Susan Crawford elected to Wisconsin Supreme Court — keeping bench in liberal hands after most expensive judicial race of all time

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court will keep its narrow liberal majority after Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford edged out victory in one of the most closely-watched state judicial races in years — and the most expensive of all time.

While the election was technically nonpartisan, the Democratic Party and liberal groups threw their support behind Crawford, while Republicans and their allies lined up behind Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County circuit judge and the Badger State’s former attorney general under GOP Gov. Scott Walker.

Crawford will now serve a 10-year term on the seven-member court, which has a 4-3 split in favor of liberal justices over conservatives.

Control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court had been viewed as vital by GOP and Democratic operatives alike due to the potential impact on issues like congressional redistricting, abortion, and the rights of public sector unions.

Limited polling had shown a tight race between the two contenders, with Crawford consistently, if narrowly, ahead.

Conservatives had held the edge on the court for more than a decade prior to the election of liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz in 2023.

After that vote, the state’s high court decided not to revisit the state’s Republican-supported congressional map, but the justices are looking at state legislative maps also supported by the GOP — with redistricting poised to re-emerge as an issue following the 2030 census.

Crawford and Schimel were running to replace liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, who declined to seek a fourth term after first being elected to the court in 1995.

Wisconsin has a Democratic governor and attorney general, but Republicans control the state legislature, and this election was widely seen as breaking the tie for control of state government in Madison.

President Trump, who won the Badger State in the November election, endorsed Schimel and his close ally, Elon Musk, traveled to Wisconsin this past weekend and opened up his checkbook to help buoy the conservative’s campaign.

Musk dusted off similar tactics to the ones he deployed in swing states like Pennsylvania during the 2024 campaign, offering prize money of up to $1 million to locals who backed a petition against “activist judges.”

Trump also repeatedly blasted out messages on his social media platform urging Wisconsin voters to back Schimel.

“Brad Schimel is running against Radical Left Liberal Susan Crawford, who has repeatedly given child molesters, rapists, women beaters, and domestic abusers ‘light’ sentences,” the president wrote on Truth Social last month.

“She is the handpicked voice of the Leftists who are out to destroy your State, and our Country — And if she wins, the Movement to restore our Nation will bypass Wisconsin.”

Total spending in the race topped $90 million, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice — with at least $22 million spent by Crawford’s campaign, $12 million by Musk’s America PAC and $11 million by Schimel’s campaign.

Overall, the center’s analysis found Schimel had the edge in terms of outside spending, with almost $50 million behind him, compared to $40 million helping Crawford.