Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates make final push amid high spending, voting

Through Sunday, the last day of early voting, at least 644,800 people had cast ballots, based on a Monday tally from the Wisconsin Elections Commission. That number will rise as some municipalities report additional ballots collected over the weekend.

As it stands now, early voting numbers were 57% higher, or about 235,000 ballots greater, than the 409,755 early ballots counted the day before the last Supreme Court election in 2023.

Milwaukee County, the state’s largest county and the one that is home to the most Democrats, has seen a 40% increase in early voting compared with 2023. Liberal Dane County, the state’s second largest county and home to the state capital of Madison and the University of Wisconsin, has seen a 43% increase.

Voting was up even more in the three suburban Milwaukee counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington, which are commonly referred to as the WOW counties. Ballot returns were up 62% in Waukesha County and 53% in Ozaukee County. In Washington, the most heavily Republican of the three counties, early voting was nearly double two years ago.

“I believe that we’re getting the energy and we’re getting people motivated,” Schimel said after his first campaign stop Monday morning in Madison.

Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who campaigned with Schimel in Madison, said he's “not overly confident” based solely on the early voting numbers, given the increased push from Republicans to vote absentee.

Voters don’t register by party in Wisconsin, so it is impossible to know how many ballots have been cast by Republicans or Democrats.

In Sauk County, a swing-voting county northwest of Madison, retired financial planner Jim Greenwood was knocking on doors in a working-class neighborhood on the west side of town.

The activist with the county Democratic Party was making a late-campaign round of canvassing stops.

Mary Bellis, a dispatcher for the Sauk County Sheriff’s Department, told Greenwood that she typically votes Democratic but not always. Bellis said she planned to vote for Crawford, in large part because she sees establishing a liberal majority on the state high court a necessary check on Trump’s authority.

“Trump is scaring the living daylights out of me,” said Bellis, 54. “I’d rather not have Republicans have the upper hand across the board.”

Trump won Sauk County by only a little more than 600 votes in 2024 en route to carrying Wisconsin by fewer than 30,000 votes. Joe Biden carried the rural and exurban county on the edge of the Madison metro area by about the same margin when he won Wisconsin in 2020.

The high-stakes race has become a proxy battle over the nation's politics, with Crawford and Democrats trying to make it a referendum on Musk given his deep involvement in the contest. He and two groups he funds have combined to spend more than $21 million on the race that will determine majority control of the court, based on a Brennan Center for Justice count.

“Let me talk for a minute or two about my opponent, Elon Musk," Crawford said at the Monday rally. Crawford said she never imagined the race would come down to her fighting against “the richest man in the world.”

Crawford has benefited from $2 million given to the state Democratic Party by billionaire megadonor George Soros and $1.5 million from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, also a billionaire.

To date, more than $90 million has been spent on the race, according to the Brennan Center. That is nearly double the previous record-high of $51 million for a judicial race, set in Wisconsin in 2023 when control of the Supreme Court was also on the line.

Both Musk and Trump, who endorsed Schimel, have been pushing his candidacy as a way to protect Trump’s agenda as it faces legal challenges in one of the few battleground states in the country. They've also pointed to the potential that congressional district boundary lines in Wisconsin could be redrawn by the court to favor Democrats.

Speaking in the Oval Office Monday, Trump called the election a “big race” and recounted his own history in the state.

“Republicans typically don’t do very well in Wisconsin. But I did, actually won it twice,” he said, before falsely claiming that he also won the state in 2020 when he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump hinted as to why the outcome of the state Supreme Court contest was important. The court can decide election-related laws and settle disputes over future election outcomes.

“Wisconsin’s a big state politically, and the Supreme Court has a lot to do with elections in Wisconsin,” he said. “Winning Wisconsin’s a big deal, so therefore the Supreme Court choice … it’s a big race.”

Schimel has leaned heavily into the Trump endorsement with a TV ad running in the final days of the race that says voting for Schimel will protect Trump’s agenda. He wore a “Make America Great Again” hat while campaigning over the weekend and has posed for pictures in front of a giant inflatable Trump.

Crawford has the backing of Democrats who have tried to focus the race on Musk, casting it as the first chance for liberal voters to push back against the Trump agenda since his narrow win in November.

Musk, at his Sunday rally in Green Bay, put the stakes of the race in stark terms.

“I think this will be important for the future of civilization,” he said. “It’s that significant.”

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Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Baraboo contributed to this report.