Susan Crawford defeats Brad Schimel, preserves liberal majority on Wisconsin Supreme Court

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford has been elected to serve on Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court, defeating conservative Brad Schimel and preserving a 4-3 liberal majority on the court.

NBC News called the race at 9:08 p.m. CST, a little over an hour after polls closed. As of 9:15 p.m., Crawford obtained 56% of the vote compared to Schimel’s 44%.

Crawford’s win comes after a fire hose of spending for both candidates that neared $100 million prior to Election Day, shattering the spending for the 2023 Supreme Court race ($51.06 million) and being the most expensive judicial election in American history. Elon Musk, President Trump’s advisor at the center of mass government layoffs, helped spend more than $17 million in support of Schimel and held a rally last Sunday for the conservative candidate.

Crawford also received her share of donations, with billionaires George Soros and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) giving over $1 million each to her campaign.

Schimel formerly served as Wisconsin’s attorney general under Gov. Scott Walker (R), when he was criticized for neglecting and publicly lying about a backlog of untested rape kits in the state. Schimel, an avid Trump supporter, also publicly weighed his thoughts on several upcoming state Supreme Court cases, including the 1849 abortion law which he called valid.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is set to rule on several key issues in the coming months and years, including congressional redistricting, abortion access and collective bargaining rights for unions. With Crawford’s win, the liberal majority will likely be preserved until 2028, when Rebecca Dallet’s ten-year term expires. Conservative Justices Rebecca Bradley (2026), Annette Ziegler (2027) and Brian Hagedorn (2029) all face expiring terms before the 2030.