Liberals maintain control of Supreme Court as Crawford defeats Schimel

MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- For the fourth time in five elections, a liberal candidate won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court as Susan Crawford beat Brad Schimel in Tuesday's spring election.

Crawford's victory will mean liberals maintain a 4-3 majority on the state's high court. That makeup of the court could shape the outcome of future cases challenging the state's 1849 near-total ban on abortion and the 2011 Act 10 law that stripped most public workers of most collective bargaining rights.

In Pewaukee, Conservative candidate Brad Schimel announced his concession to stunned supporters at his watch party.

Schimel had benefitted from the most money ever spent on a judicial candidate in US history, but ultimately, it was not enough.

Schimel's night started in happier circumstances as he wore jeans and cowboy boots, playing bass guitar with his band.

But as the results started to crystallize, the mood in the room changed.

Schimel told the crowd they had to accept the results. "Yeah, I’ve called Judge Crawford and conceded. You got to accept the results. We just… I’m not up here making any joke. The numbers aren’t going to turn around. They’re too bad. And we’re not going to pull this off. So, thank you guys."

Though President Trump won Wisconsin in November, this is the most recent of several statewide races Republicans have lost, stretching back several years.

Several people at Schimel's watch party expressed frustration with state party leadership.

Tuesday's result could also invite a challenge to the state's congressional voting maps. Democrats believe the current maps unfairly favor Republicans, who hold six of the state's eight U.S. House seats.

Wisconsin voters continued a trend of setting new records for turnout in a Supreme Court contest. The 2019 race drew 1.2 million votes. That was the last time a conservative candidate won, when Brian Hagedorn narrowly took a seat on the court.

In 2020, more than 1.5 million people voted in a landslide victory for Jill Karofsky; then, in 2023, more than 1.8 million Wisconsinites cast ballots in a race Janet Protasiewicz won decisively.

The race drew intense national attention and shattered records for campaign spending on a court election. More than $100 million poured into the race, funding both campaigns and attacks on each candidate, according to a tally by WisPolitics.

Nationally, the race was seen as a referendum on the first two months of President Donald Trump's second term, as well as the involvement of his special advisor, billionaire Elon Musk, in widespread cuts to federal agencies.

Musk, the richest man in the world, accounted for a quarter of the campaign spending. He put more than $25 million of his own money into the race, including a controversial $2 million giveaway Sunday in Green Bay for people who signed a petition against "activist judges."

Liberal megadonors George Soros and JB Pritzker donated millions to Democrats, but at a fraction of the amount Musk's political action groups did in this contest.