A series of elections held Tuesday in Wisconsin and Florida served as a cautionary signal for Republicans and President Donald Trump. Democrats rallied against Trump's plans to reduce the federal government and the influence of tech billionaire Elon Musk – and it seems to have worked.
In Wisconsin, Democratic enthusiasm surged ahead of Republican turnout, despite the latter being backed by more than $25 million from the world's richest man and affiliated organizations.
In the high-profile election for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the conservative judge, who had Trump's endorsement and received $21 million in support from Musk and his organizations, suffered a significant defeat in a state that Trump had previously won in November.
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Trump secured victory in Wisconsin in November by a margin of 0.8 percentage points, which equates to fewer than 30,000 votes. In his first significant challenge after taking office, the longstanding battleground state notably tilted toward the left.
Addressing her supporters in Madison following the victory, liberal Judge Susan Crawford thanked voters for helping her win the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, saying they thwarted an attack on democracy.
“Today, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections and our Supreme Court. And Wisconsinites stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price — our courts are not for sale,” Crawford said.
And in two strongly Republican House districts in Florida, the party recorded narrower margins than anticipated when they secured the seats left vacant by prominent figures of the “America First” movement. They were only able to achieve this after deploying both national and state reinforcements, including Trump himself, to rally support.
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Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist and podcaster whose organization collaborated with Musk to support Republican Brad Schimel in Wisconsin, said the Supreme Court defeat should serve as a wakeup call for Republicans.
“We did a lot in Wisconsin, but we fell short. We must realize and appreciate that we are the LOW PROP party now,” he said in a post on X Tuesday night.
“Let Wisconsin be a wakeup call. Let it be a call to return to the frontlines. We won in November, but to save the Republican [sic] we must string together multiple victories and that starts in 2026,” Kirk added.
Meanwhile, the results resonated as a significant gain for the Democrats, who, despite facing challenges in two special congressional races in Florida, found a silver lining. In those contests, they successfully reduced the substantial victory margins previously achieved by Republicans in the November elections. This indicates a potential shift in voter sentiment and strategy.
The political party that loses the presidency in November usually gains seats in the subsequent midterm elections. The results from Tuesday offered optimism for the Democrats that they might be able to maintain this pattern.
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