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SUSAN CRAWFORD WINS WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT RACE, SCHIMEL CONCEDES  
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Erin McGroarty and Andrew Bahl
April 2, 2025
Cap Times
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_ Crawford's win in Wisconsin points the way forward for Democrats.
The high court has held a 4-3 liberal majority since 2023. That
liberal majority will hear any cases related to the administration of
the 2028 election. _

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice-elect Susan Crawford is surrounded by
the four current liberal Supreme Court justices, Jill Karofsky,
Rebecca Frank Dallet, Janet Protasiewicz and Ann Walsh Bradley as she
gives her victory speech on , Election night at Park Hotel in Madison,
April 1, 2025 (Photo: Ruthie Hauge / Cap Times).

 

Dane County Judge Susan Crawford won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme
Court in a nationally watched election Tuesday, preserving the court's
left-leaning majority for at least three years and opening the door to
further landmark rulings on abortion and labor rights. 

Crawford's victory over Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad
Schimel will be viewed as a rebuke of President Donald Trump and his
top adviser, tech mogul Elon Musk, whose support was both a core part
of Schimel's campaign and the focus of Crawford's attacks on her
opponent.

Schimel is a former Republican state attorney general who was viewed
as a reliably conservative vote on the Supreme Court if elected, while
Crawford’s history of taking on liberal causes as a lawyer made her
a favorite of Democrats.

The race was called by multiple outlets just before 9:15 p.m., at
which point Crawford was besting former Vice President Kamala
Harris’ performance in the 2024 election in many counties, ranging
from Door County in northeast Wisconsin to the Madison area. Turnout
in many parts of the state, including Dane County, broke records for
an April election.

To chants of "Susan," "Susan," "Susan," Crawford told her supporters
at the Park Hotel Madison, "Thank you for trusting me to serve you."

The newly elected justice acknowledged her opponent and thanked him
for his "gracious" phone call conceding the race.

"I'm here tonight because I've spent my life fighting to do what's
right. That's why I got into this race, to protect the fundamental
rights and freedoms of all Wisconsinites," Crawford said.

Amidst erupting cheers, Crawford nodded to Musk's involvement in the
race.

"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," she
said.

Schimel's concession Tuesday night came almost as swiftly as the
election results.

 
Brad Schimel, conservative candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court,
concedes the race at an event with his supporters in Waukesha Tuesday
night.  (Photo: Andrew Bahl / Cap Times)
"You've got to accept the results," Schimel said to a crowd of
supporters at the Marriott hotel in Waukesha. "I'm not here to make
any joke. The numbers aren't going to turn around and we're not going
to pull this off."

Terry Shelton and Shirley Smith felt a sense of relief at the early
victory projections as they mingled with other supporters at
Crawford’s election night watch party.

The Madison couple said they had spent recent weeks canvasing for
Crawford.

“After Kamala, we couldn't get our hopes up,” Shelton said,
referring to the former vice president's loss in November. “So
we’ve been out in the rain, knocking door to door.”

Smith added that Trump's victory was a wake-up call for her and
spurred her involvement in this election. 

"The only thing we can do is fight back," she said. 

The high court has held a 4-3 liberal majority since 2023, when
Justice Janet Protasiewicz won what was at the time a historic race in
terms of spending and attention for what have typically been sleepy
campaigns. 

The competitive race began in fall 2023, when Schimel announced his
candidacy, and heated up last summer, when Justice Ann Walsh Bradley,
the court’s longest tenured member, announced she would not seek
re-election. Crawford announced her campaign soon after.

 
Retiring Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley celebrates
the victory of her successor, Susan Crawford at Crawford’s Election
Day watch party at Park Hotel in Madison, April 1, 2025.  (Photo: 

Ruthie Hauge / Cap Times)
Crawford thanked her predecessor Tuesday, saying Walsh Bradley leaves
"an incredible legacy of service to our state."

"What an amazing victory," Walsh Bradley said to a cheering crowd.
"Thirty years ago I was standing on a stage like this, newly elected.
I could not be more proud than I am tonight to be standing on this
stage and shortly introducing to you Justice-elect Susan Crawford."

Justices on the state’s highest court are elected to 10-year terms.
The court has the power to overturn circuit court or Wisconsin Court
of Appeals rulings. It has been increasingly asked to settle disputes
over high-profile pieces of legislation and handle conflicts between
Gov. Tony Evers and GOP legislators.

The Wisconsin high court race is the most expensive in American
history, topping $100 million in spending among the two candidates and
the outside groups backing them.

That included over $20 million in spending by conservative political
action committees bankrolled by Musk in support of Schimel, with
prominent Democratic donors like George Soros and Illinois Democratic
Gov. JB Pritzker boosting Wisconsin Democrats.

Much of the rhetoric in the race centered on national issues, trends
magnified by the involvement of figures like Trump, who endorsed
Schimel 10 days before the election, and former President Barack
Obama, who backed Crawford.

“If you had asked me … four weeks ago, I would have said it's not
a referendum on the president. It's a race between two Wisconsin
candidates who are mostly talking about their records as
prosecutors,” said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette
University Law School poll. “But then everything changed about three
three and a half weeks ago, as Musk emerged as a major figure in the
race, and Democrats used him as a target.”

That includes voters like Dick Holthaus, who cast his ballot in
Madison early. Pushing back against Musk’s involvement, he said, was
a major factor in getting him to the polls.

“There’s always been the contributions but this is so out
there,” he said. 

 
Elon Musk hands over $1 million check to Nicholas Jacobs during a
town hall Sunday in Green Bay.  (Photo: Jeffrey Phelps/AP Photo  //
 Cap Times)
Musk's involvement in the race played an outsized role. His leadership
of the federal Department of Government Efficiency and counsel to
Trump has led to slashed spending in Washington, D.C., layoffs of tens
of thousands of government workers and an uncertain future for many
federal programs.

In an unprecedented move, Musk wrote $1 million checks to three
Wisconsin voters who signed a petition opposing “activist judges.”

“The $1 million checks … it is very off putting. I don’t see how
his support can help (Schimel),” Hothaus said in Madison.

The tech billionaire held a rally in Green Bay Sunday evening during
which he delivered the checks — a move challenged by Wisconsin
Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, who argued in a lawsuit filed
with the state Supreme Court that Musk’s payments to voters violated
a state law
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bars “election bribery.”

The Supreme Court unanimously declined to take up Kaul’s lawsuit in
a ruling Sunday.

While Musk’s ideas have been popular with most conservatives,
polling has found them to be anathema to liberals and even a majority
of independents in Wisconsin. Schimel’s plan centered on getting
supporters of Trump who propelled the president to victory in
Wisconsin last fall to turn out in April as well.

Musk’s turnout operation, too, focused on energizing Trump’s
voters, offering cash payments for informing friends about the Supreme
Court race. Musk even personally took the stage in Green Bay to
proclaim that the “destiny of humanity” hinged on the outcome of
the election.

 
Elon Musk enters the stage wearing a Cheesehead during a town hall
Sunday in Green Bay.  (Jeffrey Phelps/AP Photo  //  Cap Times)
However, that effort failed to lift Schimel to victory.

Schimel opened the night by performing with his band, Four on the
Floor, shortly after the polls closed. At that time, he told
supporters at the Marriott in Waukesha that he was upbeat about his
chances.

But about an hour later, Schimel took the stage to cries of shock from
the audience, announcing he had called to concede the race to
Crawford.

Democrats, by contrast, rolled out a playbook that helped them win
four out of the last five Wisconsin Supreme Court races. They saw
surging interest among liberals, who are increasingly more likely to
vote in lower turnout races like spring elections.

 
President of College Democrats of Wisconsin, Ana Wilson and Sandy
Solo celebrate the victory of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice-elect
Susan Crawford on Election night at Park Hotel in Madison, April 1,
2025.  (Photo:  Ruthie Hauge / Cap Times)
Control of the court has national implications, as it means a majority
of left-leaning justices will hold control of the court until at least
2028. That liberal majority will hear any cases related to the
administration of the 2028 election. 

The election result also has implications for a host of other policy
areas. 

The court has agreed to take a case debating whether abortion rights
are protected by the Wisconsin Constitution. The justices also are
expected to hear a new challenge to Act 10, a 2011 law restricting the
collective bargaining rights of public sector unions.

Democrats might also mount another challenge to the allowability of
the state’s congressional maps, which dictate who voters can choose
to represent them in the U.S. House. 

The state’s justices rejected a lawsuit over the district lines for
Congress last year, but U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries,
D-N.Y., said the Wisconsin Supreme Court race was important because
“we need to be able to revisit that and have fair lines.”

 
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates Brad Schimel and Susan Crawford
participate in a debate March 12 in Milwaukee.  (Photo:  Morry
Gash/AP  //  Cap Times)
As for the election process itself, it remains to be seen whether
state lawmakers, either in the legislative or judicial branches, will
make any changes in response to the flood of cash in the high court
race.

Crawford and Schimel both benefited from a loophole allowing donors to
give unlimited amounts of money to state Republican and Democratic
parties, funds that could be transferred to the candidates themselves.

Both candidates said they were open to strengthening requirements for
when a state Supreme Court justice must recuse themselves, a fight
that will likely only intensify in the years to come.

“We need to really get serious about campaign finance reform after
the election, or else we will continue to break records,” said Nick
Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. “We
will continue to see our rules start to wither away, because everyone
wants to try and put their thumb on the scale that has enough money to
do so to try and see if they can play kingmaker and try and elect
people into these seats.”

But with the 2026 election likely to be considered a bellwether for
the midterm campaigns later that year, Anthony Chergosky, a professor
of political science at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, said
there is no reason to think electoral politics in the Dairyland will
slow down next year, even though control of the court won’t be on
the line.

“It is just truly weird that these state Supreme Court elections as
being seen as a barometer for national politics,” Chergosky said.
“But that seems to be where we are.”

_[ANDREW BAHL
[[link removed]] and ERIN
MCGROARTY [[link removed]] are
politics reporters for the Cap Times. They write about Wisconsin
politics with a focus on state government and elections.]_

* Wisconsin
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* Wisconsin Court Election
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* Wisconsin Supreme Court
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* 2025 Elections
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* Elections 2026
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* Democratic Party
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* Susan Crawford
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* Blue States
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* purple states
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* Elon Musk
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* Donald Trump
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* Money in Politics
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