On Tuesday, April 1, voters in Wisconsin elected the pro-worker Susan Crawford to a seat on the state supreme court, despite billionaire Elon Musk spending more than $20 million to support Crawford’s conservative opponent. Crawford won by a margin of almost 10 percentage points, winning many counties which supported Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is scheduled to hear cases on collective bargaining rights for public-sector workers — which were severely restricted by the Republican-passed “Act 10” in 2011 — and for workers at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics. It is also scheduled to consider the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s draconian abortion ban, which was passed in 1849, before women even had the right to vote.
UE Local 1186 in Madison endorsed Crawford and phone-banked their members to turn them out. In addition to asking members to vote in the election, they also encouraged them to participate in solidarity actions supporting workers at the Transportation Security Administration and the Veterans Administration, who are under attack from the Trump administration and Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency.” Crawford was also endorsed by the UE Western Region.
The Guardian reported that “Musk reprised some of the tactics that he used last fall to help Trump win, including offering $100 to people who signed a petition opposing ‘activist judges’ and offering $1 million checks to voters.” Following her election, Crawford told supporters, “Today Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy. Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.”