With only days left for voters to head to the polls in the Wisconsin Supreme Court competition, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is walking towards what has become the most expensive judicial election in US history. Plus, he uses the latest right-wing boogeyman on the left, Elon Musk, to scare Democrat voters into the polls.
Next Tuesday's contest between liberal candidate Susan Crawford and conservative candidate Brad Schemmel, a valuable seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, could shake up U.S. House members' control over Democrats following the 2026 medium-term elections.
Simel's victory will again shift the Wisconsin Supreme Court to a majority. But Crawford's victory will remain a liberal majority. It will also involve Democrats to file lawsuits and redraw maps of dairy state legislatures into something more Democrat-friendly. Experts speculate that this will turn two Republican-leaning districts into Democrats. A version of this took place on Wisconsin's legislative maps after liberals ruled the courts in 2023.
The importance of this race has not been lost in the large-money donors of both parties.
Big money
Among the people pouring a pile of cash into Crawford's campaign is George Soros. George Soros has promoted a campaign of numerous radical Marxist district lawyers across the country and supported the Open Border Campaign. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has hosted one of the union's biggest national escapes, and his family has funded a variety of radical left-wing causes. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman has donated at least $64 million to radical left-wing causes and candidates since 2015.
A recent report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shows that Crawford's war chest is almost twice as high as Simel's breasts. She raised $26 million, almost double what Shimmel raised in $14 million. Additionally, 77% of Crawford donors come from outside of Wisconsin, but only 15% of Shimmel supporters.
This does not include the additional money allocated to support both candidates. As of March 25th, more than $80 million has been pushed into the race, according to the Brennan Center for Justice and News Outlet Whispolitics. Analysts expect that amount to reach $100 million by Election Day on Tuesday. That's well beyond what was spent on the most expensive corporate varieties of previous years in American history. In 2023, the Wisconsin Supreme Court brought the competition between liberal justice Janet Protasiewitz and losing conservative Daniel Kelly to $56 million.
Elon's election?
Despite Crawford receiving a large portion of his outside support and overtaking Shimmel, the Democratic National Committee shamelessly claims the race as what Elon Musk, the leading donor of Shimmel's campaign, is about to buy. Musk has donated $3 million to the Wisconsin Republicans for the race. Two Prosimel groups linked to the future of Musk, America PAC and Building America have also spent around $17 million as of March 25th.
Nevertheless, on Friday morning, the DNC called out “Wisconsin newspapers are blankets ahead of the April 1 election,” calling for Wisconsin newspapers to buy Brad Simel's Wisconsin election. “In the email, DNC drew Shimmel as a mask stoug:
As Elon Musk has poured millions of dollars into Wisconsin elections to support politicians willing to bid, the DNC reminds Wisconsin voters that “Wisconsin is not on sale.”
The DNC also announced that it would cover local Wisconsin newspapers with an ad “exposed musk interference in Wisconsin Supreme Court competition.” Ads will appear in Wisconsin newspapers, including the Chippewa Herald, the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter, the Beloit Daily News, the Daily Jefferson County Union, the Janesville Gazette, the Watertown Daily Times, and Oshkosh Northwestern.
Trump's support
The race led President Trump to not only support Shimmel, but also to call him hearing in one of his nominations. On Thursday, he retracted Elise Stefanik's appointment for the UN ambassador. He said in a true social post:
As one of my biggest allies, I asked Elise to stay in Parliament to provide historical tax cuts, great work, documenting economic growth, safe borders, energy control, peace through strength and more. The majority is so strict that I don't want to get a chance from the others running in Elise's seat. People love Elise and with her we have nothing to worry about coming on Election Day.
Researcher and election expert Jacob Grandstaff recently described the main role this race can shake the House control to Democrats, a federalist.
2024, R-Wis. Rep. Brian Style won the First Congressional District with 40,000 votes. R-Wis. Derrick Van Orden of the MP won the Third Congressional District with just 11,000 votes. It will simply rebuild District 1 into Milwaukee and part of District 3 and turn it into parts of Dane County into a non-competitive, safe Democrat district.
Republicans have a slim majority between 218-213. The four vacant seats that require special elections are located in evenly divided, safe districts, which could bring Republican benefits to 220-215.
But Republicans will retain a razor-thin 219-216 majority if Democrats defeat an upset victory in the special election for the New York District 21 after GOP MP Elise Stefanik opens her seat. By handing Wisconsin's 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts to Democrats through district changes, you'll get a nearly automatic one-seat majority before someone votes in 2026.
The ground staff wrote this just before Trump took Stefanik's nomination.
Republicans now hold 218 seats, while Democrats have 213 seats in their home. Currently, four seats are available, two of which are safe GOP seats and two safe democratic seats.
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