Susan Crawford, who was endorsed by the Democratic Party, won the closely-watched Wisconsin Supreme Court race Tuesday night in what was the most expensive judicial election in American history.
What would have normally been a sleepy nonpartisan judicial race turned into an expensive battle between Crawford, a Dane County judge, and Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel, who was endorsed by the Republican Party. The campaigns and their supporters have spent more than $81 million, attracting endorsements and campaign appearances from Elon Musk, Vermont Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders and other national political figures.
With 70% of the vote in, Crawford led Schimel by 55% to 44%, a margin of about 189,000 votes.
The race was seen by some as an early swing-state test of voter sentiment related to President Trump’s performance in the White House, but also a crucial statewide race that could swing ideological control of Wisconsin’s closely divided highest court.
Going into the race, liberals held a 4-3 majority, and the court is expected to consider cases related to abortion rights, congressional redistricting, union power and voting and election rules.
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By Monday morning, 644,800 advance ballots had been returned, representing about a 40% increase over the advance total in Wisconsin’s 2023 judicial race, and that year also set a turnout record. About a third of advance ballots so far have come from heavily Democratic counties of Milwaukee and Dane, in the Madison area, and that’s roughly in line with their share of the advance vote in 2023.
Nineteen percent of advance ballots had come from the WOW counties in the Milwaukee suburbs of Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington, which is a couple of points higher than their share in 2023.
Given that the more liberal candidate won the 2023 race by double digits, the early turnout numbers looked good for Crawford. But the bulk of the voting occurred on Election Day.
Musk, the world’s wealthiest person and an ally to Mr. Trump, personally campaigned and spent big in an effort to sway voters toward Schimel, who both he and Mr. Trump have endorsed.
That effort nearly collided with the justices currently seated on the state’s Supreme Court, when Musk was sued over his promise to hand out $1 million to individual voters at a campaign event over the weekend.
The court unanimously declined on Sunday to hear a last-minute attempt by the state’s Democratic attorney general to stop billionaire Musk’s checks from going out. At a rally soon after the decision, Musk handed two people oversized posters depicting $1 million checks, declaring that the money was payment in exchange for promises they’d be spokespeople for his political group.
Five of the court’s seven justices have endorsed a candidate in the race. The court’s liberal justices have endorsed Crawford. One of the court’s conservative justices has endorsed Schimel, who wore a “Make America Great Again” hat while campaigning Sunday.
Polls in Wisconsin closed Tuesday at 8 p.m., which is also the deadline to get absentee ballots to municipal clerks.
Kabir Khanna
contributed to this report.
