Democratic-backed Susan Crawford wins Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, cementing liberal majority

Democratic-backed candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court defeated a challenger endorsed by President Trump and Elon Musk on April 1, touting her victory as a win against powerful interests and cementing a liberal majority for at least three more years.

The Democratic-backed candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court defeated a challenger endorsed by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday, touting her victory as a win against powerful interests and cementing a liberal majority for at least three more years.

Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge 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,” Ms. Crawford said. “And we won.”

Mr. Musk and groups he backed had spent more than $21 million in an effort to defeat Ms. Crawford. He even traveled to Wisconsin two days before the election to personally hand over $1 million checks to two voters.

“Today Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections and our Supreme Court,” Ms. 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.”

Ms. 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.

Overnight, Mr. Musk posted on his X platform that “The long con of the left is corruption of the judiciary.” In another comment, he seemed to take solace from voters’ approval to elevate the state’s photo ID requirement from state law to constitutional amendment.