Wisconsin Supreme Court Election
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is the court of last resort for all of the state’s civil and criminal matters and serves as a check on the state’s two other branches of government. In recent years, the court has issued crucial decisions that have impacted voting rights and election integrity, criminal justice, LGBTQ+ rights, environmental protections, civil liberties, workers, public schools, tenants, and gun control.
Progressives have held a majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court since the election of Janet Protasiewicz in 2023. Since then, the court struck down the state’s legislative district maps – widely considered to be among the most egregious gerrymanders in the country – and ordered every sitting member of the state assembly to stand for election in new, un-gerrymandered districts. As a result, the 2024 Wisconsin assembly elections were more competitive than they had been since at least 2010. The balance of the court will be decided by this election, and could factor into the outcomes of important cases pending before the court.
Wisconsin needs Susan Crawford on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
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Susan Crawford is a judge of Branch 1 of the Dane County Circuit Court. She began her legal career in the criminal appeals division of the Iowa Department of Justice and soon transferred to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, where she rose to the position of director of the department’s appellate unit. She went on to work in the Wisconsin Department of Employment Relations, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, and the Wisconsin Department of Administration. She was the administrator of the Division of Enforcement and Science in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources before becoming the chief legal counsel to former Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D). After Doyle left office, Crawford entered private practice, representing progressive causes such as the League of Women Voters and the Madison teachers’ union.
She was first elected to the Dane County Circuit Court in 2018 and reelected in 2024. She has received the endorsements of four current justices of the Wisconsin Supreme Court: Justice Jill Karofsky, Justice Rebecca Dallet, Justice Janet Protasiewicz, and Justice Anne Walsh Bradley – whom she is running to replace on the court – as well as former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler.
She is also endorsed by numerous state and national labor unions, including the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, the Wisconsin Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Laborers’ District Council, the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin, the Bricklayers and Allied Workers District Council of Wisconsin, the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998, the International Association of Sheet Metal Workers Local 18, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the United Auto Workers; as well as EMILY’s List, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, and Wisconsin Conservation Voters.
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Brad Schimel is a judge of Branch 6 of the Waukesha County Circuit Court. He formerly served as the Attorney General of Wisconsin from 2015 to 2019. He ran for reelection as a Republican to a second term as attorney general in 2018 and was defeated by the state’s current attorney general Josh Kaul (D). As attorney general, Shimel defended a GOP backed law that limited the ability of doctors to perform abortions, which was later found to be unconstitutional and required the state to pay more than $1.5 million in taxpayer-funded legal fees to Planned Parenthood. He also helped drive a lawsuit to kill the Affordable Care Act and defended the GOP’s gerrymandered legislative district maps, and faced criticism over a backlog in testing of sexual assault kits in the state.
Before becoming attorney general, he was the Waukesha County District Attorney, and began his career as an assistant district attorney in the same office. He is endorsed by the Waukesha County Police Chiefs Association, the Milwaukee Police Association, the Milwaukee Police Supervisors, the Wisconsin Fraternal Order of Police, the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau, the Wisconsin Realtors Association, and law enforcement officials including 54 county sheriffs and 28 retired county sheriffs.
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Judge Susan Crawford has spent her career fighting for workers’ rights, reproductive rights, and healthcare access. She will join the court’s progressive majority to protect the rights of all Wisconsinites. AFJ Action recommends Judge Susan Crawford for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Paid for by Alliance for Justice Action Campaign, www.afjactioncampaign.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
