Spending in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, which had already set a record for the most expensive state supreme court race in American history, has passed $90 million as of Monday, according to a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit law institute.
That $90 million includes more than $40 million total spent by the liberal candidate, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, and groups supporting her — and almost $50 million total spent by the conservative candidate Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel and groups supporting him.
Groups affiliated with Elon Musk, President Donald Trump’s closest adviser and the billionaire owner of Tesla, have spent almost $20 million in the race supporting Schimel. The Musk-affiliated America PAC has spent more than $12 million, while another group linked to him, Building America’s Future, has spent almost $6 million.
Musk has separately given $2 million to the Republican Party of Wisconsin, which is supporting Schimel.
Musk has cast the race as “a vote for which party controls the House of Representatives” and has implied “the future of civilization” is at stake. On Sunday, the tech billionaire also controversially gave away two $1 million checks to attendees at a rally in his latest effort to support Schimel.
Crawford has received significant support as well. Major liberal donors such as Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Democratic donor George Soros have given money to the Wisconsin Democratic Party, and the state party has donated around $2 million to Crawford.
According to the Brennan Center’s tally, Crawford’s own campaign has spent more than $22 million; Schimel’s has spent over $11 million.
The nonprofit says that the previous record for spending in a state supreme court race was in Wisconsin’s 2023 state supreme court election, when $56 million was spent.
The high-profile election will be held on Tuesday and will help determine the ideological bent of the court, which currently leans liberal, ahead of potential cases on hot-button issues such as redistricting and abortion rights.
“Across the country, state supreme court elections have been getting more attention, and more money, as people increasingly realize that these courts are deciding some of the highest stakes legal fights today. But even with the growing attention on these races nationally, what is happening in Wisconsin is unlike anything any other state has seen,” Douglas Keith, senior counsel in the Brennan Center’s Judiciary Program told ABC News in an email.
Keith said the $90 million spent on the Supreme Court race make it look more like a competitive race for the U.S. Senate “than the relatively quiet judicial elections of just a few years ago.”
“All of this spending, and the attack ads that come with it, make it much harder for the public to view judges as doing something different than raw politics, which is troubling at a time when it is just so important that the public can trust that courts are able to serve as a meaningful check on the political branches,” Keith said.
As of Monday, around 644,000 people in Wisconsin have voted early in person or by mail, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
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