Wisconsin’s Musk-backed Republican candidate loses state Supreme Court vote to liberal rival Susan Crawford

The Democratic-backed candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court defeated a challenger endorsed by President Donald Trump and backed with cash from billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday, local time, 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, defeated Republican-backed Brad Schimel in a race that broke records for spending, was on pace to be the highest-turnout Wisconsin Supreme Court election ever and became a proxy fight for the nation’s political battles.

“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,” Judge Crawford said, referring to Mr Musk. “And we won.”

Mr Trump, Mr Musk and other Republicans lined up behind Judge Schimel, a former state attorney general. Democrats including former President Barack Obama and billionaire megadonor George Soros backed Crawford.

The first major election in the country since November was seen as a litmus test of how voters feel about Mr Trump’s first months back in office and the role played by Mr Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency has torn through federal agencies and laid off thousands of workers. Mr Musk travelled to Wisconsin on Sunday to make a pitch for Judge Schimel and personally hand out to $US1 million ($1.6m) cheques to voters.

Early voting was more than 50 per cent ahead of levels seen in the state’s Supreme Court race two years ago, when majority control was also at stake.

Seven polling sites in Milwaukee ran out of ballots, or were nearly out, due to “historic turnout,” and more ballots were on their way before polls closed, said Paulina Gutierrez, the executive director of the Milwaukee Elections Commission.

Clerks all across the state, including in the city’s deep-red suburbs, reported turnout far exceeding 2023 levels.

Juge Schimel told his supporters he had conceded to Crawford, leading to yells of anger. One woman began to chant, “Cheater, cheater!”

“No,” he said. “You’ve got to accept the results.”

A state race with nationwide significance

The court can decide election-related laws and settle disputes over future election outcomes.

“Wisconsin’s a big state politically, and the Supreme Court has a lot to do with elections in Wisconsin,” Mr Trump said Monday. “Winning Wisconsin’s a big deal, so therefore the Supreme Court choice … it’s a big race.”

Judge Crawford embraced the backing of Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights advocates, running ads that highlighted Judge Schimel’s opposition to the procedure. She also attacked Judge Schimel for his ties to Mr Musk and Republicans, referring to Mr Musk as “Elon Schimel” during a debate.

Judge Schimel’s campaign tried to portray Judge Crawford as weak on crime and a puppet of Democrats who, if elected, would push to redraw congressional district boundary lines to hurt Republicans and repeal a GOP-backed state law that took collective bargaining rights away from most public workers.

Voters in Eau Claire seemed to be responding to both messages. Jim Seeger, a 68-year-old retiree, said he voted for Judge Schimel because he’s concerned about redistricting.

Jim Hazelton, a 68-year-old disabled veteran, said he had planned to abstain but voted for Judge Crawford after Mr Musk — whom he described as a “pushy billionaire” — and Mr Trump got involved.

“He’s cutting everything,” Mr Hazelton said of Mr Musk. “People need these things he’s cutting.”

What’s on the court’s agenda?

Judge Crawford’s win keeps the court under a 4-3 liberal majority, as it has been since 2023. A liberal justice is not up for election again until April 2028, ensuring liberals will either maintain or increase their hold on the court until then.

Judge Crawford took the stage Tuesday evening surrounded by the four current liberal justices, thanked each of them and hugged them.

The court likely will be deciding cases on abortion, public sector unions, voting rules and congressional district boundaries. Who controls the court also could factor into how it might rule on any future voting challenge in the perennial presidential battleground state, which raised the stakes of the race for national Republicans and Democrats.

Mr Musk and groups he funded poured more than $21 million into the contest. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, campaigned for Judge Schimel in the closing weeks and said electing him was essential to protecting the Republican agenda. Mr Trump endorsed Judge Schimel just 11 days before the election.

Last year the court declined to take up a Democratic-backed challenge to congressional lines, but Judge Schimel and Mr Musk have said that if Judge Crawford won, the court would redraw congressional districts to make them more favourable to Democrats.

Mr Musk was pushing that message on election day, both on TV and the social media platform he owns, X, urging people to cast ballots in the final hours of voting.

Judge Schimel, who leaned into his Trump endorsement in the closing days of the race, said he would not be beholden to the president or Mr Musk despite the massive spending on the race by groups that Mr Musk supports.

Judge Crawford benefited from campaign stops by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the vice presidential nominee last year, and money from billionaire megadonors including Mr Soros and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.

Record-breaking donations

The contest was the most expensive court race on record in the US, with spending nearing $US99 million, according to a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice. That broke the previous record of $51 million record, for the state’s Supreme Court race in 2023.

Musk contributed $US3 million to the campaign, while groups he funded poured in another $US18 million. Musk also gave $US1 million each to three voters who signed a petition he circulated against “activist” judges.

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

Mr Musk was silent on his X platform in the wake of Crawford’s victory, reposting a message about Vietnam and tariffs but nothing on the Supreme Court contest.

Judge Schimel leaned into his support from Mr Trump while saying he would not be beholden to the president or Musk. Democrats have centered their messaging on the spending by Musk-funded groups.

“Ultimately I think it’s going to help Susan Crawford, because people do not want to see Elon Musk buying election after election after election,” Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler said Monday. “If it works here, he’s going to do it all over the country.”

Voters weigh in on Musk and reasons for whom they backed

At a polling place in Waunakee near Madison, 39-year-old Iraq War veteran Taylor Sullivan said he voted for Judge Schimel for no reasons connected to Mr Trump or Mr Musk, but rather “because I support the police as much as Schimel does.”

In Milwaukee, 22-year-old college student Kenneth Gifford said he feels that Trump has done damage to American institutions and that Mr Musk is trying to buy votes.

“I want an actual, respectable democracy,” he said.