Liberal Judge Crawford Wins Wisconsin Supreme Court Seat
Liberal candidate Susan Crawford has won the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, preserving a liberal majority on the swing state’s highest court.
Crawford, a circuit court judge in Dane County, defeated Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County circuit court judge and former Republican state attorney general.
The election to replace 73-year-old Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, who announced her retirement nearly one year ago, was cast in part as a referendum on billionaire Elon Musk, who poured millions into the race to help Schimel. The winner goes on to serve a 10-year term.
Although the race was officially nonpartisan, clear ideological differences separated Crawford and Schimel, including on labor rights, abortion access and President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons, among others, as well as the groups that backed them. A slew of prominent Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, billionaire megadonor George Soros backed Crawford, Trump, Musk and other Republicans lined up behind Schimel.
Susan Crawford, who led legal fights to protect union power and abortion rights and to oppose voter ID, stood on stage surrounded by the court’s four current liberal justices and celebrated her win as a victory for democracy while also taking a dig at Musk.
“Growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I would be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin,” Crawford said. “And we won.”
Crawford defeated Republican-backed Brad Schimel in a race that broke records for spending, was the highest-turnout Wisconsin Supreme Court election ever and became a proxy fight for the nation’s political battles.
“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.”
Tuesday’s result is likely to have far-reaching consequences on hot-button issues like abortion and voting rights in the battleground state and settle disputes over future election outcomes.
Crawford’s win keeps the court under a 4-3 liberal majority, as it has been since 2023. A liberal justice is not up for election again until April 2028, ensuring liberals will either maintain or increase their hold on the court until then.
Crawford thanked each of the current liberal justices and hugged each of them after her win. One of the four is retiring, creating the open seat she won.
The court likely will be deciding cases on abortion, public sector unions, voting rules and congressional district boundaries. Who controls the court also could factor into how it might rule on any future voting challenge in the perennial presidential battleground state, which raised the stakes of the race for national Republicans and Democrats.
