The spring 2025 election is on April 1, and the race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court has now surpassed 2023 as the most expensive in U.S. history. In the last few weeks,the state has seen campaign events featuring names like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump Jr. telling Wisconsinites they must vote for either liberal Susan Crawford or conservative Brad Schimel.

If it feels a little bit like a replay of the fall 2024 election, that’s not an accident.

In December, Schimel held a campaign event in Oconomowoc featuring his band 4 on the Floor.

While this was billed as a campaign kickoff, in reality Schimel had been running for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court for more than a year at that point.

“Over these 12 months I have now campaigned in 65 counties,” he said.

Schimel relaunched his campaign at this Dec. 1 event because prior to that most of the attention was on the 2024 race for President of the United States.

Even though state Supreme Court elections are technically nonpartisan, the room was full of Republican party officials and volunteers, and Schimel was not shy about connecting his campaign to the larger conservative movement.

“I’ve never seen our side this motivated or this united,” he said.

It was clear the strategy was to keep the momentum from President Donald Trump’s win in November and carry it all the way to April 1.

Schimel emphasized turnout, saying “3.4 million Wisconsinites showed up to the polls to vote for president. We expect only 2 million to show up April 1. That means whichever campaign can best retain their voters from November will win in April.”

A month later, Susan Crawford held a campaign event in Green Bay, introducing herself to a crowd at the headquarters of the Democratic Party of Brown County.

“I think you’re all here because you know how important this race is,” she said.

The mood in this room was different, something Crawford recognized as a hangover from former Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss in November.

“I think that immediately after the November election, I did sense some people that I was talking to just being very disappointed by the outcome of that election,” Crawford said.

Landiron Kern, Jr. was at Crawford’s Green Bay event on Jan. 11, and can testify to feeling crushed by November’s election.

“I can definitely tell you it wasn’t a great experience,” he said. “I would definitely say when it came to myself and other students and even adults, morale was very, very low.”

“Here & Now” first spoke with Kern, Jr. in August 2024, as he attended the Democratic National Convention in Chicago as one of the youngest members of the Wisconsin delegation.

Kern, Jr. started his freshman year at UW-Green Bay trying to convince other students to vote, but the election nearly pushed him out of politics altogether.

“It’s like, well, why should I go out and vote? Why should I go and canvass? Why should I help anyone besides myself?,” he said.

It was just the opposite for John Beauchamp, a member of the Republican Party of Jefferson County and Young Republicans.

“I think coming off of last fall, we were pretty well positioned heading into this spring,” he said. “With a favorable result of the November election with Trump winning, I think that really kind of propelled the momentum forward quite a bit, and a lot of people were just ready and willing to get back out there and win again.”

“Here & Now” first spoke with John Beauchamp as he attended the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. He’s part of the political machine trying to convert Trump voters into Schimel voters.

“I think that Schimel is in probably a better place than any Republican conservative candidate I’ve seen in a long while here in Wisconsin,” said Beauchamp.

While the Democrats have to worry about low morale, Republicans have to worry about complacency, with Trump supporters thinking his election was the last they needed to worry about.

“There’s the, of course, that natural tendency to want to just rest and let’s just, you know, take a little break here,” he said.

Historically, Wisconsin Supreme Court elections are sleepy affairs, with turnout just a fraction of presidential elections. But 2023 changed everything. That race saw turnout reach 41%, more than double the average over the previous decade.

Schimel’s prediction of two million voters in 2025 would be 43% turnout, a new record.

“I have a packed schedule where I’m out meeting with voters, talking about the importance of this race. And I’m finding that people are plugged in. They haven’t lost an ounce of the momentum from November,” Schimel said.

Crawford says the focus has returned for her supporters.

“For events that I’m attending now, people seem really energized and really enthusiastic,” said Crawford. “They are also, I think, nervous and afraid — just a sense that rights are under attack in our country and feeling like they want to do something about that.”

Kern, Jr. is back on board, working with other organizers to canvass votes for Crawford and convincing his college friends that losing an election doesn’t mean you quit voting.

“I was, like, I can’t just sit here on the sidelines and allow this to happen,” he said. “Those same friends now, they felt like it was a waste of their vote. And so it’s me trying to ensure them that I know the system seems flawed, and I know it seems like it was unfair, but that election cycle is over. We have to do what we can now, and that’s to get Susan Crawford in.”

For Kern, Jr. and Beauchamp, that means knocking doors and making calls, just like the fall of 2024.

“I know that we seem like a burden to come and knock on your door, but it’s that important,” said Kern, Jr. “I’ve been saying that since the presidential cycle that it’s that important that you go out and vote.”

“It’s very easy to forget that the ground game matters,” said Beauchamp, “that getting out there doing old fashioned knocking on someone’s door, making the phone calls, sending the postcards out — it all matters.”