Tuesday’s election for the next Wisconsin Supreme Court justice could be a test for whether the abortion debate has been revived as a key issue motivating voters in the first high-stakes campaign since the 2024 presidential race.
Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, the Democratic-backed candidate, has made abortion a central pillar of her platform against Republican-supported Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County jurist. The current make-up of the court is a 4-3 liberal majority.
Abortion has played a central role in Wisconsin’s judicial politics since the federal Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. An 1849 prohibition on abortion immediately took effect after Roe was overturned, outlawing abortion in any circumstance except to save the mother’s life.
The political outcry about the 1849 law dominated the April 2023 judicial election, contributing to the victory of liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz.
In December 2023, a Dane County Circuit Judge, Diane Schlipper, ruled that the 19th-century statute only applied to feticide, meaning the killing of an unborn child without the consent of the mother. Currently, abortion is legal in Wisconsin until 20 weeks gestation, about the time of fetal viability outside the mother’s womb.
The state Supreme Court heard oral arguments in November on the appeal against the district court’s ruling. A decision will be made before either Crawford or Schimel takes office.
For this year’s judicial election, Crawford has voiced concerns about how Schimel’s prior support for the 1849 law could influence the court should it be tipped to a conservative majority.
In 2012, Schimel signed a Wisconsin Right to Life legal brief advocating upholding the 1849 law in case Roe was overturned, which came to fruition 10 years later.
The Republican candidate has said on the campaign trail that he does not see a fundamental right to abortion in the Wisconsin state constitution, but he would respect the will of the people should they appoint him to the bench.
It’s not clear how much the abortion issue will weigh on voter’s minds on Tuesday.
During the 2024 general election, abortion did not play as significant of a role in voter turnout as Democrats anticipated, despite it being the first presidential race since Roe was overturned. Exit polling data found that voters across the country, including in Wisconsin, thought that immigration and economic troubles were more important than abortion.
Several other issues, including voter identification laws, labor disputes, and House of Representatives congressional redistricting, could overshadow abortion as a motivating factor for voters.
Crawford has signaled that she would be open to ordering redrawing of district lines should the court hold a liberal majority. State-level legislative districts were redrawn in 2023, likely accounting for the Democratic victories in the state house in 2024.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said last week that there are “gerrymandered congressional lines right now in Wisconsin” that Democrats must address to retake control of the House in 2026.
TRUMP ATTACKS ‘LIBERAL LUNATIC’ WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT CANDIDATE
Because of the congressional implications, tech billionaire and President Donald Trump’s right-hand man Elon Musk said over the weekend that he thinks the state judicial race could “affect the entire destiny of humanity.”
Musk, on Saturday, at a campaign rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, gave out two $1 million checks to voters who signed his America PAC petition that opposes “activist judges.”
