DemDaily: Win in Wisconsin
April 2, 2025
In a victory that reverberated nationwide, voters in Wisconsin decisively elected Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford, a Democrat, to the state Supreme Court -- securing its liberal majority and sending a clear message of rebuke against the contempt for law and judicial authority by President Donald Trump's administration.
In the officially non-partisan race for a 10-year term to succeed longtime liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, Crawford resoundingly defeated former state’s Attorney General and Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel (R) 55%-45%.
The judicial contest in the critical presidential battleground state, which Trump won by less than 1% in 2024, was considered among the most consequential of the 2025 elections -- with the fate of reproductive rights, voting rights, union rights and fair electoral maps at stake in The Badger State.
The most expensive state supreme court race in US history drew national attention as a proxy war for Trump’s agenda; candidates, political parties and satellite groups spent close to $100 million on the election.
Most significantly, top presidential advisor and Tesla billionaire Elon Musk poured over $25 million into supporting Schimel. Musk's involvement in the race began in January, shortly after Tesla filed suit against a Wisconsin law that barred them from operating car dealerships in the state.
Musk, the face of Trump's slash-and-burn assault on the federal government, its employees and programs, visibly injected himself into the center of the race, becoming a primary foil for Democrats' unprecedented media campaign.
| "As a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined I would be taking on the world's richest man -- for justice in Wisconsin -- and we won!...Today, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections and our Supreme Court. Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale!” - Justice Susan Crawford |
The outcome offers Democrats a jolt of enthusiasm and the power of momentum in the wake of their devastating loss in the 2024 presidential election, and calls for an aggressive response to the Trump-Musk attack on the administrative state and our democratic institutions.
In the Superintendent of Public Instruction election, incumbent Democrat Jill Underly won a second term, defeating GOP challenger Brittany Kinser 52.9%-47.1%.
On ballot Question 1, Wisconsinites voted 62.8%-37.2% to enshrine in the state's constitution the current Voter ID law that requires that "voters present valid photographic identification" to vote in any election.
While the GOP prevailed in two Florida congressional special elections on Tuesday, their victory was far from the sweep expected in the historically ruby red seats.
In Florida's First Congressional District Special Election, vacated by the resignation of disgraced five-term Congressman Matt Gaetz (R) last November, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis (R) defeated gun violence prevention activist and 2024 Democratic nominee Gay Valimont 56.9%-42.3%.
Patronis' 14.6% point victory was the closest margin in decades in a district with a Cook Partisan Voting Index (CPVI) rating of R+19. Valimont secured 36% to Gaetz's 66% in 2024.
Despite the odds, Valimont raised five times more than Patronis between January and March. With a heavy, last-minute investment by the national GOP, however, Republican turnout in the first district was 44 points ahead of Democratic turnout, according to The New York Times.
In Florida's Sixth Congressional District Special Election, vacated by three-term firebrand conservative Congressman Michael Waltz in January to become Trump's National Security Adviser, State Senator Randy Fine (R) defeated public school teacher Josh Weil (D) 56.7%-42.7%.
The race offered Democrats their best chance of flipping a seat in 2025, despite a district CPVI of R+14. With a national spotlight on the race, Weil outraised Fine by over $9 million between January and March -- with polls at one point showing the contest within the margin of error. Waltz won the seat in 2024 by more than 30%.
Both parties made heavy investments going into the election, but Republicans’ election day turnout was 37 points higher than Democrats’. Nevertheless, the close margins give Democrats valid reason for pointing to the race as a harbinger of larger success in next year's congressional mid-term elections.
| The wins for Republicans secure the GOP's majority in the United States House of Representatives at 220 seats to Democrats with 215 seats, which includes two vacant seats. A special election for the late Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) has been scheduled for July 15, 2025. The special election for Congressman Sylvester Turner (D-TX) has yet to be scheduled. |
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Sources: New York Times, PBSWisconsin, CBS, NPR, AP, US House. BBC
DemDaily column will publish on a modified schedule in April while our Publisher recovers from hand surgery.
