Meet the state Supreme Court candidates: Brad Schimel

MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- In one week, voters will decide whether the state Supreme Court maintains its 4-3 liberal majority or switches back to conservative control.

Ahead of the April 1 election, CBS 58 is profiling each candidate.

The race between the conservative candidate, Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel, and Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, backed by Democrats, has received national attention with historic spending and several hot-button issues at play.

Abortion policy, union rights, voter ID laws, and congressional maps are issues the court is either currently weighing or could in the future.

The matchup between Schimel and Crawford marks the first statewide contest in the battleground state since the 2024 election. Both parties view the race as a referendum on President Donald Trump's second term.

CBS 58 first interviewed Crawford earlier this month. We sat down with Schimel last week.

Background

Schimel began his career as a prosecutor at the Waukesha County district attorney's office.

He then went on to become the Republican attorney general serving from 2015-2019 under Gov. Scott Walker's administration.

Schimel currently serves as a Waukesha County judge.

Battle of the Billionaires

While the contest is officially nonpartisan, political parties and outside groups have poured more than $90 million in the race, according to a tally by WisPolitics.

Groups that track campaign spending predict the contest will surpass $100 million by Election Day, nearly double the previous record of $54 million spent during the 2023 state Supreme Court contest.

Groups affiliated with Elon Musk have invested more than $13 million into the contest, supporting Schimel and criticizing Crawford. Those efforts include mailers, door knocking and even Musk hosting a live forum on his platform X, urging conservatives to vote for Schimel.

Musk's group America Pac also began offering voters $100 incentives last week if they sign a petition to oppose "activist judges" while also requesting information to help the group find conservative voters.

Meanwhile, Crawford's campaign has the backing of Democratic megadonors including George Soros, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. Since entering the race in June, Crawford's campaign has raised more than $24 million.

Schimel and Crawford have knocked each other for the millions funneling their campaigns, but both have said it won't influence their decisions if elected.

Schimel said he'd be open to reforming campaign finance laws that Republicans passed years ago, adding it's "concerning" how much has been invested into the matchup.

Under current law, there's no limit on how much money is donated to political parties, which can then make unlimited transfers to campaigns.

"I hope the Legislature rethinks that and reaches some agreement to put some reasonable limits on that," he said.

Trump Endorsement, Election Concerns

The race, already the most expensive in U.S. history, has intensified in recent days, with President Donald Trump endorsing Schimel to try and help conservatives flip the court's 4-3 liberal majority.

Trump's involvement is not unexpected. Schimel previously welcomed his endorsement, appeared at a campaign rally with the president's son Donald Trump Jr., posed by a giant inflatable Trump, and has benefited significantly from the millions invested by Trump's billionaire advisor Elon Musk.

Despite all of that and Musk's super PAC claiming he'll "defend" and "protect" the Trump agenda, Schimel said his personal views will not influence decisions on the bench.

"That's what those people believe," Schimel said. "I think the reason they believe that is because I stand for upholding the law. If they expect something else, they'll be disappointed."

When asked how he'd rule on possible cases before the court challenging aspects of the Trump administration, Schimel reiterated his commitment to "following the law."

"I'll review whether the constitution has implications for the result of the case, and I'll decide it," he said. "No one is above the law."

Schimel has also raised concerns about the 2020 election, similar to the unproven voter fraud issues Trump raised when he tried to overturn his loss in Wisconsin.

Four years ago, justices on the state's high court rejected Trump's lawsuit seeking to undo his narrow defeat to Joe Biden in Wisconsin. Schimel said he doesn't know if that was the right decision, when asked about that case.

"I never reviewed those briefs, so I don't know the answer to that," Schimel said.

The former attorney general did say he believes President Biden won the 2020 presidential election and vowed to accept the results of his race. However, he's repeatedly brought up debunked claims about election fraud in nursing homes and late-night tallies reported in Milwaukee.

In an interview on WISN-AM radio, Schimel said his supporters need to “get our votes banked, make this too big to rig so we don’t have to worry that at 11:30 in Milwaukee, they’re going to find bags of ballots that they forgot to put into the machines.”

Milwaukee often reports election results late, sometimes not until the next morning, due to the Democratic-leaning city receiving a large influx of absentee ballots that cannot be counted until polls open.

Election officials can begin tallying absentee ballots at 7 a.m. on Election Day because state law prohibits them from processing them earlier in the week. Officials have consistently said this causes the city to report election results much later compared to other municipalities.

“I don’t know if there was fraud there,” Schimel said on the radio. “There’s no way for me to know that. All I know is this: we need to turn our votes out. That’s the best insulation we have against any potential fraud, is just to get our people to the polls.”

When asked about his election concerns, Schimel told CBS 58 he talks about them because voters ask him about election integrity efforts.

"I know there were rules that were not followed," Schimel said about special voting deputies not being deployed to nursing homes in 2020 to help residents vote during the pandemic.

"There are other questions about whether there was some fraud or other things. I don't know the answer to those things. By that time, I was a judge, not an investigator anymore."

Abortion

The state Supreme Court is currently deciding whether to repeal a criminal abortion ban implemented in 1849.

In November, justices heard oral arguments on the case. Democrats hope the issue will be a motivating factor for voters as they've heavily attacked Schimel for his views.

Schimel describes himself as “pro-life” and has previously supported leaving the state's 175-year-old abortion ban on the books. He called the law "validly passed" but added he "doesn't believe it reflects the will of the people of Wisconsin today.”

It comes as Schimel has recently advocated for voters to decide the fate of abortion laws by backing a citizen-led referendum process. Current law doesn't allow voters to bring forth issues via referendum.

Crawford, who is backed by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin and pro-abortion rights organization EMILY's List, has said she won't comment on pending cases before the court but does "trust women" to make their own reproductive decisions.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit in February asking the court to rule on whether a constitutional right to abortion exists in the state.

Schimel said because the word "abortion" does not appear in the constitution, he suggested it's an issue the courts should not decide.

"I'd have to see the legal arguments on how they come to that conclusion because generally, if something is not stated in the constitution, it's not something the government has power over the citizens for," said Schimel.

Act 10, Voter ID Law

While serving as attorney general, Schimel said he would defend Act 10 and opposed having its restrictions on some union workers repealed.

There's a new challenge seeking to overturn aspects of Act 10 that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers.

It was the centerpiece of former Republican Gov. Scott Walker's administration.

Schimel did not say whether he would recuse himself if the case came before the court, which is currently pending in a lower court awaiting an appeal.

Requiring voters to show proof of a photo ID was another major aspect of the Walker-era. A statewide measure on the April 1 ballot will ask voters whether to enshrine Wisconsin's voter ID law in the constitution.

Schimel said he will vote for the amendment, a move that would make it harder for courts to strike down or repeal.

"It's an important election integrity tool to make sure each voter has one vote, and only one vote," Schimel said.

Congressional Maps

A challenge to the state’s congressional voting boundaries is expected to come before the court.

While no case has been filed, many predict the issue will resurface if liberals maintain their majority.

Conservatives have repeatedly criticized Crawford for appearing on a virtual briefing coined by organizers in an email as a “chance to put two more House seats in play.”

"My opponent was caught… she was on a call that offered national billionaire donors to learn how they can turn two Republican congressional seats into Democratic congressional seats," Schimel said.

The Crawford campaign has denied that she made any mention about redistricting during the briefing and attended to strictly introduce herself and her candidacy.

Defending Record: Rape Test Kit Backlog

A backlog of testing sexual assault kits in the 2010's has become a key theme in the race as Schimel continues to defend his record as attorney general.

In 2015, when Brad Schimel was elected attorney general, Wisconsin had thousands of decades-old sexual assault kits untested.

Democrats have knocked Schimel for taking more than two years to test about 4,000 kits sitting unanalyzed on police department and hospital shelves.

When asked what the testing delays, Schimel defended his record on the issue and said it takes time and resources to find labs to test them and to contact victims.

"I'm proud of that work," Schimel said. "The way we did it is the only way we could. It had to be victim centered."

Before he came into office, the Wisconsin Department of Justice discovered upwards of 6,800 sexual assault evidence kits that had not been tested. They went unanalyzed for a variety of reasons.

When Schimel took over as attorney general in 2015, he secured $4 million to start testing the kits but work didn't begin until 2017.

The backlog was ultimately cleared, almost all of the kits tested before Schimel left office. Attorney General Josh Kaul, now overseeing the DOJ, said his administration finished the work to test all the sexual assault kits after discovering 300 kits were left untested by Schimel.