The Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Is This Year’s Political Money Pit

Nationally, state supreme court races have garnered increased attention in recent years, a trend that intensified after the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe. The back half of this decade will cement whether Wisconsin state Supreme Court races are doomed to be highly nationalized, politicized, and costly: There is an election to the court every year through 2030. State politics will likely be a factor; Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, noted that state governance is currently divided between a Republican legislature and a Democratic governor, meaning that the state high court frequently steps in to settle some significant disputes.

Moreover, as state high courts often have a say in drawing congressional and legislative district lines, these elections can determine not only the ideological balance of the bench but which party controls the majority in the state and federal legislatures. So these races also see investment from the party arms focused on state legislatures. The Republican State Leadership Committee’s Judicial Fairness Initiative, which has focused on electing conservative state judges for more than a decade, has invested heavily in advertising opposing Crawford.

“National Democrats are strategically targeting the Wisconsin Supreme Court race to take control of the redistricting process at both the state and federal levels,” Mason Di Palma, the communications director for the Republican State Leadership Committee, said in a statement. “This blatant attempt to undermine fair representation is unacceptable and must be confronted. The only way to stop the left’s advance is by electing Brad Schimel.”