Unless you’re a politically plugged-in Wisconsinite, you probably haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about the Badger State’s recent Supreme Court race. But an unlikely resistance heroine has emerged there in the form of Dane County Judge Susan Crawford.
“I need to talk for just a minute or two about my opponent Elon Musk,” Crawford told a crowd of supporters in Kenosha last week. She was referring to the more than $20 million that Musk-affiliated groups threw behind her opponent, Trump-backed conservative candidate Brad Schimel, a circuit judge in Waukesha County. (Crawford, for her part, has been endorsed by the likes of Barack Obama and George Soros.)
Despite all the money Musk spent, however, Crawford officially won her state Supreme Court seat on Tuesday, sending an invigorating message to liberals worried about Musk’s outsized influence during the second Trump administration.
Below, find everything you need to know about Crawford—and why her race was so closely watched.
Who is Susan Crawford?
A former prosecutor and attorney, Crawford has been a circuit judge for Dane County since 2018. Earlier in her career, she served as chief legal counsel to Wisconsin governor Jim Doyle and administrator of the Office of Enforcement and Science in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Crawford is a lifelong Wisconsinite who grew up in Chippewa Falls and now lives in Madison with her husband, Shawn; the couple are parents to two grown children.
What kind of cases has Crawford worked on?
True to her liberal word, Crawford has represented Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, the League of Women Voters, state superintendent Tony Evers, and the Madison teachers union over the course of her career.
Why does Crawford’s election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court matter so much?
Wisconsin’s April 1 election determined whether liberals retained a 4-3 advantage in the court. A shift in the opposite direction could have impacted abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights, labor policy, and dozens of other high-profile issues in the swing state.
What has Crawford said about her win?
“Today, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections, and our Supreme Court,” Crawford announced in her victory speech on Tuesday, adding: “Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.”
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