2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court election
Updated: Wikipedia source
The 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court election was held on April 1, 2025, to elect a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court for a ten-year term. Dane County circuit judge Susan M. Crawford defeated Waukesha County circuit judge and former state attorney general Brad Schimel, maintaining the liberal 4–3 majority on the court. Crawford was sworn in on August 1, 2025. Incumbent justice Ann Walsh Bradley chose to retire after 30 years on the court; she had been identified as a liberal and voted consistently with the liberal 4–3 majority on the court. Crawford was identified as the liberal candidate in this election, and received support from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and Democratic Party-aligned donors. Schimel was identified as a conservative and was supported by the Republican Party of Wisconsin and Republican Party-aligned donors. The election received significant national media attention and became the most expensive judicial race in United States history, with total spending over $100 million. The largest single contributor to the election, by far, was billionaire Elon Musk, who spent more than $25 million to support Schimel through political action committees. Schimel also received major contributions from conservative billionaires Diane Hendricks and Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein; on Crawford's side, billionaires George Soros and Illinois governor JB Pritzker made major donations, though their combined contributions amounted to less than 15% of Musk's funding for Schimel. Musk's involvement in the campaign further intensified interest from national media; Musk at that time was also serving as a senior advisor and "special government employee" to U.S. President Donald Trump, head of DOGE and is the owner of one of the largest social media companies in the world. In addition to his campaign donations, Musk aggressively utilized his social media presence to campaign for Schimel and to attack Crawford, and he also held a highly publicized campaign rally for Schimel in Green Bay, where he gave away two $1 million checks to Wisconsin residents in an effort to boost Republican voter turnout. While Musk's money and effort may have ultimately boosted Republican turnout, Democrats likely had a significant turnout advantage and according to an analysis by Split Ticket, "the voters who voted in the 2025 Supreme Court election backed Kamala Harris by 7 points in 2024.". Crawford won the election by about 10 percentage points, about 0.5 percentage points closer than the 2020 election and 1 point closer than the 2023 election. Because of the schedule of upcoming judicial elections in Wisconsin, Crawford's victory likely secures a liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court until at least August 2028. The turnout level seen was similar to that of a midterm election and significantly exceeded that of any previous Wisconsin Supreme Court election.