Justice-elect Susan Crawford won the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court election in the most expensive court race in U.S. history — Ben Wikler, chair of the state’s Democratic Party, said he was not expecting her to win by 10 points, though. Missy Hughes, CEO and secretary of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, spoke from France as she and the governor took part in a trade mission just as the Trump administration was announcing new U.S. tariffs. Here & Now political panelists — Republican Bill McCoshen and Democrat Scot Ross — unpacked Susan Crawford’s resounding victory and considered the political terrain ahead.

Ben Wikler
Chair, Democratic Party of Wisconsin

• Justice-elect Susan Crawford’s victory in the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race that maintains its liberal majority could be a model for candidates supported by the Democratic Party across the country, Wikler suggested. Still, he said he was not expecting her to win so resoundingly.
• Wikler: “The Republicans, Elon Musk, the whole right-wing machine poured more money into this race than we’ve ever seen in any judicial election in American history. It seemed hard to believe they didn’t have a theory behind it. As it turned out, they did drive up their turnout. They won enough votes to defeat Janet Protasewicz in 2023. They hit their target. It’s just that the number of votes for Susan Crawford was so much more. This was a combination of an amazing candidate with a superb campaign and full support from the party and all the different allied groups — also, Elon Musk personally inserting himself in a way that I think incited more people to vote against Brad Schimel than for Brad Schimel. And then on top of all that, there’s a rage in the electorate right now about what’s happening to this country.”

Missy Hughes
CEO and Secretary, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation

• Gov. Tony Evers and Hughes embarked on a trade mission to Germany and France just as President Donald Trump levied across the board reciprocal tariffs on imports into the United States of products from dozens of nations and other locations. Their trip, designed to encourage Wisconsin exports – especially in the biohealth sector — collided with the European Union planning for retaliatory tariffs.
• Hughes: “We’ve really seen generally a lot of disappointment from the French officials and the German officials and the businesses that we’ve been meeting with. It’s a real surprise over what’s happened. Everyone has expressed to me, we have had incredible long-term friendships and really a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about what’s happening and what the future holds.”

Bill McCoshen and Scot Ross
Republican and Democratic political panelists

• A lot of Democrats believe Wisconsin voters were angry about Donald Trump and Elon Musk, ramping up turnout for Susan Crawford in Wisconsin’s 2025 state Supreme Court race. But Ross and McCoshen disagreed about whether that voter sentiment can carry through to the midterm elections.
• Ross: “Absolutely, because it’s not going to get any better. We just saw with what’s going on in three — $30 trillion of wealth being shot out the window with the Trump tariff tax going. It’s not. It’s getting worse. People are looking at their retirement accounts now. If you’re Bill’s age, you can put $8,000 in your IRA. Other people, it’s $7,000. And people are seeing years and years of the money they invested in their IRA wiped out like that.”
  McCoshen: “Spring elections don’t correlate to what happens in the fall. I’ll give you the example. Janet Procewitz won by 10 points, which is exactly what Susan Crawford won in 2023 in the spring. Donald Trump came back and won in 2024.”

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