Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford defeated former Republican Attorney General and Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel late Tuesday in the race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, maintaining the court’s liberal majority.
As of 9:46 p.m. Tuesday, Crawford had 54.8% of the vote compared to Schimel's 45.2% with 75% of the vote in. Crawford’s victory maintains the liberal majority on the court after Justice Janet Protasiewicz flipped the court in 2023 for the first time in 15 years. Crawford will begin her 10-year term on the court on Aug 1.
Crawford thanked the people of Wisconsin for trusting her to serve on the Supreme Court and Schimel for conceding the race.
“I’m so grateful to have earned the trust and support of voters across this state,” Crawford said. “My promise to Wisconsin is clear: I will be a fair, impartial and common-sense justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.”
The Associated Press called the race for Crawford at 9:16 p.m. only an hour after the polls closed.
Wisconsin Supreme Court race breaks national spending records
This election surpassed spending totals in Protasiewicz’s 2023 race, which was previously the most expensive judicial race in the state and nation’s history. While previously the record was approximately $56 million, Crawford and Schimel have almost doubled that number surpassing $90 million spent and are likely to reach $100 million.
That $90 million is made up of more than $40 million from Crawford and groups supporting her and almost $50 million from Schimel and groups supporting him.
Notably, Elon Musk and groups affiliated with him have spent almost $20 million supporting Schimel in this race. America PAC, a Musk-affiliated group, has spent more than $12 million, and Building America’s Future, another group linked to him, has spent almost $6 million.
Musk also handed out $1 million payments to two Wisconsin voters after the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear a case requesting to stop him on Sunday, two days before the election.
“I am super excited for the state of Wisconsin because it just goes to show that Wisconsin voters cannot be bought, and we are going to stand up for our voters every single day,” Senate Democratic leader Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, told The Daily Cardinal Tuesday night. “It makes me so happy that even with Elon Musk’s millions of dollars, the voters of Wisconsin did what they needed to do, and we’re going to be having a fair and impartial justice on the Supreme Court.”
Surge in voter turnout in Supreme Court race
More than twice as many voters cast in-person absentee ballots on the first day of early voting compared to the previous Supreme Court race in 2023.
There has been a 54% increase in votes cast absentee or early in-person since the last Supreme Court election. The number of people using the early in-person voting option in the state has increased by 102%, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Clara Strecker is a copy chief for The Daily Cardinal. She also covers state news.
