MADISON, Wisconsin — Judge Susan Crawford, the liberal candidate in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election, beat conservative challenger Judge Brad Schimel in a contest that shattered spending records and turned a state race into a referendum on President Donald Trump.
The Associated Press called the race for Crawford after 10 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday. With more than half of the ballots counted, Crawford led with 56% of the vote to Schimel’s 44%.
The outcome of the high-stakes election provides the best evidence to date that Trump’s first few chaotic months in office have turned off some Republicans and reenergized the Democratic Party.
Crawford’s win keeps the court’s current 4-3 majority as it gets ready to hear cases on abortion, redistricting, and voting rules.
Trump and Elon Musk put their financial and political muscle behind Schimel, while former President Barack Obama, George Soros, and Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) opened their wallets for Crawford. In all, nearly $99 million was spent on the race, making it the most expensive judicial contest in U.S. history.
Crawford alluded to Musk’s role in the election during her victory party speech Tuesday night.
“As a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin,” Crawford told the crowd. “And we won!”
At stake was not only a seat on the state Supreme Court but also an opportunity to directly affect the national political landscape.
“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.”
Musk, who traveled to Green Bay on Sunday to hand out two $1 million checks to voters, called the election one that could “affect the entire destiny of humanity.”
“What’s happening on Tuesday is a vote for which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives,” Musk said. “That is why it is so significant. Whichever party controls the House to a significant degree controls the country, which then steers the course of Western civilization. I feel like this is one of those things that may not seem that it’s going to affect the entire destiny of humanity, but I think it will.”
Musk spent more than $20 million to back Schimel, making him the single largest spender in the race. His super PAC, America PAC, has spent over $6.6 million on the election. The group created a canvassing operation of more than 500 employees who relentlessly knocked on doors in rural areas of the state and left-leaning Madison and Milwaukee.
The canvassers were paid workers, making $25 an hour, three times more than Wisconsin’s minimum wage. The group purportedly knocked on a million doors to push not only Schimel as a candidate but also Musk and Trump’s agenda.
Schimel leaned into his support from Trump and Musk during the final few weeks of the race.
Republicans tried to recast the contest as a chance for Trump’s base to come out and show their loyalty to him and push back against judges Trump claims treat him and his administration unfairly. The strategy was that if Republicans, with Trump and Musk’s help, could get 60% of his base to the polls, Schimel could pull off the win.
Trump found a silver lining in the Wisconsin election results in that voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment to require photo ID to vote, cementing an existing law into the constitution.
“VOTER I.D. JUST APPROVED IN WISCONSIN ELECTION,” Trump said in a post on social media that declined to mention Schimel. “Democrats fought hard against this, presumably so they can CHEAT. This is a BIG WIN FOR REPUBLICANS, MAYBE THE BIGGEST WIN OF THE NIGHT.”
Election officials in Wisconsin expected more than two million people to vote, an extremely strong turnout in an off-year race.
On the campaign trail, Schimel wore Trump hats and retold conversations he had with the president. He also painted Crawford as a candidate weak on crime and claimed she would push to redraw congressional district lines to favor Democrats and repeal Act 10, a state law that took collective bargaining rights away from most public workers. Schimel also hinted at past election fraud claims but told the Washington Examiner he would respect the outcome of the race. Despite running as an underdog, he said he understood “what the stakes are.”
WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT RACE SEES STRONG VOTER TURNOUT AND BALLOT SHORTAGES
“I am not going to leave anything on the field,” Schimel said. “We are going to run right through the tape on Tuesday and win this thing.”
For her part, Crawford repeatedly called Schimel out for his close ties to Trump and Musk, though she was also on the receiving end of millions of dollars in out-of-state donations. At her final campaign stop in Madison on Monday, she called Schimel “a partisan politician who wants to politicize our courts and is willing to sell out to the highest bidder.”
