Decide Susan Crawford, the Democrat-backed nominee for the Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom, throughout the remaining cease of the Widespread Sense Justice Tour forward of the Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom election in Madison, Wisconsin, US, on Monday, March 31, 2025.
Jim Vondruska | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
Susan Crawford has received a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom, NBC Information tasks, permitting liberals to take care of their slender majority on the battleground state’s highest court docket — and defying Elon Musk after he spent tens of millions of {dollars} to oppose her.
Crawford, a Dane County circuit choose who was backed by Democrats, secured a 10-year time period on the court docket over Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County circuit choose and a former Republican lawyer 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 result is a setback for Trump and his billionaire adviser, Musk. Trump endorsed Schimel within the remaining 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 ceaselessly posting in regards to 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 the Division of Authorities Effectivity.
Crawford’s victory additionally means liberals will preserve a 4-3 benefit on the court docket 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 slender advert spending benefit, based on AdImpact.
Democratic-aligned teams spent tens of millions 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 “Individuals 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 supply of $100 to Wisconsin voters to signal a petition to oppose “activist judges.” The Democratic state lawyer basic, Josh Kaul, additionally unsuccessfully tried to dam Musk from giving $1 million to folks 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 copy 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 supposed to attempt to juice conservative turnout.
Along with working adverts touting Trump’s endorsement, Schimel appeared at a marketing campaign city corridor occasion in March with Donald Trump Jr. and informed a bunch of canvassers from the conservative group Turning Level USA that Trump wants a “help community” round him to assist him battle the myriad fits his administration has confronted.
All sides tried to color its opponent as gentle on crime — regardless that the state Supreme Courtroom not often hears circumstances about sentencing — whereas Crawford additionally attacked Schimel in adverts that targeted on allegations that the state Justice Division mishandled the upkeep of 1000’s of rape kits underneath his watch as lawyer basic.
Other than 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 have been scorching subjects due to a pair of circumstances already earlier than the court docket.
Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom candidates Brad Schimel and Susan Crawford take part in a debate Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in Milwaukee.
Morry Gash | AP
The state Supreme Courtroom heard a problem to the ban in November and is broadly 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 choose dominated that the 175-year-old regulation did not apply to consensual medical abortions, however the state Supreme Courtroom is reviewing whether or not to completely invalidate it.
There’s additionally a separate case by which Deliberate Parenthood has instantly requested the court docket to determine whether or not the state structure established a proper to an abortion. The court docket Crawford will sit on might hear that case.
As well as, the court docket can also be more likely to find yourself ruling on a case difficult landmark laws throughout the administration of Republican Gov. Scott Walker that eradicated collective bargaining for many public employees, often known as Act 10.
And the court docket might find yourself deciding circumstances difficult the state’s congressional maps, which favor Republicans.
Extra from NBC Information:
After liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz joined the court docket in 2023, it overturned the state’s gerrymandered legislative maps. The court docket declined final yr to listen to a go well with that sought to redraw the congressional maps.
However many Republicans have expressed worry that related fits might be accepted sooner or later, pointing to an e-mail from a Democratic-aligned group that urged a Crawford victory may “put two extra Home seats in play.” The subject, in addition to that e-mail, grew to become a theme in a few of the adverts run by Schimel-aligned exterior teams.
Liberals received 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.
