It's the Most Expensive Judicial Race in History

Wisconsin voters decide a high-stakes contest for state Supreme Court on Tuesday
Posted Apr 1, 2025 6:30 AM CDT
It's the Most Expensive Judicial Race in History
The GOP's Brad Schimel, left, and Democrat Susan Crawford. One of them will soon be seated on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.   (AP Photo/Andy Manis, Susan Crawford for Wisconsin, File)

It's a big day at the voting booth, thanks mainly to two closely watched races. One is a special House election in a deep-red district of Florida that is shaping up to be surprisingly close. The one getting even more attention, however, is for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The details on that one:

  • The candidates: The contest pits Susan Crawford, a liberal judge in Dane County, against Brad Schimel, a conservative judge in Waukesha County and former state attorney general. The winner will give the seven-member court a 4-3 split either in favor of liberals or conservatives, reports USA Today.
  • Record money: It has become the most expensive judicial race in the nation, notes the Washington Post. More than $90 million has poured in, with $20 million of that coming from Elon Musk or PACs affiliated with him. (Musk even handed out $1 million checks to signers of a Wisconsin petition against "activist judges.")

  • Proxy vote: Because of Musk's money and Trump's backing of Schimel, the Wisconsin race is widely seen as a referendum on the president. "It's really the first major election since Trump and Republicans took office in January," Barry Burden of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Elections Research Center tells USA Today. A New York Times story has a similar gist: "This is going to be the first litmus test," a 40-year-old resident of suburban Milwaukee tells the newspaper.
  • The stakes: Beyond the Trump factor, the court has a number of big cases on its docket involving abortion, union rights, and the redrawing of the state's congressional map. A lawsuit involving Musk's Tesla also might end up there—the company has sued the state over a law that prevents car manufacturers from owning dealerships and selling directly to customers, per CBS News.
  • Deciding factor? Wisconsin is a swing state, with the last three presidential elections decided by 1 point or less, notes Steve Kornacki at NBC News. Meaning, the state already is "polarized" about the president. To Kornacki, "the outcome hinges on whether the pro-Trump side has become more engaged in an election like this than it has been up to this point."
(More Wisconsin stories.)

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