The first big election since President Donald Trump’s 2024 victory has arrived – and Elon Musk is front-and-center.
Voters in Wisconsin, one of the nation’s most critical battleground states, will decide on April 1 whether their state Supreme Court will have a liberal or conservative majority. The technically nonpartisan race has turned into a high-stakes partisan proxy fight with national ramifications. The race has attracted record sums of money and resources, with the lion’s share coming from Mr. Musk, who recently said the race could “decide the fate of the country.”
On that point, at least, Democrats largely agree. They have cast the race as an early test of their ability to defend their democracy from the Trump administration’s assault – and sought to use Mr. Musk’s heavy involvement to motivate their base.
Why We Wrote This
State Supreme Court races don’t usually get much attention – but in this battleground state, with a congressional map at stake, the stakes are high for both sides. Tuesday’s election in Wisconsin will also be a key early test of which party is more energized.
“The Wisconsin Supreme Court race is the first test since November of whether Musk and Trump can buy American democracy – or whether people who believe the country shouldn’t just work for far-right billionaires can get up off the mat and fight back,” Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler tells the Monitor.
Whoever wins the race between liberal judge Susan Crawford and conservative Judge Brad Schimel, a Republican former state attorney general, will give their side a majority on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court – and the power to decide some major issues that stretch far past Wisconsin.
President Trump endorsed Mr. Schimel’s campaign last Friday, a move that longtime strategists in both parties say hasn’t happened in decades, if ever. Mr. Trump attacked Judge Crawford on Truth Social as “the handpicked voice of the Leftists who are out to destroy your State, and our Country,” warning that if she wins, “the Movement to restore our Nation will bypass Wisconsin.”
Jovanny Hernandez/USA Today Network/Reuters
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates Judge Susan Crawford and Judge Brad Schimel respond to questions during a debate in Milwaukee, March 12, 2025.
One top issue – which Mr. Musk cited as the reason for his big spending – is whether Wisconsin’s gerrymandered congressional map remains in place. Republicans currently hold six of eight House seats in a state that’s evenly divided between the two parties, largely because of a congressional map drawn by statehouse Republicans. If that map gets struck down by a liberal-majority court, a new map could help decide which party wins control of the House in 2026.
