defeated Schimel in the 2018 election.
During his time in office Schimel joined a lawsuit with the state of Texas to have the Affordable Care Act declared unconstitutional. After the suit was successful in a Texas court, he said, “I’m glad he did this before I left office, because I got one more win before moving on.”
Kaul withdrew the state from the lawsuit after taking office in 2019, and the the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the suit by a 7-2 vote.
But, in his Turning Point remarks, Schimel accused his opponent, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, of participating in the kind of “lawfare” that is being used against Trump now.
“My opponent is an expert on lawfare,” he said, citing her work as a lawyer against the state’s voter ID law and support from liberal billionaire donors.
Crawford campaign spokesperson Derrick Honeymansaid that Schimel’s comments show he’ll be a “rubber stamp” for the Republican party.
“Brad Schimel’s latest remarks are no surprise, especially coming from someone who’s been caught on his knees begging for money and is bought and paid for by Elon Musk,” Honeyman said. “Schimel is not running to be a fair and impartial member of the Supreme Court, but rather be a rubber-stamp for Musk and a far-right agenda to ban abortion and strip away health care. Schimel has recently been caught behind closed doors saying the Supreme Court ‘screwed’ Trump over by refusing to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and these latest remarks are all part of a pattern of extreme and shady behavior from Schimel. Wisconsin deserves a Supreme Court Justice who answers to the people, not the highest bidder.”
Schimel’s campaign has received millions in support from political action committees associated with Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, who has been leading Trump’s effort to slash government programs.
Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that Schimel told a group of supporters in Jefferson County that Trump had been “screwed over” by the Wisconsin Supreme Court when it ruled against his effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In his remarks in Waukesha, he highlighted a number of talking points popular with many of the state’s most prominent 2020 election deniers. He blamed decisions by the Supreme Court for allowing those issues to persist.
“There were a string of other cases that the Supreme Court refused to hear before the election that impacted the election that year unquestionably,” Schimel said.
Schimel pointed to the issue of special voting deputies in nursing homes as a major problem.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials known as special voting deputies who normally go into nursing homes to help residents cast absentee ballots were unable to enter those facilities.
Republicans have claimed that decision allowed people who should have been ineligible to vote because they’d been declared incompetent to cast a ballot. Conspiracy theorists have pointed to affidavits filed by family members of nursing home residents that their relatives were able to vote. Only a judge can declare someone incompetent to vote, however.
The issue led to the Republican sheriff of Racine County to accuse members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) of committing felony election fraud and became a target in former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman’s widely derided review of the 2020 election.
Schimel also blamed the election commission’s decision to exclude the Green Party’s candidates from the ballot that year for Trump’s loss. WEC voted not to allow the party on the ballot because there were errors with the candidate’s addresses on the paperwork. The party sued to have the decision overturned, but the Supreme Court ruled 4-3 against the party because it was too close to the election.
While conservatives held the majority on the Court at the time, Schimel blamed liberals.
“Well, that was with three liberals and a conservative getting soft headed,” Schimel said, referring to Justice Brian Hagedorn, who frequently acted as a swing vote when conservatives controlled the Court.
Schimel added: “Those billionaires from around the country said, ‘What if we could get four liberals on the court? Then we don’t have to fool a conservative into doing something stupid.’ And then they did it in 2023. They bought that election, and they stole the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and they put us in chaos ever since.”
Mike Browne, a spokesperson for progressive political group A Better Wisconsin Together, said Schimel is willing to say anything to curry favor with right-wing supporters and financial backers.
“Brad Schimel has extreme positions like using an 1849 law to try to ban abortion, supporting pardons for violent January 6 insurrectionists, endorsing debunked 2020 election lies, and shilling for Elon Musk,” Browne said. “His bungling attempts to try to talk his way out of it when he gets called out don’t change the fact that time and again we see Brad Schimel on his knees for right-wing campaign cash instead of standing up for Wisconsin or our rights and freedoms.”
The Schimel campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court chambers. (Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin voters view both candidates in this spring’s state Supreme Court race slightly unfavorably, according to a poll released by the Marquette Law School Wednesday, but many voters still don’t know enough about either candidate to have an opinion.
The poll did not assess how the candidates, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford and Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel, would fare in a head-to-head matchup.
The poll, which surveyed 864 registered voters in the state between Feb. 19-26, found that 29% of those surveyed have a favorable view of Schimel and 32% have an unfavorable view. Although Schimel is a former Republican state attorney general who has previously run two statewide campaigns, 38% of voters said they didn’t know enough about him.
After the poll’s release, the Schimel campaign said Wisconsin’s liberals were repeating the mistakes that allowed President Donald Trump to win the state in November and characterized Crawford as “deeply flawed” and having “an extreme ideologically driven agenda.”
Both candidates have been the subjects of negative ad campaigns by their opponents and opponents’ allies.
“We’ve known all along that this race is going to be close,” the Crawford campaign said in a statement, which claimed that “right-wing billionaires like Elon Musk are trying to save Brad Schimel’s flailing campaign.”
Crawford had a lower favorability rating than Schimel, but far more voters still don’t know enough about her. The poll found that 19% of voters have a favorable view of her while 23% have an unfavorable view, but 58% still haven’t heard enough to form an opinion. That includes 54% of surveyed Democrats who say they don’t know enough about the liberal candidate in the race.
Dane County Judge Susan Crawford speaks at an event held by the Rotary Club of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Press Club as she campaigns for Wisconsin Supreme Court. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford accused her opponent Brad Schimel of being a “partisan politician” at an event Tuesday hosted by the Rotary Club of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Press Club. Her comments come as both candidates have tried to claim they will be the more impartial justice.
The fight over impartiality has outlined this year’s campaign in contrast with 2023, when Justice Janet Protasiewicz won her seat, and majority control of the Court for the body’s liberals, by proclaiming her “values” that support a woman’s right to access abortion and that the state’s previous legislative maps unfairly benefited Republicans.
“I would ask voters and the media to look at the difference between the campaigns and the candidates,” Crawford said. “I have never taken a position on any case or any issue before the Supreme Court. And anyone who wants to support me needs to know that I am not making any promises.”
But she said Schimel, a Waukesha County judge and former Republican state attorney general, has built a career as an elected Republican and taken stances on cases that will likely come before the Court in its next term, including cases about Wisconsin’s 1849 law that has been interpreted as a blanket ban on abortion and a lawsuit against Act 10, the controversial law that limited collective bargaining rights for most public employees.
Crawford also pointed to millions of dollars in assistance Schimel’s campaign has gotten from Elon Musk and comments, reported this week by the Washington Post, that he told a group of supporters in Jefferson County that President Donald Trump had been “screwed over” by the Wisconsin Supreme Court when it ruled against his effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Just days before Schimel’s comments were made public, he told reporters after a speech at a Wisconsin Counties Association conference that he didn’t know enough about the case to determine if it was decided correctly.
“He apparently has no objection to Elon Musk’s canvassers going door to door, saying that ‘Brad Schimel is going to uphold the Trump agenda,’” she said. “You know, he has not said anything to put a stop to that. So he’s got a long history as an extreme partisan. He’s run for partisan office something like five times, and he’s running this race very much as a partisan politician.”
Throughout her remarks, Crawford said that if she’s elected, she’d work with all six of the other justices, not just the liberals — taking digs at comments Schimel and some of the Court’s conservatives have made previously — but that she defines being a judicial liberal as someone who stands up for people’s rights and how the law can be used to protect those rights.
“If what people mean by liberal is that I’m going to work to protect the rights of every Wisconsinite on the Supreme Court, that I view our laws and our Constitution as tools to protect the rights of Wisconsinites, then I embrace that label, because that is what I will go about,” she said.
Last week, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that Schimel had said in a radio interview the Court’s liberals, all women, were “driven by their emotions,” when hearing oral arguments in a case about the 1849 abortion law. And in recent years, conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley has frequently attacked her liberal colleagues in published decisions, accusing them of being mouthpieces for the Democratic Party.
“I think there is a little bit too much talk and too much emphasis, particularly by my opponent, on the makeup of the court and these so-called lines between who’s the majority and who’s the minority,” she said. “My opponent, unfortunately, has been lobbying attacks against the same justices on the Supreme Court. You won’t hear me doing that. I intend to work with every other member of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is a body of seven justices, and they need to talk to each other.”
In a statement, the Schimel campaign said the panel of reporters moderating Tuesday’s event didn’t ask tough enough questions and that Crawford wouldn’t be an objective justice.
“Susan Crawford continued her campaign of hoodwinking Wisconsin voters today by spreading falsehoods and pushing the radical agenda of her Democrat handlers to a sympathetic press,” Schimel spokesperson Jacob Fischer said. “What Crawford should have been pressed on was her weak on crime penchant for releasing pedophiles and murderers back onto Wisconsin streets, her willingness to offer two congressional seats in exchange for financial support, or how she sold out her objectivity to the agendas of George Soros, Bernie Sanders, and other extreme liberals. Unlike Susan Crawford, who is clearly unfit to represent the interests of Wisconsin as an impartial justice, Judge Brad Schimel is committed to restoring fairness to the Court and saving Wisconsin from the Democrats’ radical agenda.”
During the event, Crawford pointed to occasions she would have sided against the Court’s liberals and times she issued rulings that she didn’t personally like but upheld because it was the law.
She said that when hearing challenges to the lame duck laws passed by Republicans in the Legislature in 2019 to take powers away from the governor and attorney general before Democrats Tony Evers and Josh Kaul could take power, the actions of the Legislature “left a bad taste in my mouth,” but she upheld some of those laws.
“That’s a case where, as a lawyer, I might have taken a different position as an advocate, but as a judge, I was applying the law to the facts of that case, and I came to a narrow decision,” she said.
Milwaukee Pastor Mariano Garcia prays before Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel's Hispanic roundtable. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)
Ahead of a campaign event targeting Latino voters at the Wisconsin Republican Party’s Hispanic outreach center on Milwaukee’s south side on Thursday afternoon, a few dozen protesters gathered on the street outside the venue. Carrying an eight-foot effigy of Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel, the protesters chanted about Elon Musk’s campaign expenditures to help Schimel win an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the about the vote by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a budget that includes cuts to federal programs like Medicaid.
Inside, a group of members of the right-wing John Birch Society — most famous for conspiracy theories and anti-communist crusades in the 1960s and ’70s — made fun of the protesters and questioned the validity of their beliefs.
“They’re paid, that’s organized as hell,” one woman said. “If you’re gonna protest, protest something that’s legit.”
Schimel, who served as Wisconsin’s Republican state attorney general from 2015-19, has run his campaign for the Court by attacking the body’s current liberal majority — saying that the group is legislating from the bench and specifically calling out Justice Janet Protasiewicz’s successful 2023 campaign for making “open promises on the campaign trail.”
Protesters outside of Schimel’s Feb. 27 event criticized the support his campaign has received from Elon Musk. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)
In her campaign, Protasiewicz said she personally believes in women’s right to access abortion but said her beliefs would not influence how she would rule on legal questions in abortion-related cases.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported Friday that Schimel said in a radio interview last year, after the Court heard arguments over the validity of Wisconsin’s 1849 law that has been interpreted as a blanket ban on abortion, that the Court’s majority, all women, were “driven by their emotions” while hearing the case.
In a press release Friday, the Schimel campaign said he would restore the Court’s “impartiality” if elected.
On the campaign trail, Schimel often compares the Supreme Court to a baseball umpire, saying Brewers fans would be frustrated if they sat down for a game with their “$17 beer” and the home plate umpire came out wearing a St. Louis Cardinals jersey.
“You’re not going to stick around and buy another expensive beer, because you know how this game’s going to end. Why bother?” Schimel said at the Thursday event. “Litigants should not come to court knowing they’ve lost their case before they even uttered a word based on the identity of the judge that’s going to hear it. It’s not how it should work.”
But at Schimel’s “Hispanic roundtable” Thursday, the state Republican Party was fully engaged. Republican Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Brian Schimming and former Republican candidate for attorney general Eric Toney were in attendance, rubbing elbows with the John Birch Society members.
“Because people in this state and people in this city and people on the South Side need somebody who’s gonna have them top of mind and protecting victims and doing the right thing, stand up for the rule of law, all the things that we all want,” Schimming said. “And you would expect that would be easier for people to do, but it really takes somebody of great courage, somebody who’s honest and somebody who’s forthright, to step up at times like this.”
One attendee, filming Schimel’s remarks, wore #LoomersArmy hat, merch that can be purchased on the website of the Laura Loomer Fan Club. Loomer is a right-wing media personality and activist whom U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has called “extremely racist.”
Schimel was introduced at the event by Marty Calderon and Mariano Garcia, two pastors on Milwaukee’s South Side who have been involved in the creation of the Republican Party’s office in the neighborhood.
In his opening prayer, Garcia criticized Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ people.
Republican Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Brian Schimming, Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel, Milwaukee pastor Marty Calderon and Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney answer questions from the press. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)
“Black people, there are some Black people here. I’m a preacher so I can say this: Black people have worshiped at the altar of color and race for a long time,” Garcia said. “And LGBTQ, because when Obama put out those colors, a bunch of pastors turned and we shouldn’t do that. We should stand with righteousness and for God, for his word, for holiness. Amen. And Hispanics, they worship at the altar of immigration. And that is an issue … this is about law and order. Right now, even people who are illegal are against illegal immigration because what is happening is not the same thing. There is an onslaught, an invasion, there is something that all of us can unite against. Because this is endangering all of our communities. Amen.”
Garcia said Schimel plans to visit Garcia’s church on Sunday. After the event, Schimel told reporters his Christian faith helps him remain objective.
“I don’t begin my day doing public service without prayer every day without fail, because there are such huge impacts you can have on people’s lives, and I’m hoping for the wisdom to know how to do that, right?” he said. “But it also affects another way, as people stand in front of me, I see in everybody that stands there a dignity that comes from God for them, in them, and therefore that helps with that being objective. And I don’t view them how they look, how they appear, how they talk, how much money they have. They’re equal under the law. So that is something that my faith drives in me and how I deal with other human beings.”
There’s no readily available evidence Susan Crawford has supported stopping deportations of illegal immigrants or protecting sanctuary cities, as a Republican attack ad claims.
Sanctuary communities limit how much they help authorities with deportations.
Crawford, a liberal, faces conservative Brad Schimel in the nonpartisan April 1 Wisconsin Supreme Court election.
The attack on Crawford was made by the Republican State Leadership Committee, a national group that works to elect Republicans to state offices.
The group provided Wisconsin Watch no evidence to back its claim. A spokesperson cited Democratic support for Crawford and Democratic opposition to cooperating with deportations, but nothing Crawford said on the topics. Searches of past Crawford statements found nothing.
The ad also claims Crawford would “let criminals roam free,” referring to a man convicted of touching girls’ private parts in a club swimming pool. Crawford sentenced the man in 2020 to four years in prison; a prosecutor had requested 10 years.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
The polling place at Village on Park on Madison's South side in 2023. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin polls are open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. so voters can weigh in on the three-way primary race for the nonpartisan state superintendent. It’s the only statewide election on ballots in February.
The state superintendent is responsible for overseeing Wisconsin’s 421 public school districts and leads the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) — an agency whose responsibilities include administering state and federal funds, licensing teachers, developing educational curriculum and state assessments and advocating for public education.
Incumbent State Superintendent Jill Underly is running for her second term in office and faces two challengers — Sauk Prairie Schools Superintendent Jeff Wright and education consultant Brittany Kinser.
Underly, a Democrat, has said she wants to continue her work advocating for Wisconsin public schools, including calling for increased funding from the state, limiting school vouchers and supporting schools through the impacts of the new Trump administration. In her reelection campaign, she has defended herself against critiques on changes to the way the state measures standardized tests and her attempts to work with the Republican-led Legislature. She has the backing of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and AFT-Wisconsin.
Kinser, a school choice proponent, has said she wants to improve reading and math education, “restore high standards” and supports increased state spending for Wisconsin’s school voucher programs. She previously served as principal and executive director of Rocketship schools in Milwaukee, worked for the City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee-based advocacy group that lobbies for school choice, and has worked as a special education teacher. She has raised the most money of any candidate with financial help from Republican megadonors.
Wright, a Democrat, has said that he wants to improve communication between DPI, the Legislature and the public, supports increasing funding for public schools and wants greater transparency and accountability for voucher schools. He is endorsed by the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators, and was recommended for the position by the political action committee of Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the state’s largest teacher’s union, although the full union hasn’t made an official endorsement.
The top two vote getters will advance to the general election for the position on April 1.
Wisconsin voters may also see local primary elections for mayor, city and town council, county supervisor, school board members or school referendum requests on their ballot. Five school districts across the state — Tomahawk School District Kenosha School District, Northland Pines School District, Waterford Union High School District and Mauston School District — will vote on whether to approve a total of $176 million in funding requests.
Voters can check their voter registration status here, see what will be on their ballot here and find their polling location here.
There will be no primary on Tuesday in the race for an open state Supreme Court seat, since there are only two candidates in the race — Susan Crawford, a Dane County Circuit Court judge and former prosecutor for the state Department of Justice, and Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County Circuit Court judge and former Republican attorney general.
Wisconsin residents can register to vote at their polling places on Election Day. To do so, they need to show a proof of residence document, which must contain the voter’s name and current residential address such as a bank statement, recent electric bill, or a current and valid Wisconsin driver’s license or state ID card.
Voters need to present an acceptable photo ID to vote. Acceptable IDs include a Wisconsin driver’s license, state ID card, U.S. passport, military or veteran’s ID, tribal ID, a certificate of naturalization or a student ID with a photo.
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford addresses voters at a campaign event in Oregon on Feb. 7. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
On Friday, Feb. 7, dozens of Dane County progressive voters, anxious about the first weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term, crowded into Oregon’s Kickback Cafe to see Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford make her campaign pitch.
Looking for something tangible to do as President Donald Trump and billionaire Trump advisor Elon Musk work to dismantle pieces of the federal government, deport thousands of undocumented immigrants and roll back protections for minority groups, voters like Diane Olsen and Anne Hecht of Fitchburg said they were supporting Crawford’s campaign because they want to see the retention of a liberal majority on the state’s highest court that upholds “fairness and honesty, adherence to the law,” Olsen said.
“I feel strongly she’d represent things that are positive,” Olsen continued.
Wisconsin’s April 1 Supreme Court election will be one of the first statewide elections in the country since Trump’s win in November. The race for an open seat being vacated by retiring Justice Ann Walsh Bradley will determine the ideological balance of the Court and provide the first test of the voting public’s mood early in the Trump administration. Crawford, a former prosecutor for the state Department of Justice and a current judge on the Dane County Circuit Court, is going up against Brad Schimel, a former Republican attorney general and now a Waukesha County Circuit Court judge.
Like therace in 2023 when the election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz secured a liberal majority on the body, the 2025 race has already drawn national attention, as well as millions of dollars in campaign contributions and outside spending
On Monday, Crawford announced she had raised $4.4 million in the most recent reporting period, bringing her total fundraising to $7.3 million since she entered the race last summer. The Schimel campaign announced it had raised $2.7 million during the most recent reporting period and a total of $5 million since he entered the race. But in Oregon, Crawford supporters were wary of the support Schimel has received on social media from Musk and the potential for his money to swing a close race.
Voters packed into Crawford’s campaign event at the Kickback Cafe in Oregon. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
With about seven weeks until Election Day, the race is beginning to become more contentious. Schimel’s campaign has released an ad that blames Crawford for the failed prosecution of a convicted rapist in 2001. Crawford says she wasn’t the attorney who made the mistake and has complained that the Schimel campaign used artificial intelligence to doctor a photo of her — making her scowl when the original photo showed her smiling.
The campaign has filed an ethics complaint against Schimel over the ad because of a state law enacted last year that requires a disclosure if AI is used in a political ad.
Recently, after Schimel was reported to have said he’d been having to make repeat trips to Menard’s to buy knee pads for all the begging he’s had to do to raise campaign funds, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign filed acomplaint against him with the state judicial commission, alleging that those direct pleas for money violate the judicial code.
Meanwhile, Crawford has released ads warning about Schimel’s previous anti-abortion stances, stating that if elected, he would help conservatives ban abortion in Wisconsin.
Next term, the Court is likely to decide major cases on abortion, labor rights and environmental regulations. It could also take up the constitutionality of the state’s congressional maps.
“These races do have big consequences,” Crawford said in an interview. “They affect the fundamental rights and freedoms, personal freedoms, of everybody in Wisconsin, there should be a lot of attention on them. I think that part of it is positive, in a way that people understand that this third branch of government is really important and will affect their lives.”
For the second consecutive Supreme Court race, abortion is a driving issue among Wisconsin voters. The Court heardarguments late last year in a case that could overturn the state’s 1849 law that has been interpreted as banning abortion but the issue could still be contested in future cases.
Schimel, who has accused Crawford of being a “political weapon” for the Democratic Party, has previously said he doesn’t see a problem with the 1849 abortion law and received support from a number of anti-abortion groups. While Crawford — who accuses Schimel of pre-judging the case — previously represented Planned Parenthood in court and has said she believes the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided.
“Schimel has openly said that he believes that law should be enforced,” Crawford said. “So he is the one who is openly taking a position on the outcome of that case. Again, I don’t think it’s because he has delved into the filings of the parties and read the briefs or sat through the oral arguments or talked to any other justice on the court about it.”
The Court has also recently moved toward accepting a case thatcould overturn parts of Act 10, the controversial law enacted by Gov. Scott Walker that ended collective bargaining rights for most public employees. Crawford previously represented a group of teachers suing to overturn the law and has been endorsed by a number of labor unions. (Last week, the Court released a ruling saying it would not bypass the state’s appellate court to take the Act 10 case.)
“When I seek and accept endorsements from any group, I make it really clear that this is not a quid pro quo,” Crawford said. “I am not promising anything. I am not taking a position on any of their, you know, pet cases or causes that they might be trying to get from the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and so they have to accept the fact that, you know, I’m going to be fair and impartial and call the cases like I see them based on the full record at the time. And that’s again, in contrast to what we’ve seen my opponent doing, which is to openly announce how he would decide Act 10, or how he would decide the 1849 abortion law case.”
Late last year, when a Dane County judgestruck down parts of Act 10, Schimel said in a statement the decision was “the latest instance of the Left using the justice system to satisfy their donors and dismantle laws they don’t like.”
The Court has also recently taken up cases on the authority of state government toenforce environmental laws as Wisconsin tries to clean up harmful chemical contamination in its water. When Schimel was attorney general, enforcement of environmental laws dropped precipitously and Wisconsin joined other states in opposing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to cut coal emissions to fight carbon emissions and global warming; the EPA’s stricter federal air emissions standards on ozone pollution; and its expansion of authority over water regulations, the Appleton Post Crescent reported in 2016. Crawford has been endorsed by Wisconsin Conservation Voters.
Meanwhile, both candidates, who have experience as prosecutors, have tried to claim the title of tougher on crime.
At the cafe event, Crawford touted her experience as a prosecutor, saying that helping to take care of her sister with disabilities as a child pushed her to choose a career protecting people.
“As a prosecutor, I always worked really hard to make sure that people who committed terrible crimes were held accountable, held in prison,” she said, “that crime victims’ rights were protected in the process, our communities were kept safe and that justice was done. That was the bottom line, the most important thing.”
Schimel has won the endorsement of most of the state’s county sheriffs — including some withcontroversial positions on a number of issues.
Crawford has repeatedly criticized Schimel for the state DOJ’s backlog of untested sexual assault kits that existed when he was attorney general.
In Oregon, Crawford was joined by Justice Jill Karofsky, who identified herself as one of the few people in Wisconsin who has worked closely with both candidates. Karofsky, who ran the DOJ’s office of crime victim services while Schimel was attorney general and sat on the Dane County bench with Crawford, said the rape kit backlog persisted because Schimel refused to ask the Republican-controlled Legislature for more money to hire more lab staff.
“He doesn’t belong within 100 miles of the Wisconsin Supreme Court,” Karofsky said.
Crawford told the Examiner that she believes her experience as a prosecutor will be helpful when reviewing cases on the Supreme Court.
“As a prosecutor, you have really a lot of power, and it has to be exercised very carefully, judiciously in determining what the charges are at the outset of the case,” she said. “I think, for me now as a judge — and certainly … on the Wisconsin Supreme Court — [its important] to just have that understanding that the case is a result of decision-making by an individual prosecutor. Sometimes they get it right; sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they’ve got the evidence there to prove their case and sometimes they don’t. But just to recognize that those are human decisions that get made, because I’ve been there, and I think it’s an important perspective for any justice to understand that some prosecutor had to make a decision.”
Over the last term, under the current 4-3 liberal majority, the Court heard far fewer cases than in previous years, issuing decisions in just 14 cases. That decline in caseload from 45 decisions in the 2022-23 term included a drop in the number of criminal cases it weighed in on. Of the six justices that Crawford or Schimel will be joining on the Court, most of them worked as prosecutors at some point during their career.
Barry Burden, a political science professor at UW-Madison, said it’s not that informative for a Supreme Court candidate to talk about being tough on crime.
“It’s a traditional thing for a judicial candidate to do, to play up their alliance with police and law enforcement, and to emphasize their strict attitude about law breaking, and having a reputation for being tough on people who break the law,” Burden told the Examiner. “But it’s kind of a strange thing for Supreme Court candidates to do, because the state Supreme Court doesn’t have a lot to do with criminal cases. They aren’t prosecuting or hearing cases of people accused of everyday crimes. They tend to deal with bigger constitutional issues about structure of government and contracts and some controversial matters, you know, election laws and those kinds of things. So I suppose candidates feel obligated to do it, but it’s not very informative about actually how they would behave as justices.”
Crawford said that if elected to the Court, she’d work to “give everybody a fair shake” while Schimel would seek to implement his political agenda.
“I want you to know that I have stood up in courtrooms and fought for all of you and all of your fundamental rights and freedoms. It’s an important part of my history as a lawyer,” she said. “I give everybody a fair shake in my courtroom. I want everybody to know that when I sit down behind the bench, I’m standing up for Wisconsin families and Wisconsin values, and that’s what kind of justice I’m going to be on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.”
Wisconsin Supreme Court chambers. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
The members of Wisconsin’s Republican congressional delegation formally endorsed Brad Schimel in the April Wisconsin Supreme Court election Monday in a virtual news conference that highlighted Schimel’s campaign talking points.
Schimel, a Waukesha County circuit judge and former one-term state attorney general, is running for an open seat on the court against Susan Crawford, a Dane County circuit judge.
Elections for the state Supreme Court are officially nonpartisan, but they’ve become partisan in all but name over the last couple of decades, with both major parties supporting candidates. While Schimel’s announcement Monday touted the backing of congressional Republicans, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and other key Democratic leaders have endorsed Crawford.
The race to replace retiring Justice Ann Walsh Bradley will determine whether the Court’s four-member liberal majority remains or falls to a new four-member conservative majority.
At the Monday morning news conference U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Prairie du Chien) said the Wisconsin voters who helped carry Donald Trump to a second term as U.S. president in November would do the same for Schimel in April.
“They’re sick and tired of the radical left agenda,” Van Orden said. “They want to make sure that someone that is sitting on the court is interpreting the law, not writing the law.”
Among the questions from reporters on the call was one about Schimel’s past statements on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters trying to overturn Joe Biden’s election as president in 2020.
During atalk radio show broadcast on Jan. 2, Schimel charged that the prosecution of the Jan. 6 defendants in Washington, D.C. — where the Capitol is located and the attack took place — was the result of political “manipulation” by Democrats because the population of the city “is overwhelmingly liberal.”
“They would never take their prosecution in a district where you had a fair shot as a defendant,” Schimel told radio host Vicki McKenna.
During Monday’s news conference, a member of Schimel’s campaign staff relayed a reporter’s question that began with a reference to a former U.S. Capitol Police officer “who is coming to Wisconsin tomorrow to criticize your comments about the defendants in those cases.”
The question didn’t specify Schimel’s comments or their context, but asked what he thought “of the Trump pardons for Jan. 6 protesters who assaulted law enforcement officers.”
“I have no idea what comments you are talking about,” Schimel replied, adding, “I’ve said that anyone who engaged in violence and Jan. 6, assaulted a police officer, resisted arrest, those people should have been prosecuted. They should be prosecuted and held accountable, and judges should impose sentences that are just under the circumstances.”
But Schimel also criticized the use of a federal law against election obstruction to lodge felony charges against some of those who had broken into the Capitol that day. He said it took the U.S. Supreme Court to “finally recognize that prosecutors in Washington, D.C., overreached.” The Courtvacated those convictions.
In addition, he voiced support for a president’s right to pardon offenders. “It’s a power they have,” Schimel said. “I don’t object to them utilizing that power.”
The news conference signaled that Schimel’s campaign is focusing on, among other subjects, Wisconsin’s 2011 law requiring voters to show a picture ID when they go to the polls.
Republican lawmakers have proposed an amendment that would enshrine the requirement in the state constitution. That proposal goes before voters on the April ballot — alongside the Supreme Court race. Republicans argue that the state Supreme Court might otherwise overturn the law.
Schimel also raisedthe circuit court decision, now under appeal, that would overturn the 2011 law known as Act 10 sharply restricting collective bargaining for public employees.
As an attorney, Crawford represented clients who sought to overturn the state’sVoter ID law as well asAct 10.
“She advocated, she fought against and tried to overturn Wisconsin’s Voter ID law,” Sen. Ron Johnson said. “It’s such a huge difference between conservative judges, people like Brad Schimel, who will apply the law faithfully — again, not what his policy preferences are, but respect not only our state constitution, but the federal constitution in the separation of powers, the checks and balances and being a judge, not a super legislator.”
Schimel noted Crawford’s work as a lawyer opposing Act 10 in a case that the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority at the time, rejected.
“This has been settled law for over a decade, but it’s coming right back,” he said. “If my opponent wins, does anyone believe a case, a law, like Act 10 has any chance of a fair, objective examination?”
Asked what his standard would be for recusing himself from ruling on a case, Schimel said that would include “any case where my family, I or my family, my immediate family, have a personal stake, win or lose, in that case.” He said he would “perhaps … need to recuse” himself on issues with which “I was directly involved in the past” or that “I took strong positions on” — but added that “it’s hard to predict what that might be in a vacuum like this.”
On Monday, however, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin accused Schimel of prejudging the issue of abortion rights. The party highlighted a New York Timesreport on the race that included references to his opposition to abortion rights and his work as attorney general in helping to “map out a strategy to restrict abortion rights.”
The Times article quoted Schimel telling supporters during a campaign stop this past summer that he supported Wisconsin’s 1849 law that was thought to ban abortion until a December 2023 circuit court decision declared that it did not. That ruling is now under appeal and the case is likely to go before the state Supreme Court, possibly this year.
“There is not a constitutional right to abortion in our State Constitution,” The Times quoted Schimel telling supporters in Chilton. “That will be a sham if they find that.”
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