OAN Staff James Meyers
11:20 AM – Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Susan Crawford, who was endorsed by the Democrat Party, won the highly anticipated Wisconsin Supreme Court race on Tuesday night. The race was the most expensive judicial election in American history.
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Crawford, who is a liberal circuit court judge in Dane County, beat the conservative candidate Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County judge who received President Donald Trump’s backing in the final stretch of the campaign. The race was officially nonpartisan, but Crawford’s victory has been seen as a major win for Democrats in Wisconsin as voters handed Trump’s preferred candidate a defeat.
Crawford had far-left billionaires such as George Soros, Reid Hoffman, J.B. Pritzker, donate millions of dollars to her campaign.
On the other side, front and center was Tesla founder Elon Musk who held a rally in Green Bay over the weekend campaigning for Schimel.
“I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world, for justice in Wisconsin. And we won,” Crawford said in her victory speech, in her home base of Madison, Wisconsin.
While pushing back against her critics, Crawford said “my promise to Wisconsin is clear. I will be a fair, impartial, and commonsense justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.”
Her opponent conceded minutes after the Associated Press called the race, telling supporters in suburban Milwaukee that he spoke with Crawford and that “the numbers aren’t going to turn around and we’re not going to pull this off.”
“We’ll get up to fight another day. But this wasn’t our day,” he added.
Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, donated $20 million in the Wisconsin race through aligned groups in support of Schimel.
He also gave out $1 million checks at a rally in Green Bay on Sunday evening to two Wisconsin voters who had already cast ballots in the contest and had signed a petition to stop “activist judges.”
Musk wasn’t the only mega-donor on the right taking part in the Wisconsin showdown.
Shipping magnates Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, who are among the biggest conservative contributors in the nation, also provided millions in support of Schimel and the Wisconsin GOP.
Trump, who won Wisconsin in both of his White House victories, said the Badger State is important because its Supreme Court can settle disputes over election outcomes.
“Wisconsin’s a big state politically, and the Supreme Court has a lot to do with elections in Wisconsin,” the president said Monday at the White House. “Winning Wisconsin’s a big deal, so, therefore, the Supreme Court choice … it’s a big race.”
Prior to the results, conservatives argued that if Crawford won the race Democrats would continue having a liberal majority in Wisconsin’s high court could lead to unfavorable congressional redistricting in the state. This could cause major trouble for two Republican legislators: Representatives Derrick Van Orden and Bryan Steil, chair of the House Administration Committee.
Tuesday’s big election was the first statewide contest since Trump took back to the White House.
Crawford and Schimel were battling to succeed liberal-leaning Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, who has served on Wisconsin’s highest court for almost 30 years. Liberal-aligned justices held a 4-3 majority on the state Supreme Court heading into Tuesday’s election.
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