Susan Crawford wins the elections of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, despite Elon Musk’s millions

Susan Crawford, liberal candidate for a fundamental seat on the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, has passed $ 25 million in the expense by Elon Musk to defeat his conservative opponent, reported the Associated Press, in a totemic race that has become a critical test of the prevailing political winds of the nation.

Judge Crawford, who serves in Dane County, easily defeated Judge Brad Schimel of the County of Waukesha, who raced his loyalty to President Trump and was fueled by record spending in the race by Mr. Musk, a billionaire political assistant of the president. The burst of expenses in the race could almost double the previous record for a single judicial election. With about 60 percent of the votes counted on Tuesday evening, Judge Crawford had a two -digit advantage.

For the Democrats, the result is a rough of momentum. They have been engaged in a rhetorical crossbar from Costa to Coast since Trump returned to the White House in January and embarked with Musk for the effort to drastically reduce federal agencies, put aside international alliances and alter the relationships of the government with the universities of the nation, the groups of minorities, the immigrants and the business world.

Coming in the wake of democratic triumphs in special elections for state legislative seats in Iowa AND Pennsylvania and the defeat of Four state referendums supported by the Republicans in LouisianaThe victory of judge Crawford puts the party on the front foot for the first time since last November. His victory has shown that, at least in one case, the apparently infinite reserves of Mr. Musk’s political money had energized more democrats than the Republicans.

“This election will determine all our fundamental rights and freedoms,” said judge Crawford to the supporters of his closing campaign event on Monday evening in Madison. “At this point, I think it will determine if we have a Supreme Court of Wisconsin.”

The race could also have implications for the control of the congress, in which the thin edge of the Republicans was fortified on Tuesday when the party resisted Two places in Florida in the special elections. The Democrats supported in silence for months that a victory of Crawford would have paved the way for a Supreme Court of Wisconsin with liberal revolt to order new congress maps, which could help the Democrats to defeat one or two of the members of the Republican Congress of the State.

Judge crawford herself He participated in a meeting with liberal donors In January that was launched as an opportunity to put two seats at home, a The perspective echoed last week From the representative Hakeem Jeffries in New York, the democratic leader of the Chamber. And the Republicans, led by Mr. Musk, tried to make this possibility the central focus of their campaign to defeat it.

Mr. Musk, describing the stake of the competition in almost apocalyptic termsHe seemed to personify the campaign on behalf of Judge Schimel even more than the candidate himself. Never before a single donor had tried to influence an American judicial race to such an extent, and few had invested sums comparable in an election in which they were not running. Through his Super Pac, Musk has signed an $ 11.5 million game on the ground that targeted the voters with messages that urged them to help Mr. Trump supporting judge Schimel. A separate organization with Legami Musk spent $ 7.7 million in television advertising, according to Adimpact, a media tracking company.

Musk also offered Wisconsinites $ 100 each to sign a petition in opposition to the “activists”.

Tuesday, his Super Pac was Offer voters $ 50 Publish a photo of a Wisconsin resident outside a seat.

The victory for the judge Crawford, 60, who won a 10 -year mandate, maintains a majority of 4 to 3 for the liberals in court, who in the coming months is ready to keep key decisions on abortion and labor rights. It could soon determine the legality of the district lines of the State Congress, which were taken from the state legislature controlled by the Republicans and delivered six on eight chamber seats to the Gop in the uniformly divided state.

The liberals are likely to maintain a judicial majority until 2028. Conservative judges in court face re -election in each of the next two years. Unless liberal justice leaves its place and is not replaced by the governor, the conservatives cannot turn a place up to 2028.

With the control of the Court on the line, the formally non -partisan elections would always have been expensive and fought, but the investments of Mr. Musk starting from mid -February supervice the stakes, attention and the cash flow in the state. The involvement of the billionaire, whose company of electric vehicles, Tesla, sued the Wisconsin in January for the right to open dealers in the state, transformed what would have been a state race into something that approached a national bat sign for the Democrats to support the judge Crawford.

“This is a test and the whole world is watching,” said Ben Wikler, president of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, on Monday to the supporters of the closing event of judge Crawford. “This is an opportunity for us to demonstrate that in a moment it is so terrifying at national level that we still believe in democracy. “

Supported by the Wisconsin Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee and with visits of important liberals and democratic including the Governor Tim Walz del Minnesota and senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the judge Crawford collected $ 17 million in the fundraising period ended on March 17thAn extraordinary figure for a state judicial candidate with little profile within his state, let alone nationally.

Judge Schimel, 60 years old, a long -standing lealist of Trump who last year dressed as Mr. Trump for Halloween, embraced the president and Mr. Musk with taste in the last weeks of the countryside. He wore the signature of the president who makes America Great Again Hada at the countryside parties and appeared with Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk on Livestreames at the end of March.

Wisconsin Republicans have not secret themselves of their effort to make the judge Schimel, who served as a state attorney general before losing the re -election in 2018, an avatar of the Trump movement. Brian Schimming, the republican party of the president of Wisconsin, said that his goal was simply to obtain 60 percent of Mr. Trump’s voters since last November to show up for Judge Schimel by Tuesday.

Judge Schimel, like judge Crawford, framed the race as an existential threat to the state and the nation.

“If we do not restore the court, our Republic will not survive, right?” He told supporters last week at an event in Staughon, wis. “Frankly, they are taking away one of the branches, on the right, legislating from the bench”.

In the incursion of Mr. Musk in the countryside on behalf of Judge Schimel, he made a spectacle of his wealth but often divided from the competition at hand.

Sunday evening, He traveled to Green BayWhere he arrived bringing a pair of 1 million dollar checks to the voters, he said, of a race among those who had signed his petition. A recipient had just been the president of the Wisconsin Wisconsin Republicans, who joined a third person to whom Sigc of Mr. Musk had given a 1 million dollar check a few days earlier.

But Mr. Musk spent only a couple of minutes from his two hours of observations aimed at Judge Schimel and the next elections. In what occurred as an unpublished Ted speech, Musk has pronounced extended monologues on immigration policy, alleged fraud in the social security system and the future of artificial intelligence, as well as taking a series of questions from the public who have not also dealt with the breed of the court.

When Mr. Musk faced the reason for his visit, he framed the elections in terms of maximum important, suggesting that Wisconsin voters were the first domino in a process that could change the future of civilization.

“What is going on Tuesday is a vote for which the party controls the Chamber of Representatives of the United States – that’s why it is so significant,” said Musk. “And whatever game checks the house in a significant degree checks the country, which then guides the course of Western civilization. I feel that this is one of those things that may not seem to seem to influence the entire fate of humanity, but I think it will do so.”

The Democrats of Wisconsin and others linked to the campaign of judge Crawford found the entire confused episode. Mr. Musk, although popular among conservative voters because of his links with Mr. Trump, had not emphasized public security or even affinity with the president, the issues that the Democrats believed had the potential to help judge Schimel who dominates the Republicans to vote.

Instead, they believed, it was the last test that the only candidate in the general elections that Trump can really lead to victory is himself.

Jess Bidgood Reports contributed by Staughon, wis.