Democrat-backed Judge Susan Crawford won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday after a closely monitored race that became a proxy battle between President Donald Trump’s administration and the opposition.
The contest also became a litmus test of Trump and Elon Musk’s political influence, pouring millions of dollars into supporting Republican-backed conservative Brad Simmell, his allies, the wealthiest man in the world and Crawford’s opponent.
This happened and why it matters:
Susan Crawford won the Wisconsin Supreme Court election
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has seven judges. Until last year, four of them brought liberals and three conservatives. A free judge then announced his retirement, emptied one seat and urged the vote on Tuesday.
The federal and state Supreme Courts are nonpartisan and are believed to be in line with either party. But there are liberal judges supported by Republican-backed Democrats and conservative judges. And often, they vote as expected along ideological boundaries.
Therefore, both parties attempt to stack high courts with those who believe they support their policies.
The Wisconsin race was between Crawford County Judge and Simel, the former state Republican Attorney General, and he was also a county judge.
Crawford won the election and maintained a liberal majority of the four courts. According to the Associated Press, she was counted 98% of her votes and last. The AP declared the race courtesy of Crawford.
Trump won Wisconsin in the 2024 presidential election
Wisconsin was in the swing state in the November 2024 election, with Trump beating former Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris by 0.8 percentage points.
Trump’s victory was important as Wisconsin is considered a blue wall condition and Democrats have secured its place in modern American history. From 1992 to 2012, Wisconsin always voted for Democrats in the presidential election. In the 2016 election, Trump flipped Wisconsin along with other Blue Wall States, Pennsylvania and Michigan states. All three were won in 2020 by former Democrat President Joe Biden. Trump won three states again last November.
Prior to the Wisconsin vote, Simel gained support from Trump. On March 22nd, Trump posted in favor of a conservative candidate on his true social platform.
“Brad Simel runs against the radical left liberal Susan Crawford, who repeatedly gave “light” sentences of child abusers, rapists, female beaters and family abusers,” Trump wrote. He called Crawford “a select voice of the left.”
“All voters who believe in common sense should come out to vote for Brad Simel early,” Trump wrote.
A big loss for Musk
Musk and political groups associated with him have spent more than $201 million to support Brad Simel. Musk also paid three voters $1 million each to sign a petition against the “activist judge.”
The owners of Tesla and SpaceX are handling the Government Efficiency Cost Reduction Division (DOGE), which became prominent during the Trump election last year and is now laying off tens of thousands of federal employees.
Crawford and her supporter Democrats used masks as a debate in her campaign, claiming that the billionaires were “buying” the election. Tuesday’s race broke the record for the most expensive judicial race in US history.
Overall spending on the race was nearly $999 million, according to a tally from the Brennan Center for Justice. Previously, the records were held in 2023 by a state Supreme Court competition, where $51 million was spent.
According to the Brennan Center, Crawford spent $28 million as a candidate, while Simel spent $15 million. But both received large sums of funds from their allies. If Musk and his group supported Shimmel’s candidacy, several wealthy liberal donors fund Crawford’s campaign. “Elon Musk isn’t good at this,” Pritzker wrote in an X post, pointing to Crawford’s victory after the results came.
Musk, who spent about $250 million to support Trump during the presidential election, has pledged to pay $20 for $20 volunteers to each voter he hired before Tuesday’s vote. He also offered voters $100 in exchange for uploading a photo of someone who gestates his thumb while holding a photo of Shimmel.
Additionally, Musk held a Simmell campaign rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Approximately 2,000 people appeared there. But in Brown County, home to Green Bay, Crawford defeated Simel. Trump had 7% points in the county in the presidential election.
Musk has yet to make public comments about Crawford’s election victory.
Voter ID edits approved by Wisconsin voters
But Musk posted to X about how the amendment that added a voter ID requirement to Wisconsin’s constitution has been over. “This was the most important thing,” he wrote.
This was the most important thing https://t.co/x99nunhuka
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2025
For almost a decade, state laws have required voters to have photo IDs, but once they are engraved in the constitution, it makes it even more difficult to return to the rules.
Conservatives have argued that they will prevent voter fraud in pursuit of national amendments. Democrat leaders oppose the amendment and claim they discourage certain voters, including students, older voters and black voters. According to a fact sheet from the Brennan Center, the study proves that non-white people are less likely to carry their IDs to the vote. Democrats have long relied on such people as their primary support base.
Jill was fundamentally re-elected as Wisconsin chief
Separately, Democrat-backed Jill fundamentally defeated Republican-backed Brittany Kinser and continued to lead the state’s public leadership department.
The department is responsible for handling public education in the state.
A underlying victory comes just days after Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education and made education a state’s responsibility, not the federal government.
Why was the Wisconsin Supreme Court competition so important?
Tuesday’s vote was the first major election in the country since November, and was a test of Trump’s presidency and an impact on his swing state.
The election was also a test of the extent to which Musk could use funds to influence election outcomes. It also decided who held ideological control of the state’s Supreme Court.