Liberal Susan Crawford has won the race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, an election in which the richest person in the world featured prominently and one that could determine the future of abortion in the state.
Crawford defeated conservative candidate Brad Schimel, Decision Desk HQ projected, guaranteeing liberals will hold control of the highest court in a critical swing state.
The result of Tuesday’s election is a major victory for Democrats and a rebuke of billionaire Elon Musk, a key ally of President Donald Trump who poured millions into the state supporting Schimel.
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Crawford, a Dane County Circuit Court judge, defeated Schimel, a Waukesha County Circuit Court judge, for a 10-year term, meaning that liberals will continue to hold a 4-3 majority on the high court, which is poised to decide important cases on abortion, labor rights and the state’s congressional maps.
Supreme Court races in Wisconsin, while technically nonpartisan, have become increasingly political and have seen record amounts of outside spending as the U.S. Supreme Court has delegated hot-button issues like abortion to the states.
The candidates and outside groups spent nearly $100 million in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race, setting a new record for the most expensive judicial race in American history.
The Wisconsin race was viewed by both sides as an early referendum on Trump’s second term and on Musk, who became a flashpoint in the race and a bogeyman for Crawford and Democrats, who accused him of trying to “buy” the Supreme Court seat.
Musk, the public face of the federal job and spending cuts undertaken by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been vocally castigating the federal judges he believes are standing in his way and putting his personal wealth toward reshaping the balance of power in the states.
Musk’s two affiliated political groups, Building America’s Future and America PAC, spent over $20 million supporting Schimel. Musk’s groups also paid voters $100 for signing petitions opposing “activist judges,” reprising a tactic he deployed in the 2024 presidential election. Two voters won $1 million and were named spokespeople of Musk’s America PAC.
“It’s really disappointing to see that, and it is really making people mad,” Crawford told The 19th at a campaign stop March 22. “And so I think what we’re seeing a lot of at these appearances is a reaction to people not wanting to have some outsider billionaire like that come in and try to buy a seat on the Supreme Court.”
Spring judicial elections in Wisconsin are typically lower in turnout and draw the highest-engaged, most frequent voters, a segment of the electorate that, in recent years, has skewed increasingly Democratic.
Also on Tuesday, Florida held special elections for two deep-red congressional districts vacated by former Reps. Matt Gaetz and Michael Waltz, who is serving as national security adviser in Trump’s administration.
In Florida’s 6th District, Republican Randy Fine defeated Democrat Josh Weil — whose campaign drew nationwide attention and eye-popping fundraising numbers — by 14 points in a district that Trump and Waltz carried by over 30 in 2024. In Florida’s 1st District, Republican Jimmy Patronis defeated his Democratic opponent by 15 points in a district Gaetz carried by 32.
Both parties viewed the Wisconsin election as a critical bellwether for statewide elections in New Jersey and Virginia in November and the 2026 midterms. The result in Wisconsin comes on the heels of Democratic overperformances in state legislative special elections, including flipping a deep-red state Senate seat in Pennsylvania last week.
