OCONOMOWOC – With just two weeks to go before the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, two heavy hitters in President Donald Trump’s circle took the stage to back conservative candidate Brad Schimel.
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and Turning Point Action founder Charlie Kirk made their pitch to an audience of hundreds, framing the contest as bigger than one race in a Midwestern state in an off-year election.
Kirk quoted a Wall Street Journal story that called the race the most important contest of 2025. On April 1, Schimel will go head-to-head with liberal Dane County Judge Susan Crawford for a seat on the seven-member court that will determine whether liberals or conservatives hold a majority.
Conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel joins Donald Trump Jr. and Turning Point Action founder Charlie Kirk on stage during a Monday night event to rally supporters two weeks before the April 1 election.
“We understand that these kinds of races that people don’t always hear about,” Kirk said, noting Wisconsin’s status as a closely divided swing state. “They can tip the scales of the entire future of the republic.”
More: Behind the scenes of the Supreme Court race, a ‘turf war’ simmers between Wisconsin GOP and Turning Point
Trump Jr. emphasized that judges in several states have issued orders that sidetracked actions by his father’s administration in the first six weeks of his presidency. He said voters in Wisconsin need to make sure that doesn’t happen here.
He called Crawford a “radical leftist.”
“You have to engage because it’s not just about now; it’s about that future,” Trump Jr. said. “This presidency can be put to a halt with this vote.”
Joe Oslund, spokesman for the state Democratic Party, issued a statement in response to Trump Jr.’s visit, saying Schimel “was busy bending the knee to Trump — any Trump he can find.”
Both political parties and their donors have funneled millions of dollars into the race to back their candidate and, critically, determine whether the court remains in liberal control or flips back to conservatives.
An election watchdog group expects the price tag for the race could ultimately top $100 million, doubling the record-breaking spending from the race for the high court just two years ago.
Yet, in recent weeks a Marquette University Law School poll found a large percentage of Wisconsin voters still don’t have an opinion about the two candidates.
Kirk noted the lack of awareness of the race, urging those present to text conservatives in their networks urging them to turn out.
“What a tragedy it will be if we lose this race, because it will not be that we don’t outnumber them,” he said. “It’s just that we have not been able to convert our people into votes, convert our individuals into real momentum and real enthusiasm.”
Trump has not endorsed in the race.
But his billionaire ally, Elon Musk, is underwriting groups that link the conservative candidate to the president. One mailer by Musk’s super PAC says Schimel will back Trump on the bench.
“President Trump is making America great again,” says a second flyer by America PAC obtained by the Journal Sentinel. “Brad Schimel will support his agenda.”
Overall, two groups that Musk funds have poured more than $11 million into the effort to get Schimel elected in a race that could serve as the first referendum on the new Trump presidency.
Schimel has let his support for the 47th president be known in recent months.
He dressed up as Trump in his garbage worker outfit — a nod to Trump’s donning of a reflective vest during the 2024 presidential campaign — while playing bass with his band at a Halloween party last year. He attended Trump’s inauguration earlier this year. Just this past weekend, he posed with an oversized, inflated Trump with a “Vote Brad Schimel Supreme Court” poster on its chest.
In a private talk last month, Schimel told supporters at a Jefferson County meet and greet that he and his team had talked with Trump’s political director recently. He said he would like for Trump to come to Wisconsin for a rally this month.
“That’s a big dream to have a rally here,” Schimel said on Feb. 11. “But I think the odds of an endorsement are probably pretty high because, you know, one thing he doesn’t do is forget people that screw him over, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court screwed him over.”
Schimel’s campaign has said he was referring to the Supreme Court’s decision not to allow a Green Party candidate on the presidential ballot in 2020. The hope was that the liberal, third-party candidate would siphon off votes from Democrat Joe Biden, who edged out Trump in that election.
At the Oconomowoc rally on Monday, Trump Jr. repeated the conspiracy theory that he believes his father actually won four years ago.
“I think we won in 2020,” Trump Jr. said to a burst of applause. “I don’t think anyone actually questions that.”
Wisconsin elected Biden in 2020 by about 21,000 votes after favoring Trump by a similar margin just four years earlier. The outcome of the presidential contest was confirmed by recounts Trump paid for, court rulings, a nonpartisan state audit and a study by a prominent conservative group.
Alison Dirr can be reached at [email protected].
Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684 or [email protected]. Follow him on X at @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brad Schimel gets Donald Trump Jr.’s backing in WI Supreme Court race
