Crawford Dominates Schimel

By EZEKIEL KINGSBURY and ERIC SEO

Despite $25 million invested in Brad Schimel’s campaign, Elon Musk failed to help him electorally in the slightest. In fact, some voters cited Musk’s involvement as cause for supporting Susan Crawford. Schimel lost to Crawford by 10 points last Tuesday, and many pundits are casting this race as indicative of the public’s broader feelings about the presidential administration. When asked about how they felt about Crawford’s victory, Svea Jones’25 said “Yippee yippee yippee yippee!”

But such punditry existed in the 2022 midterms and failed to produce a win for Democrats in 2024. Further, while Wisconsin voters chose the progressive over the conservative candidate for state Supreme Court, they still voted to pass a referendum to require ID to vote, which Crawford opposed. The referendum was posed by progressives as an attempt to make it harder for Wisconsinites to vote, as Wisconsin already requires a valid form of identification to register. The referendum limits the ability to use non-photo forms of ID. 

Crawford’s election cements the progressive hold of the state Supreme Court first established by Janet Protasiewicz’s win last Spring. With Crawford on the bench, the court will likely be deciding cases on abortion, public sector unions, voting rules and congressional district boundaries.

_{Featured image: Elisa Turner’27}