How record-setting spending may have helped or hurt Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates

GREEN BAY (WLUK) — Money became one of the main talking points nationwide in Wisconsin’s spring election.

“I think just speaking to the election we just had — this was completely unprecedented. This was the most money that was ever spent in a state judicial race by leaps and bounds,” says David Helpap, an associate professor of political science at UW-Green Bay.

In total, $98 million was spent leading up to Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election.

“I don’t think any election you should spend $100 million on. I think of all the good that could’ve been done with that $100 million, and to spend it on just partisan ads, to me, was too much, and it didn’t go to a useful cause,” said former Republican Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson. FOX 11 spoke to him Tuesday night at the election night watch party for GOP-backed state superintendent candidate Brittney Kinser.

The losing candidate in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, Brad Schimel, had more money spent to support him than his opponent, Susan Crawford, did. The same thing happened in the November general election.

Experts say in high-profile races, or races thrust into a national spotlight, sometimes all that money may only be beneficial to a certain point — especially in a partisan race.

“It does give you a good sense of what these people are going to be doing, if they agree with you or don’t agree with you. And at that point, again, the money gets some of the undecided voters, but that group of undecided voters tends to be pretty small,” Helpap adds.

While Crawford’s campaign spent double what Brad Schimel’s did — $22 million to his $11 million — Schimel had far more support from outside PACs and donors. He received more than $21 million from Tesla CEO Elon Musk and groups he controls.

Democratic billionaires got behind Crawford, with George Soros contributing $2 million and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker throwing in $1.5 million.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of polling on DOGE. There is a substantial segment of the American population that approves of what he is doing or trying to do, but I think that’s different from approving of Musk personally. He has a personal style which clearly angers a lot of voters,” says Jerald Podair, a political science professor at Lawrence University.

In the latest Marquette Law School Poll, Musk’s DOGE handlings and personal favorability both sit around 40% approval and favorable, and 60% disapproval and unfavorable.

So, despite spending $21 million, some experts say Musk could have hurt Schimel’s chances more than he helped — especially with his last-minute appearance in Green Bay and $1 million dollar giveaways to voters.

“It may have convinced some of Schimel’s voters to turn out, but it appears that it really motivated Crawford’s voters to turn out and say, ‘We don’t like what’s going on. This is the direction we want for the state,'” Helpap adds.

The next Wisconsin Supreme Court election is just one year away, when conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley’s term is up. Conservatives will not have another opportunity to flip the court until the next liberal justice is up for re-election in 2028.

Experts say it’s highly unlikely we’ll ever see this level of turnout and spending in future state judicial elections.

Source: How record-setting spending may have helped or hurt Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates