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"As a result of your strong grassroots organizing, you have defeated the wealthiest person on earth," said Sen. Bernie Sanders to the state's voters after the Supreme Court race was called. "You have set an example for the rest of the country."
The battle over a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court was settled decisively on Tuesday night as the Democratic favorite Susan Crawford dispatched with far-right favorite Brad Schimel, a candidate backed by tens of millions of dollars in outside money and corporate interests, including an estimated $20 million or more from President Donald Trump sycophant and world's wealthiest individual Elon Musk.
As of this writing, Crawford, a Dane County Judge, was enjoying "an unexpectedly easy" win with 55.5% of the vote compared to the 44.5% received by Schimel, the state's former Republican attorney general. Numerous decision desks called the race in her favor shortly after polls closed, and the returns were clear.
"Thank you," Crawford said in a victory speech from the city of Madison shortly after 9:30 pm local time. "Alright, Wisconsin—we did it!"
Crawford said she had just received a concession phone call from Schimel—describing him as "gracious" in defeat—as she thanked the people of Wisconsin for delivering a hard-fought victory in what has been documented as the "most expensive judicial race ever" in U.S. history.
"Tonight, the grassroots have risen up to defeat Musk and the MAGA authoritarianism he's funding."
"Thank you for trusting me to serve you on the Wisconsin Supreme Court," she told the audience of supporters and national television cameras. "I'm so grateful to have earned the trust and support of voters across this great state." She explained that she got into this race—like how she had spent her life—"to do what's right, to protect the rights and fundamental freedoms of all Wisconites."
Crediting her career success to the values learned in the small Wisconsin town of Chippewa Falls—"where people watched out for each other" and people respected the ability to "tell right from wrong"—Crawford said that growing up she never imagined she would ultimately "be taking on the richest man in the world" in a political fight that has gained national attention and was widely seen as a political referendum on the first two months of the Trump administration's policies.
The battle, she said, was "over justice in Wisconsin—and we won!"
Musk has become a key factor in the race over recent weeks by spending millions of his own money backing Schimel. One gimmick he used over the recent weekend was handing out $1 million checks to people, according to critics, to purchase their support and vote.
Progressive lawmakers were among those chiming in with applause Tuesday night.
"Elon Musk spent MILLIONS to defeat Susan Crawford in Wisconsin—and it was an epic fail," declared Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) after announcing her victory. "Voters saw through his schemes, and our country is better off for it. Thank you, Wisconsinites."
Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Our Revolution, was among those celebrating Crawford's win as an apparent rebuke to Musk and President Trump.
"Despite pouring over $20 million into this race—including handing out million-dollar checks to voters—the world's wealthiest man has failed to secure a conservative majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court," said Geevarghese. "Crawford's victory is a decisive win for protecting abortion access and workers' rights in Wisconsin. It also serves as a crucial safeguard against Donald Trump's ongoing attempts to subvert American democracy and erode judicial independence."
While the resounding defeat of Schimel by voters will be "viewed as a critical referendum on Trump and Musk’s dangerous, lawless agenda," he added, the amount of money spent during the race "also stands as a stark warning about the deep corruption within our broken campaign finance system. With spending exceeding $100 million, this election has become the most expensive state Supreme Court race in U.S. history, with billionaire donations flooding in on both sides."
"Tonight, the grassroots have risen up to defeat Musk and the MAGA authoritarianism he's funding," Geevarghese said. "But the fight to eliminate dark money from our political system is far from over. Continued inaction poses an urgent, looming threat to our democracy and way of life."
American Bridge, a research and rapid response group with close ties to the Democratic Party, feasted on Schimel's loss by deriding the GOP favorite as the "biggest loser in Wisconsin history."
"Wisconsinites have spoken, and together their votes decided that Wisconsin needs leaders who will protect our freedoms while rejecting the politics of fear and division."
Schimel, said the group's spokesperson Monica Venzke, "clearly can’t take a hint, but hopefully this time it sticks—Wisconsin wants nothing to do with him. Not even his out-of-state billionaire supporter could buy him this one. Imagine spending over $18 million and still losing."
According to Venzke, the defeat of Schimel despite the tens of millions spent by corporate forces "is just a preview of how voters are rejecting Trump's agenda of folding to billionaires. Republicans around the country have a choice: stand up to Trump, or lose."
Lucy Ripp, communications director for Better Wisconsin Together, which represents progressives' concerns in the state, also credited the work of the state's grassroots, which she suggested was a model for people nationwide.
"Wisconsinites have spoken, and together their votes decided that Wisconsin needs leaders who will protect our freedoms while rejecting the politics of fear and division," said Ripp. "Wisconsin voters chose common sense, progress, and freedom over a radical, right-wing partisan agenda that thrives on dividing our communities and leaving working families behind in service of billionaires and special interests."
"By maintaining a strong progressive majority, the Wisconsin Supreme Court will continue as a first line of defense in protecting Wisconsinites' constitutional rights and freedoms," added Ripp, "and a vital check on the Trump and Musk agenda amid the barrage of threats to our rights and livelihoods coming down from the White House."
As of this writing, neither Trump nor Musk had acknowledged Crawford's victory over Schimel on their main social media channels—though each celebrated the approval of a controversial and "regressive" voter I.D. law in the state. To some critics, their twin silence on the Supreme Court race felt like quite a loud statement.
"Democratic voters are sending a clear message," said the head of Data for Progress. "The base is tired of weak opposition and business-as-usual politics."
A large majority of registered Democrats and Independent voters who lean Democratic are frustrated with the party, see no clear leader of it, and want to see elected officials fight harder for working people and against Republican President Donald Trump, according to a pair of polls released Friday.
"Democratic voters are sending a clear message: They want leaders who will fight Trump and put working people first," said Danielle Deiseroth, executive director of Data for Progress, the progressive think tank behind the surveys. "The base is tired of weak opposition and business-as-usual politics."
"This level of discontent is unsustainable for a party looking to build back in the wake of major losses—at a certain point, Democratic leaders will need to show voters that they are taking a stronger stance against Trump, or step aside for someone who will," Deiseroth added.
"This level of discontent is unsustainable for a party looking to build back in the wake of major losses."
The polling—released nearly five months after the election in which Democrats lost the White House and both chambers of Congress—shows that when asked how they would grade the Democratic Party on its response to Trump, who returned to power in January, 70% of voters said C or below, and 21% said F.
Voters were also divided in terms of who they see as the current leader of the Democratic Party. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the race for the White House in November, was at the top, but with only 17%. She was followed by former President Barack Obama and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who tied at 15%.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) tied with "no one" at 11%, followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at 9% and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) at 6%.
Sanders, who sought the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, announced Friday that Ocasio-Cortez will join the Los Angeles stop of his "Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here" tour on Saturday—as she did across the U.S. West last week, drawing the biggest crowd of either of their careers at a rally in Denver, Colorado.
"Today, the oligarchs and the billionaire class are getting richer and richer and have more and more power," Sanders said Friday. "Meanwhile, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and most of our people are struggling to pay for healthcare, childcare, and housing. This country belongs to all of us, not just the few. We must fight back."
The new polling makes clear that voters want elected officials to fight back in a variety of ways, including legal challenges, media appearances, voter registration drives, letter-writing and phone-banking campaigns, procedural tactics like the filibuster, supporting worker walkouts, consumer boycotts, mass protests—including at government buildings—and disrupting Trump campaign events.
Voters are specifically disappointed with Schumer: 61% said he isn't doing enough to fight Trump. After being told about the Senate majority leader's decision earlier this month to lead a group of 10 caucus members who helped Republicans pass a stopgap spending bill, 51% said Democrats in the chamber should choose a new leader—and if they did, 66% of voters would want "someone who fights harder against Trump and the Republican agenda."
A large majority of voters of all ages want elderly Democratic Party leaders "to retire and pass the torch to the younger generation." Big majorities also want party leadership to be diverse in race and gender, and to prioritize funding for programs addressing issues such as healthcare and housing, even if it increases the national deficit.
As the party battles Trump and rebuilds after November's devastating losses, voters are stressing that Democrats must emphasize how they will fight for the working class. Large majorities urged them to focus on taking on corporate interests and the Democratic establishment, taxing the wealthy, lowering prices, and "laying out a bold, progressive agenda for economic and political reform."
The Data for Progress polling follows an internal survey conducted earlier this month by Our Revolution, the progressive political organizing group launched as a continuation of Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign. That survey of 9,024 members found that nearly 90% of respondents believe Schumer should step aside as Senate minority leader and 86% would support a primary challenger for his Senate seat, should he refuse to step aside. Calls for Ocasio-Cortez to primary him have mounted throughout the month.
"These survey results point to an undeniable crisis of confidence in Chuck Schumer and Democratic leadership at a time of unprecedented executive overreach and corporate takeover of the American federal government," Joseph Geevarghese, the executive director of Our Revolution, said at the time. "It's time to step up or step down."
"These survey results point to an undeniable crisis of confidence in Chuck Schumer and Democratic leadership," said the head of Our Revolution.
Since Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer joined a handful of Democrats in voting for a GOP-backed continuing resolution that cuts nondefense spending by $13 billion and keeps the government open through September, the lawmaker from New York has taken heat from members of his own caucus and liberal groups—and survey data from the group Our Revolution shows that progressive voters are unhappy with him, too.
Our Revolution, the progressive political organizing group launched as a continuation of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign, announced Tuesday that it surveyed 9,024 of its members between March 17-18 and found that nearly 90% of respondents believe Schumer should step aside as Senate minority leader and 86% would support a primary challenger against Schumer for his Senate seat, should he refuse to step aside.
The respondents are a subset of Our Revolution's grassroots network, according to the group, and they "include rank-in-file Democratic Party activists and base voters, many of whom supported Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in the 2020 presidential primary."
When given the opportunity to submit open-ended responses, survey respondents expressed things like: "Wildly frustrated and defeated" and "We need an opposition party, the Democrats are anything but!"
"These survey results point to an undeniable crisis of confidence in Chuck Schumer and Democratic leadership at a time of unprecedented executive overreach and corporate takeover of the American federal government," said Joseph Geevarghese, the executive director of Our Revolution.
"It is an utter disgrace that Schumer and other top Democrats cannot muster up the courage to actively resist. It's time to step up or step down," said Geevarghese.
On Thursday, Schumer announced his intention to support the bill, which was a pivot from his position earlier that week when he advocated for an extension in order to negotiated a compromise. The pivot drew sharp backlash, including from House Democrats, who had largely been united in opposing the measure when it cleared that chamber on March 11.
On Friday, the Senate voted 62-38, with 10 members of the Democratic caucus in favor, to advance the funding bill and avoid a government shutdown.
Our Revolution found that 83% of respondents would support primary challengers against those 10 senators.
In addition to steeps cuts to items such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development's community development, rental assistance, and homelessness services programs, the bill also lacks the specific congressional instructions to allocate funds for programs that are generally included in spending bills, according to The New York Times. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the party's top appropriator, warned that because of this, the bill turns "turns many of our accounts into slush funds."
There were other signs that this was not a typical shutdown fight.
Everett Kelley, president of the nation's largest federal workers union—the American Federation of Government Employees—wrote in a letter to senators last week that AFGE's position "until this year has been that although continuing resolutions are far from ideal, they are better than an outright government shutdown."
"This year is different," Kelley wrote. "The Trump administration has repeatedly demonstrated over the last seven weeks that it will not spend appropriated funds as the law dictates."
After Schumer's pivot, a number of progressives loudly condemned the move. The grassroots group Indivisible released a statement calling for him to step aside as Senate minority leader and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told reporters that there is a "deep sense of outrage and betrayal" from House Democrats following Schumer's about-face.
The episode also sparked murmurs among some Democrats that Ocasio-Cortez should consider a primary bid against Schumer in 2028.
Schumer has defended his decision to stave off a government shutdown, casting it as the less bad option of the two bad options that Senate Democrats were faced with, according to The New York Times.