All eyes are on Wisconsin less than one month out from what could be the highest-stakes election of 2025. A judicial race that once flew under the radar is now the center of national political attention as a critical election on abortion and a bellwether for public opinion on President Donald Trump.
Trump won the critical swing state’s 10 electoral votes last November, edging out Kamala Harris by nearly 30,000 votes. A new Marquette poll shows Wisconsin residents closely divided on Trump with 51 percent disapproving and 48 percent approving. Next month’s election for a seat on the state’s Supreme Court could give a clearer picture of how Wisconsin voters view the president’s first 100 days and may impact whether Trump will continue to have Republican majorities in Washington.
With the election determining the balance of the state’s highest court, those who turn out on April 1 will decide whether the Wisconsin Supreme Court will respect the Constitution and the rule of law or will be primarily made up of judges overruling the will of the people and legislating from the bench. The results will impact union issues and redistricting. (Democrats hope that a liberal court will help them secure new electoral maps to give them a majority in Congress.) But most importantly, this election will determine whether thousands of unborn children will live or die.
The contest is between conservative former attorney general Brad Schimel and liberal activist judge Susan Crawford. There are two important pending abortion cases that could be determined after this election: one where abortion activists are asking the court to find a right to abortion in the state constitution and another where the abortion lobby is trying to take Wisconsin’s pro-life law off the books. If Schimel does not win, the court will be a tool of the left. They’ll circumvent the legislature to establish abortion without limits, take away parental rights, and strip away informed consent.
Pro-abortion activists gather outside the Marquette Lubar Center before a Wisconsin Supreme Court debate between candidates Brad Schimel and Susan Crawford on March 12, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Like Trump, Brad Schimel believes judges should apply the law, not make the law. As Schimel says in his recent ad, Wisconsinites should decide abortion policy in the state, not an activist court. As attorney general under former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Schimel had a solid record of respecting the Constitution and the distinct roles of the three branches of government. He also understands the value of life as a father with two adopted daughters.
Conversely, Susan Crawford is a radical judge with an abortion activist track record. Planned Parenthood was a client of Crawford’s, and she represented them in court. She fought against a law for women’s safety requiring abortion businesses to have hospital admitting privileges. She also represented the abortion industry in fighting a law to prevent women from being coerced into abortions. Crawford has been publicly grieving the end of Roe v. Wade, the case that is responsible for the deaths of 63 million unborn babies. Maybe most disturbingly of all, she uses the same euphemisms as the abortion industry, calling abortion “health care.”
Because Wisconsin voters elected a Republican legislature, the pro-abortion lobby hopes to use the Wisconsin Supreme Court to circumvent the will of the people and allow for abortion without limits.
The Democrats have wholeheartedly embraced Crawford’s extremist history and are campaigning based on her clear messages of how she will rule in abortion cases. This mirrors their efforts two years ago when the party lined up behind the liberal Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz who ran her campaign almost completely on the issue of abortion. Following the Protasiewicz model, Crawford has been working closely with Democrats. She headlined a Democrat fundraising call last month that called for more investments into her race to “put to more House seats in play.”
Since last week, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s Women Speak Out field team has been deploying student canvassers to speak with Wisconsin voters at their doorsteps about showing up on April 1 to vote for Brad Schimel.
We’re investing in this race at a time that state supreme court elections matter more than ever. Thanks to the Dobbs decision, the people now have the ability to protect life through their elected officials at every level. If we have activist courts, however, we’re at risk of having mini Roe decisions all across the country that prevent states from saving unborn children.
Lives depend upon Brad Schimel defeating Susan Crawford on April 1. Wisconsin voters must show up on April 1 as they did last November for Trump.
Kelsey Pritchard is the Political Communications Director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.