Commentator and former editor Charlie Sykes offered a warning to Republicans after liberal judicial candidate Susan Crawford handily won a pivotal Wisconsin Supreme Court seat against Trump-endorsed Brad Schimel. Crawford's victory now gives liberal-leaning justices a 4-3 lead on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
“They ought to pay very close attention because … almost all the elections in Wisconsin are decided on a razor's edge. This was a blowout. This was a landslide. And it was a big turnout election. Two point four million voters turned out in a spring election,” Sykes said on MSNBC’s Chris Jansing Reports. "There's really no way to put lipstick on this from the Republican point of view. This [race] should have been competitive.”
Sykes pointed out that Schimel was a strong candidate with a history of running in statewide races as a former elected Wisconsin attorney general. He observed that Schimel getting defeated by such a large margin by a candidate who has never been on the ballot before in a statewide election was “extraordinary.” Sykes also blamed Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who imposed themselves over the race. Musk famously handed out$1 million payments to certain Wisconsin voters in hopes of swinging the Wisconsin court conservative to benefit Republicans in upcoming court decisions, particularly redistricting decisions.
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The former Bulwark editor called Musk’s and Trump’s participation an “unforced error” that turned this normally innocuous race “into a referendum on Donald Trump's first 100 days in office” as well as “a referendum on Elon Musk.
“He tried to turn out Trump voters. He ended up mobilizing Democrats," Sykes said.
Sykes noted that Trump had won the state of Wisconsin last November, but in virtually every area of the state, the 2025 electorate has moved to the left, closer to Democrats. Trump’s image is currently under siege as he threatens to impose a slate of new tariffs that are already reducing the US stock market to a roller coaster. Musk, meanwhile, has ignited mass protests while his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) imposes massive, unpopular layoffs affecting important government workers and veterans.
“Keep in mind that people went to the polls to vote as they were reading stories about [Musk’s] … assault on Social Security and Medicare, the cuts in health care. They're going to the polls as Musk becomes one of the loudest voices saying, we need to impeach judges who rule against Donald Trump. This was top of their mind, and what you saw was a very stark verdict, a repudiation of all of that. This is humiliating for Elon Musk.”
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