Wikler says hope is on the line in Crawford's bid for seat on court

Ben Wikler says there’s more on the line than just matters of fair maps and legal decisions when it comes to the state supreme court race on April 1. And that is why the whole country will be tuned in.

“I think what happens right now will send a message to the whole country and whole world about whether there's hope in this moment of darkness,” said the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin in an interview with historian Heather Cox Richardson.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford is running against former Scott Walker Attorney General Brad Schimel to determine control of the court. 

“Elon Musk has made this race his personal priority,” Wikler said. “He's put in more than ten million dollars.  It's more than anyone's ever donated to a judicial election in Wisconsin, and Musk is funding a kind of propaganda apparatus.”

Wikler said Musk and Turning Point USA have taken over the Wisconsin Republican party.  Paid organizers from Texas are knocking on doors, promising that Schimel will provide a support network for the Trump agenda.  He is running deceitful fear-based ads and using his X platform to promote Schimel’s candidacy.  

Wikler also pointed to Musk’s and Schimel’s conflict of interest in this race.

“Five days before his first post on X, he filed his own lawsuit to try to bypass state law, so he could sell Teslas direct to consumers in Wisconsin,” Wikler said. “So he has a personal financial interest in taking over the Wisconsin State Supreme Court. It's a return on investment if he can define what the Supreme Court's decisions will be on his personal business matters.”

Wisconsin has long been regarded as a laboratory for democracy but that all changed in 2010 when Republicans enacted the most severe gerrymandering and voter-suppression laws in the nation. Schimel has said that he thinks that played a role in Trump’s and Sen. Ron Johnson’s victories in 2016.

In 2023, Janet Protasiewicz was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, giving the liberals a 4-3 advantage. Ultimately, the gerrymandered districts were ruled unconstitutional by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in the fall of 2023.

Seven justices sit on the Wisconsin Supreme Court each elected for a ten-year term. The candidate selected on April 1 will tip the ideology of the court to either progressive or conservative.   Several important cases may come before the Court including the constitutionality of the 1849 abortion law, worker rights, and public education.  A case on congressional district gerrymandering would have national implications since it would impact House of Representative elections.

Wikler reiterated how important it is that people recognize their power because the Trump strategy has always been to create despair and fear in his opponents.

“And you know the best tonic for fear is the sense that you actually have power to change the future,” Wikler argued. “When people feel helpless, they retreat, they tune out. And that is so often the game for authoritarians – to make people think that they don't have any power to change the situation that they're in. 

“And right now, if you're watching the news and watching what musk and Trump are doing to this whole country, and you're trying to figure out, Is there any way to fight back?”

Wikler insists there is and explains how to do that right here in Wisconsin.

“We discovered that when you tell people about what Musk is doing, they're infuriated and they want to get involved to oppose Brad Schimmel," Wikler said. "So we set up a website called People v musk.org and if you go to The People vs. Musk, you can click and volunteer, you can click and donate.”

The election is on April 1.  Early in-person voting starts on March 18. Days and hours vary per municipality.