Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates spar over abortion, Elon Musk, George Soros
In their only debate before next month's election, Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel traded barbs over mega-donors Soros and Musk and their involvement in the race.
A pair of jurists vying to be Wisconsin’s next Supreme Court justice sparred Wednesday night ahead of the first major statewide race in a battleground since the 2024 election.
The tense one-hour debate in Milwaukee between liberal judge Susan Crawford and conservative judge Brad Schimel focused in large part on reproductive rights and the millions of dollars being spent on the race by high-profile billionaires and outside groups in what's technically a nonpartisan election scheduled for April 1.
The contest will determine the court’s ideological balance for the second time in two years — and possibly the future of several issues related to abortion rights, unions and congressional maps.
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates Susan Crawford and Brand Schimel.USA Today NetworkCrawford is a state judge in Madison who worked earlier in her career in the Democratic administration of then-Gov. Jim Doyle. Schimel, also a state judge, in Waukesha County, previously was the state’s Republican attorney general.
Liberals have a 4-3 majority on the seven-person court after they won a 2023 election that flipped control to the left for the first time in 15 years. But liberal justice Ann Walsh Bradley's retirement has again put that control up for grabs.
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