The fate of the Wisconsin Supreme Court will be decided on April 1—in a highly contentious and historically expensive election. Its results may have significant implications not only for the future of the state, but for the country.
The results of the upcoming election of a single justice to the Wisconsin Supreme Court will determine whether the court’s current 4–3 liberal majority continues until 2028. This high-stakes campaign is between Republican-backed candidate Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County judge and former state attorney general, and Democrat-backed candidate Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge. Out of state, left-wing activists have poured millions of dollars into Judge Crawford’s campaign, George Soros top among them.
Democrats are again pitching a state supreme court race to liberal donors as a means of flipping seats in the House of Representatives and overturning laws on abortion and unions that the Left ardently opposes. Recall that liberals attained a majority on the state supreme court with the election of Janet Protasiewicz in 2023, during a campaign in which the candidate brazenly called for “a fresh look at the gerrymandering question” and touted the issues of abortion and Act 10, the law limiting the collective bargaining power of public-sector unions.
Crawford has played this race only slightly more coyly than Protasiewicz. The current candidate spoke on a Focus on Democracy donor call, which was marketed in the email subject line as a “Chance to put two more House seats in play for 2026.” The body of the email invitation added that that is “half the seats needed to win control of the House in 2026.” The email also referenced “many important state issues that hinge on the outcome” of the election, “including whether the court reinstates the 1849 law criminalizing abortion.” Crawford represented Planned Parenthood in a lawsuit against then attorney general Schimel challenging a 2013 state abortion law, and her campaign ads highlight her abortion advocacy.
On the bench, Crawford has an abominable record on crime. Take the case of Kevin Welton, who was charged with sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl in a club swimming pool in 2010 and twice sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl in the same pool in 2018. The details described in the complaint are horrific. Welton was convicted of three felonies, including first-degree sexual contact. Crawford sentenced him to four years in prison after a prosecutor requested ten. On January 16, 2024, Welton was released from prison. The Waupaca County Sheriff warned the public when he was released, and his house is located four minutes away from a school. To make matters worse, Crawford diminished the severity of Welton’s conduct, describing it as less severe than what she encountered in many of her cases.
Crawford similarly gave a short sentence to the “Langdon Street Attacker,” a repeat felon who randomly beat and dragged a 19-year-old University of Wisconsin–Madison student down the street, abandoning her on a snow bank with a broken jaw and damaged eye socket.
Crawford has described herself as “progressive.” As former governor Scott Walker noted in the Washington Times, when she ran for judge in Dane County, she noted her work as an attorney fighting against Act 10 and against a voter ID law. She strongly supported the “use and expansion of restorative justice and diversion programs” as well as no cash bail. Back when she worked for Democratic governor Jim Doyle, she supported his plans to offer illegal aliens in-state tuition and to end the GPS monitoring of sex offenders.
Crawford’s campaign has raised $7.7 million so far, surpassing the Schimel campaign’s total of $5.1 million. Crawford received $3 million from the Wisconsin state Democratic Party, including $1 million that the party received from Soros and $500,000 it received from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.
In short, Susan Crawford’s record demonstrates her adherence to a radical left agenda on a host of issues, which helps explain why she is such a draw for liberal donors outside the state. The Wisconsin Supreme Court should not be a vehicle for legislating from the bench, and the looming election has the potential to allow that to happen for years to come.