Susan Crawford wins Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom race, defying Elon Musk
Susan Crawford has gained a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom, NBC Information tasks, permitting liberals to keep up their slim majority on the battleground state’s highest courtroom — and defying Elon Musk after he spent hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to oppose her.
Crawford, a Dane County circuit decide who was backed by Democrats, secured a 10-year time period on the courtroom over Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County circuit decide and a former Republican legal professional basic. As the primary main battleground state election of President Donald Trump’s second time period, the technically nonpartisan contest drew nationwide consideration and have become the most costly state Supreme Courtroom race in U.S. historical past.
The end result is a setback for Trump and his billionaire adviser, Musk. Trump endorsed Schimel within the ultimate stretch of the race, whereas Musk injected himself into the middle of it, spending large sums of cash, visiting Wisconsin days out from Election Day and continuously posting concerning the race on his X feed. In flip, Democrats and progressive teams made Musk their main villain, attacking his affect on the race and his efforts to slash federal jobs and the federal government by means of the Division of Authorities Effectivity.
Crawford’s victory additionally means liberals will preserve a 4-3 benefit on the courtroom for not less than one other yr heading right into a time period when it might resolve circumstances about abortion rights, unions and collective bargaining rights, and congressional maps and redistricting.
Regardless of the greater than $15 million that Musk and teams affiliated with him dropped into the race, Democrats total held a slim advert spending benefit, in response to AdImpact.
Democratic-aligned teams spent hundreds of thousands of {dollars} blasting Musk as “making an attempt to purchase” Schimel and the election, whereas Crawford herself repeatedly used Musk as a foil at her marketing campaign occasions. The Democratic Social gathering of Wisconsin launched a town-hall tour dubbed “Folks v. Musk,” on which surrogates together with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz additional bashed Musk and DOGE.
Some additionally identified that Musk’s electrical automobile firm, Tesla, sued in Wisconsin this yr difficult a state regulation banning carmakers from proudly owning dealerships. The case might find yourself earlier than the state Supreme Courtroom.
Democrats additionally attacked Musk’s provide of $100 to Wisconsin voters to signal a petition to oppose “activist judges.” The Democratic state legal professional basic, Josh Kaul, additionally unsuccessfully tried to dam Musk from giving $1 million to individuals to be “spokesmen” for the petition at a rally Sunday.
Conversely, teams on the left largely stayed away from making the race about Trump, who narrowly carried the state in two of the previous three presidential elections.
The anti-Musk playbook is one which Democrats might search to duplicate in different elections this yr and within the 2026 midterms.
Schimel embraced Trump within the closing days of the race, a transfer strategists mentioned was meant to attempt to juice conservative turnout.
Along with operating adverts touting Trump’s endorsement, Schimel appeared at a marketing campaign city corridor occasion in March with Donald Trump Jr. and instructed a gaggle of canvassers from the conservative group Turning Level USA that Trump wants a “help community” round him to assist him combat the myriad fits his administration has confronted.
Either side tried to color its opponent as smooth on crime — despite the fact that the state Supreme Courtroom not often hears circumstances about sentencing — whereas Crawford additionally attacked Schimel in adverts that centered on allegations that the state Justice Division mishandled the upkeep of hundreds of rape kits beneath his watch as legal professional basic.
Aside from Musk, teams on the left made Crawford’s help of reproductive rights a central theme of their adverts and messaging. Abortion rights and the destiny of the state’s 1849 abortion ban had been scorching matters due to a pair of circumstances already earlier than the courtroom.
The state Supreme Courtroom heard a problem to the ban in November and is extensively anticipated to overturn the regulation, however earlier than Crawford is sworn in in August. Abortion suppliers within the state resumed the process in 2023 after a decide dominated that the 175-year-old regulation didn’t apply to consensual medical abortions, however the state Supreme Courtroom is reviewing whether or not to completely invalidate it.
There may be additionally a separate case during which Deliberate Parenthood has instantly requested the courtroom to ascertain whether or not the state structure established a proper to an abortion. The courtroom Crawford will sit on might hear that case.
As well as, the courtroom can be prone to find yourself ruling on a case difficult landmark laws in the course of the administration of Republican Gov. Scott Walker that eradicated collective bargaining for many public employees, often called Act 10.
And the courtroom might find yourself deciding circumstances difficult the state’s congressional maps, which favor Republicans.
After liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz joined the courtroom in 2023, it overturned the state’s gerrymandered legislative maps. The courtroom declined final yr to listen to a go well with that sought to redraw the congressional maps.
However many Republicans have expressed concern that comparable fits could possibly be accepted sooner or later, pointing to an e mail from a Democratic-aligned group that urged a Crawford victory would possibly “put two extra Home seats in play.” The subject, in addition to that e mail, turned a theme in a number of the adverts run by Schimel-aligned exterior teams.
Liberals gained a majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom for the primary time in 15 years in 2023. The bulk was once more on the road this yr after liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley introduced her retirement. State Supreme Courtroom elections are additionally scheduled in Wisconsin annually from 2026 to 2030.
