Battle for control of WI Supreme Court heats up as April 1 election looms

State Supreme Court elections rarely draw much attention on the national political stage, but that is certainly not the case in one Midwestern jurisdiction set to hold its contest on April 1.

With Minnesotans poised to go to the polls in a matter of mere weeks, conservative political activist Scott Presler has warned that the stakes in the contest are extremely high, and Republicans ignore the potential consequences at their peril, as Breitbart reports.

Presler sounds alarm

Under the banner of his Early Vote Action organization, Presler works in a handful of swing states to boost Republican voter registration and to encourage early turnout, and after achieving great success in Pennsylvania in the November election, his focus has turned to Wisconsin.

Presler is poised to spend two weeks in Wisconsin ahead of the upcoming Supreme Court election, and he has long been articulating what he views is the critical importance of the outcome.

Amid the retirement of Democrat Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, Republicans in Wisconsin see the contest as a golden opportunity to reclaim a majority on the panel, while Democrats are hoping to keep control and potentially oversee congressional redistricting that could cost the GOP two House seats.

The contest pits former Wisconsin Attorney General and Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel -- a conservative -- and Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford, whose work experience includes representation of Planned Parenthood and other liberal organizations.

Remarking on the imminent election, Presler told Breitbart News, “I tried to warn people in 2023, and here is what I'm saying now: If Wisconsinites don't pay attention to this race, history is going to repeat itself, and you're going to have this court stay under Democrat control.”

External influences playing outsized role

The upcoming election is shaping up to be an extremely costly proposition, even as compared to the 2023 contest in which campaign spending records were demolished.

As NBC News reports, big money donors from both sides of the political spectrum are once again pouring money into Wisconsin.

Groups linked to billionaire progressive megadonor George Soros on one hand and billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk on the other are reportedly behind much of the financial influx, with Democrats taking particular aim at the latter and attempting to link him with Schimel.

Musk has gone so far as to directly voice his position on the race, taking to X to declare that it is “very important to vote Republican for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to prevent voting fraud.”

A recent poll revealed that large swaths of Wisconsin voters admitted that they do not have a great deal knowledge of either of the judicial candidates, but Republicans remain hopeful that the impact of eleventh-hour efforts from advocates like Presler and from Musk-aligned groups can still make the difference at the polls.