Here & Now

McCoshen & Ross on the Significance of Wisconsin's 2025 Vote

Frederica Freyberg:
What a week. A barn burner of a state Supreme Court election, followed up by head spinning Trump tariffs, all as the beat goes on with Elon Musk and DOGE within the administration. Here to discuss are political analysts Republican Bill McCoshen and Democrat Scot Ross. And thanks for being here.

Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross:
Thanks for having us.

Frederica Freyberg:
So, Scot, how big of a gift was Elon Musk to Susan Crawford’s campaign?

Scot Ross:
Well, I think he certainly didn’t help things. But this was about Trump, you know. And when Trump finally gets tired of Musk and dumps him, the failure, the incompetence, the authoritarianism, the rejection of the rule of law, the stealing away of people’s money in their retirement accounts, that’s going to still be there. This anger is going to, going to continue. It’s going to continue into 2026. But again, I don’t think that the — I don’t think that Musk helped the cause. I mean, granted, he and Uihlein and you know Hendricks, they spent a fortune to try and win this seat, but they didn’t because Democrats, independents and even some Republicans stood up and said, what’s going on with the Trump administration does not work for Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:
Bill, do you think that the entry of Musk and Donald Trump into Brad Schimel’s campaign was a good idea?

Bill McCoshen:
Part of it but I want to pick up on something Scot said first. Democrats were motivated. They were angry. They were pretty beaten down in November when Trump won. I don’t think they ever thought that was possible. It was possible. Trump not only won here, but he got the most votes in history in the state of Wisconsin. So Democrats here did all they could to make sure that their base turned out. Turnout was very high. It was, it was gubernatorial levels. 2.4 million people, which in a spring election is unheard of. I thought the higher turnout actually would help Brad Schimel. It helped Democrats more. On the Musk’s thing, I think without his money, Schimel would have lost by worse. I think it might have been 14 or 15 points. I think were there — where Musk’s team crossed the line was on giving away checks. That didn’t sit well with Wisconsin voters, and it super fired up Democrats at the end. I was at the Musk event in Green Bay. There were probably 400 protesters outside that event in sleeting rain. And it was — they were fired up.

Scot Ross:
Yeah, I mean, those people better cash those checks quick, you know, because they most likely won’t be able to be cashed. But, you know, the thing about it is, if you look at the numbers, literally every single of the 72 counties in Wisconsin went more Democratic, went more left than they did in November ’24. And this was not a special election. This was a regularly scheduled election. We had turnout that was higher than 38, 38 states off year turnout last time. Like it was a — it was a pasting. It was so, so much of a pasting that like, I don’t know, Derrick Van Orden wasn’t drunk yet and Chuck Schumer was still awake.

Bill McCoshen:
Both turnouts were up. Republican turnout was up. It just wasn’t up as much as Democrats.

Scot Ross:
Or independents. I mean independents were there with, with the Democrats on this one.

Frederica Freyberg:
Do you think that follows through?

Scot Ross:
Absolutely, because it’s not going to get any better. We just saw with what’s going on in three — you have $30 trillion of wealth being shot out the window with the Trump tariff tax tax going. It’s not. It’s getting worse. People are looking at their retirement accounts now. You know, 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.

Bill McCoshen:
Spring elections don’t correlate to what happens in the fall. I’ll give you the example. Janet Protasiewicz won by ten points, which is exactly what Susan Crawford won in 2023 in the spring. Donald Trump came back and won in 2024.

Frederica Freyberg:
There’s that.

Scot Ross:
Yeah, but this is an off-year election in 20 — in 2026. And Democrats are going to be motivated and independents are going to be because of what’s going on with the economy and how badly things are going.

Frederica Freyberg:
I want to bring this to you, Bill. Wisconsin conservative Rick Esenberg said this. “I’m not surprised that populist voters didn’t care about having a conservative court. They aren’t conservative. They are, rightly or wrongly, resentful and alienated. What it takes to attract the populist vote limits the conservative vote.” How do you navigate this?

Bill McCoshen:
Well, we got some soul searching to do on our side, whether it’s the state party or the ally groups, and there are many that have been helping Republican candidates. Everything we did wasn’t enough. And it wasn’t enough by a lot. When you lose by ten points, it’s not just one thing. It’s multiple things. So I think the party’s got to do some soul searching on where we go from here. To Esenberg’s point, he’s right. There are low propensity voters that do turn out for Donald Trump, but they also turn out for Donald Trump’s agenda. I think where Republicans came up short, particularly in the Supreme Court race, is Brad Schimel wasn’t clear enough about what his agenda was, what he, what he stood for. And the Marquette Poll in March told us 80% of Wisconsin voters actually want to know what judicial candidates’ position is on issues, which I find sort of appalling, but that’s where the public is. They want to know where you stand. These are no longer nonpartisan races. They’re very partisan.

Frederica Freyberg:
It’s a sea change.

Scot Ross:
This isn’t — this race was not about some fracture between two parts of the Republican Trump Party. This was about Democrats, independents, and even some Republicans going out and saying, we reject what Donald Trump’s doing. They have taken over government. There needs to be a check on them. That check needs to be Susan Crawford, and it’s not going to get any easier for the Republicans. And if you think about, like, what the next race is, you know, April 2026, Rebecca Bradley, the best chance that Republicans have is if she gets a federal judgeship and Tony Evers, Governor Evers gets to appoint a successor because she is so toxic. She is more toxic than even Brad Schimel or Dan Kelly.

Frederica Freyberg:
Do you want to respond to that?

Bill McCoshen:
I think she’s tough as nails and that’s the kind of candidate we need. (A) We need a female candidate. (B) We need somebody who’s tough as nails that’s willing to fight for the job.

Frederica Freyberg:
So with about a minute and a half left, how seismic was Crawford’s win given what’s about to come before the court?

Bill McCoshen:
Well, it preserves a liberal majority for three more years. Republicans or conservatives cannot get the majority again until the spring — actually the summer of 2028. So what will be will be now for three years minimum. And that includes school choice. It includes Act 10. It includes a variety — voter ID, thankfully is no longer under consideration because the voters overwhelmingly passed that. But there are a lot of things that will come before the court. And if you’re a business owner here in the state of Wisconsin, buckle up. Could get rough.

Scot Ross:
Listen, there have been freedoms under assault in Wisconsin for the 15 years that Republicans controlled the Supreme Court. Now that we have, you know, serious justices in there who will look at the law and not interpret the law, I think we’re going to have a lot more, a lot more cases coming before the court in a way that’s going to preserve freedom here in the state of Wisconsin and restore some of the freedoms that have been taken away.

Frederica Freyberg:
We leave it there. Scot Ross, Bill McCoshen, thank you.