By Scott Bauer, AP

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s preferred candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court and his Democratic-backed challenger made a final blitz across the state on March 31, the day before voting concludes in a race where early turnout has surged and spending is nearing $100 million.

Billionaire Elon Musk, a top Trump adviser, held a rally in Green Bay on March 30 to push for the election of Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County judge and former Republican attorney general. He faces Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge and former attorney who fought for abortion rights and to protect union power.

Liberals currently hold a 4-3 advantage on the court, but the retirement of a liberal justice in 2025 put the ideological balance in play. The court in battleground Wisconsin is expected to rule on abortion rights, congressional redistricting, union power and voting regulations in the coming years.

Through March 30, the last day of early voting, at least 644,800 people had cast ballots, based on a March 31 tally from the Wisconsin Elections Commission. That number will rise as some municipalities report additional ballots collected over the weekend.

As it stands now, early voting numbers were 57% higher, or about 235,000 ballots greater, than the 409,755 early ballots counted the day before the last Supreme Court election in 2023.

Milwaukee County, the state’s largest county and the one that is home to the most Democrats, has seen a 40% increase in early voting compared with 2023. Liberal Dane County, the state’s second largest county and home to the state capital of Madison and the University of Wisconsin, has seen a 43% increase.

Voting was up even more in the three suburban Milwaukee counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington, which are commonly referred to as the WOW counties. Ballot returns were up 62% in Waukesha County and 53% in Ozaukee County. In Washington, the most heavily Republican of the three counties, early voting was nearly double compared to 2023.

“I believe that we’re getting the energy and we’re getting people motivated,” Schimel said after his first campaign stop on the morning of March 31 in Madison.

Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who campaigned with Schimel in Madison, said he’s “not overly confident” based solely on the early voting numbers, given the increased push from Republicans to vote absentee.

Voters don’t register by party in Wisconsin, so it is impossible to know how many ballots have been cast by Republicans or Democrats.

In Sauk County, a swing-voting county northwest of Madison, retired financial planner Jim Greenwood was knocking on doors in a working-class neighborhood on the west side of town.

The activist with the county Democratic Party was making a late-campaign round of canvassing stops.

Mary Bellis, a dispatcher for the Sauk County Sheriff’s Department, told Greenwood that she typically votes Democratic but not always. Bellis said she planned to vote for Crawford, in large part because she sees establishing a liberal majority on the state high court a necessary check on Trump’s authority.

“Trump is scaring the living daylights out of me,” said Bellis, 54. “I’d rather not have Republicans have the upper hand across the board.”

Trump won Sauk County by only a little more than 600 votes in 2024 en route to carrying Wisconsin by fewer than 30,000 votes. Joe Biden carried the rural and exurban county on the edge of the Madison metro area by about the same margin when he won Wisconsin in 2020.

The high-stakes race has become a proxy battle over the nation’s politics, with Crawford and Democrats trying to make it a referendum on Musk given his deep involvement in the contest. He and two groups he funds have combined to spend more than $21 million on the race that will determine majority control of the court, based on a Brennan Center for Justice count.

Crawford has benefited from $2 million given to the state Democratic Party by billionaire megadonor George Soros and $1.5 million from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, also a billionaire.

To date, more than $90 million has been spent on the race, according to the Brennan Center. That is nearly double the previous record-high of $51 million for a judicial race, set in Wisconsin in 2023 when control of the Supreme Court was also on the line.

For perspective, about $100 million was spent on 68 supreme court elections across 26 states in 2021 and 2022 combined, according to a Brennan Center tally.

Judicial races used to be low-cost, relatively staid contests across the country but in recent years there has been a major boost in interest and spending.

There is a growing understanding across the country about the importance of state supreme court races as policy fights over the hottest issues of the day, like abortion rights, are playing out there, said Douglas Keith, senior counsel in the judiciary program at the Brennan Center.

“That said, this race is unlike anything any other state has seen, even in that new supercharged world of judicial politics,” Keith said. “We can say confidently that this new era of judicial politics is here to stay and we are going to keep seeing states break records in spending in their elections.”

Both Musk and Trump, who endorsed Schimel, have been pushing his candidacy as a way to protect Trump’s agenda as it faces legal challenges in one of the few battleground states in the country. They’ve also pointed to the potential that congressional district boundary lines in Wisconsin could be redrawn by the court to favor Democrats.

Schimel has leaned heavily into the Trump endorsement with a TV ad running in the final days of the race that says voting for Schimel will protect Trump’s agenda. He wore a “Make America Great Again” hat while campaigning over the weekend and has posed for pictures in front of a giant inflatable Trump.

Crawford has the backing of Democrats who have tried to focus the race on Musk, casting it as the first chance for liberal voters to push back against the Trump agenda since his narrow win in November.

Musk, at his March 30 rally in Green Bay, put the stakes of the race in stark terms.

“I think this will be important for the future of civilization,” he said. “It’s that’s significant.”

Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Baraboo contributed to this report.