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.

Republicans, meanwhile, pointed to their candidates’ wins in special elections in two Florida U.S. House seats as proof Americans back the party’s policy goals and leaders.

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. 

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.

Here’s what Susan Crawford’s state Supreme Court win means for Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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 $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 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.

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 GOP-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.

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 disbursing 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

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 Election 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.

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.

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.”

Democratic-backed Susan Crawford wins Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, cementing liberal majority is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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.”

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.”

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 Press reported 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.

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 Honeyman said 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.”

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.

“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.”