Photo courtesy of ABC News

On April 2, Democrat Susan Crawford was announced as the winner of Wisconsin Supreme Court election by 10 points over Republican opponent Brad Schimel. The opening of this seat was left vacant after Justice Ann Walsh Bradley retired from the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2025 after serving since 1995. Crawford will be serving a 10-year term, ensuring that Democrats keep a 4-3 majority of the Court for at least 3 more years. 

Before being elected to the Court, Crawford served as a Dane County circuit judge since 2018. Crawford had significant financial and grassroots support, but her opponent Schimel had the backing of billionaire Elon Musk. 

Frequently putting himself in positions of political influence, Musk exorbitantly supported Schimel in his campaign, attempting to buy the Court with millions of dollars. Known for his founding of DOGE, Musk has found himself heavily involved in politics by drastically cutting government spending and institutions. 

Musk and affiliated Political action committees (PAC) spent a combined 21 million dollars attempting to flip the court to a conservative majority. America PAC, supported by Musk spent at least $6 million on vendors who sent door-to-door pro-Schimel canvassers across the state according to the non-partisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

On March 30, Musk held a rally in Green Bay with 2,000 attendees. He promoted $20 to anyone who signed up on his group’s site to knock on doors for Schimel and posted a photo of themselves as proof. His organization promised $100 to every voter who signed the petition against “activist judges.”

The comprehensive amount of money spent on this campaign resulted in 75 million in total spending, making this the most expensive judicial contest in U.S. history.

Crawford centered her campaign around being impartial, claiming that “any case that comes before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, I’m going to decide based on the law and not some partisan agenda … I’m not going to be making any decisions based on my policy views or any kind of political agenda. I’m going to be basing them on what the constitution requires, and the law requires.”

In an effort to push back against Musk’s overwhelming financial contributions, Democrats allocated large donations in efforts to garner public support. The veteran liberal financier George Soros donated 2 million. Billionaire Governor of Ilinois JB Pritzker donated 1.5 million as well.

The huge amount of campaign spending and intense “get out the vote” efforts helped drive voter turnout to a record high, with over 50% of the voting-age population showing up to vote.

When the results were announced that Crawford was the next Supreme Court Justice, Brad Schimel took the stage at his watch party admitting his defeat. Angry crowds began angrily chanting, and one woman screamed out “cheater,” alluding to Crawford.

Schimel denied that comment fairly quickly saying, “No,” he responded. “You’ve got to accept the results,” he said. 

People frequently claim election fraud, but it stands out more now because the country is intensely divided between those who trust political results and those who don’t.

“Today Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections and our Supreme Court,” Crawford said in her victory speech. “And Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price, our courts are not for sale,” Crawford said.

“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 for justice in Wisconsin,” Crawford told supporters Tuesday night. “And we won,” she added.

Despite mixed feelings about the results, this judicial race was monumental in many ways.