Susan Crawford won a siege at the Supreme Wisconsin Court, NBC News Projects, allowing Liberals to maintain their narrow majority on the highest courtyard of the battlefield – and defying Elon Musk after spending millions of dollars to oppose it.
Crawford, a County Dane County Judge who was supported by the Democrats, obtained a 10 -year term in the Brad Schimel court, a County County Judge of Waukesha and a former republican general prosecutor. Like the first Major state elections of the battlefield The second term of President Donald Trump, the technically non-partisan competition drew national attention and has become the most expensive Supreme Court race in the history of the United States.
The result is a setback for Trump and his billionaire advisor, Musk. Trump approved Schimel in the last section of the race, while Musk injected himself at the center of the latter, spending huge sums of money, visiting the days of Wisconsin after election day and frequently publishing the race on his X flow. In turn, democrats and progressive groups have made musk their main villain, attacking his influence and his efforts to reduce and the government through the government’s Ministry of Effectiveness.
“As a little girl who grew up in Chippewa Falls, I could never have imagined that I would adopt the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin,” Crawford told supporters on Tuesday evening. “And we won.”
In a brief concession speech, Schimel said: “I knew I had to put it all”, but that “you have to accept the results”.
Crawford’s victory also means that the Liberals will maintain an advantage of 4-3 in the court for at least a year, including a term where it could decide on affairs on abortion rights, unions and collective negotiation rights, as well as the Congress and Rediscovering cards.
Despite the more than $ 15 million than Musk and the groups affiliated with him dropped into the race, the Democrats have generally held a close advantage of advertising expenses, according to Adimpact.
Groups aligned by democratic spent millions of dollars by exploding Musk as “trying to buy” Schimel and the elections, while Crawford herself used Musk as a sheet on the events of her campaign several times. The Wisconsin Democratic Party launched a town tour nicknamed “People c. Musk ”, on which substitutes, including the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, struck Musk and Doge.
Some also pointed out that Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, continued the Wisconsin this year by contesting a law of the State prohibiting car manufacturers from having dealers. The case could be found before the Supreme Court of the State.
Democrats also attacked the $ 100 Musk offer to Wisconsin voters to sign a petition to oppose “militant judges”. The Attorney General of the Democratic State, Josh Kaul, tried to block Musk to give people $ 1 million to be “spokespersons” for the petition during a rally on Sunday.
Conversely, the left -wing groups remained largely away from the race about Trump, who barely worn in two of the last three presidential elections.
The anti-MUSC game book is the one that Democrats could seek to reproduce in other elections this year and in the midst of 2026.
Schimel adopted Trump in the last days of the race, a move of the strategists said that it was intended to try to justify a conservative participation.
In addition to disseminating advertisements praising Trump’s approval, Schimel appeared during a town hall event in March with Donald Trump Jr. and said to a group of paintings From the Conservative group Turning Point USA that Trump needs a “support network” around him to help him fight the myriads of combinations with which his administration has been confronted.
Each party has tried to paint their opponent as a gentle crime – even if the Supreme Court of the State rarely hears cases on the conviction – while Crawford also attacked Schimel in advertisements concentrated On the allegations according to which the Department of Justice of the State has poorly managed the maintenance of thousands of rape kits under its watch general.
In addition to Musk, the left -wing groups made Crawford support for reproduction rights a central theme of their ads and messages. Rights to abortion and the fate of the prohibition of state abortion in 1849 were hot subjects due to a pair of business already in court.
The Supreme Court of the State heard a dispute of the ban in November and should largely cancel the law, but before Crawford was sworn in August. APROTUREURS OF APPROVAL IN THE CONDITION taken up the procedure In 2023, after a judge judged that the 175 -year law did not apply to consensual medical abortions, but the Supreme Court of the State examined the opportunity to invalidate it entirely.
There is also a separate case in which Planned Parenthood has directly asked the court to determine whether the constitution of the State has established a right to an abortion. The court that Crawford sits could hear this affair.
In addition, the court should also end up deciding on a case contesting historical legislation during the administration of the Republican Governor Scott Walker who eliminated collective negotiations for most officials, known as law name.
And the court could end up deciding on the cases contesting the cards of the state congress, which promote the Republicans.
After the liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz joined the court in 2023, he overturned the GERRYMandered of the State Legislative maps. The courtyard refused last year to hear An action that sought to redraw the Congress cards.
But many Republicans have expressed their fear that similar combinations can be accepted in the future, pointing to an email of An aligned democratic group that suggested that a crawford victory could “put two other seats at home at stake”. The subject, as well as this email, have become a theme of some of the announcements broadcast by external groups aligned by Schimel.
The Liberals won a majority at the Supreme Court of Wisconsin for the first time in 15 years in 2023. The majority was again at stake this year after the Liberal justice Ann Walsh Bradley announced his retirement. The elections of the Supreme Court of the State are also planned in Wisconsin each year from 2026 to 2030.
Further in the Wisconsin ballot
Meanwhile, in the nominally non -partial school breed of the state, race, outgoing, outgoing, Jill, which was supported by the State Democratic Party, beat Brittany Kinser, who had the support of conservative groups, NBC News Projects.
This breed was also largely defined by the role that Musk played in reducing the workforce of the federal government, and the competition took on increased importance in the weeks following Trumpignored a decree To dismantle the American education department.
Wisconsin voters have also approved a proposed modification to devote a law on the identification of voters existing in the constitution of the State, NBC News Projects.
The measure will add a language to the Constitution from a 2011 measure, obliging voters to provide an identity document when they vote or request correspondence ballots.
The conservatives declared that they had sought to consecrate the law of the Constitution of the State to make it more difficult to demolish in the future. The Republicans also hoped that this would help stimulate electoral participation for the Supreme Court of the State.