Nearly $59 million has been dropped on the race between Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel, breaking the previous record three weeks ahead of voters deciding ideological control of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, according to a WisPolitics tally.
Like two years ago — when WisPolitics tracked more than $56 million spent in the 2023 campaign — the record spending has been shaped by wealthy donors and national interests.
Crawford, a Dane County Circuit Court judge who’s been backed by liberals, is the biggest spender in the race to date with nearly $17.6 million in ad reservations between the start of the year and the April 1 election, according to AdImpact.
Meanwhile, Schimel has dropped almost $8.8 million on buys. The Waukesha County Circuit Court judge and former GOP AG has received a significant boost from groups aligned with billionaire Elon Musk, among others.
Musk’s America PAC’s latest filing with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission details nearly $6.2 million spent on canvassing efforts backing Schimel. Meanwhile, WisPolitics has tallied $6 million in spending by his Building America’s Future PAC between buys tracked by AdImpact and that group’s filings with the state.
Crawford’s funding has been boosted by transfers from the state Dem Party. For example, it gave her $3 million over December and January. That includes $2 million in transfers shortly after the party received a $1 million contribution from Dem megadonor George Soros and $500,000 from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Both campaigns declined comment Tuesday on the spending in the race.
In all, WisPolitics has tracked more than $33.3 million to support Schimel’s bid, compared to $25.5 million to back Crawford as of early Tuesday afternoon. And those numbers will climb higher as the April 1 election approaches. The state Dem Party, for example, pledged a “seven-figure” effort to support Crawford. It has yet to file any reports detailing those efforts, which aren’t included in the WisPolitics tally.
Though there is more spending on the Schimel side, Crawford is currently running ads more frequently on broadcast TV than the other side. A WisPolitics check of AdImpact data and numbers shared by a media buying source, for example, showed she has an advantage in gross ratings points — a measure of how frequently ads are seen on broadcast TV — over the two-week period that ends Monday. Candidates get a better rate than outside groups on broadcast TV buys.
Two years ago, WisPolitics tracked more than $56 million spent on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race as Janet Protasiewicz won an open seat, flipping control to liberals for the first time in 15 years. Protasiewicz and those backing her spent $32 million in their successful effort, while conservative former Justice Daniel Kelly and his supporters dropped more than $22.5 million, according to campaign finance reports, independent expenditure filings, TV records and interviews.
The rest was spent by Jennifer Dorow, Everett Mitchell and their backers ahead of a four-way primary.
Before Wisconsin’s 2023 race, the national record for a state Supreme Court race had been a 2004 Illinois contest that hit $15 million.
This year, WisPolitics has been keeping a running tally of spending between buys tracked by AdImpact, independent expenditure filings with the state and interviews with knowledge of the efforts. That tally includes reservations through the April 1 election.
