Exclusive — Eyes on Wisconsin: State Supreme Court Race That Could Bring Trump’s Agenda to a Screeching Halt

Wisconsin has a state Supreme Court election on April 1 — a race which could determine not only the fate of the state, but the entire nation if Democrats have their way.

The race follows a blowout Wisconsin Supreme Court election in 2023, in which liberal-leaning Janet Protasiewicz beat conservative candidate Dan Kelly and flipped the balance of the court 4-3 majority liberal. While conservatives have the chance to take back the majority once more with the retirement of liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, Democrats view the battle as a chance to push policy and redraw legislative maps that could ultimately lose Republicans two U.S. House seats and help them close in on the Republican’s slim majority. 

“To say that what happens in Wisconsin will not stay in Wisconsin is putting it really mildly,” Wisconsin GOP Chairman Brian Schimming told Breitbart News in an exclusive phone interview. 

“It could literally mean the success of President Trump’s term. It could literally mean them having the votes to bring impeachment articles against him,” he added. “The implications of what happens in Wisconsin would be a political earthquake for the House of Representatives.”

The fight is between former conservative Wisconsin Attorney General and Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel and Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford, who previously represented left-wing groups like Planned Parenthood as an attorney. The race is expected to be even more expensive than the 2023 election, which shattered national spending records for a judicial contest at $56 million and brought in massive out-of-state spending. In Wisconsin, state Supreme Court justices serve ten-year terms.

“This is the last chance we have until 2028 to take a majority,” Schimming said.

Democrats’ view of the race as a pathway to power in D.C. is not mere speculation and has been touted openly. An email invitation obtained by Breitbart News to a briefing on Jan.13 with Democrat donors, Crawford, and Wisconsin Democrat Chairman Ben Wikler has a subject line that reads: “Chance to put two more House seats in play for 2026.”

“But winning this race could also result in Democrats being able to win two additional US House seats, half the seats needed to win control of the House in 2026,” the email reads. 

The two seats are currently held by Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) in the 1st Congressional District in southeast Wisconsin and Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) in the 3rd Congressional District in the western part of the battleground state. 

“They got caught saying the quiet thing out loud, and they revealed what they’re up to. This is, as it was in 2023, a power play to attract enormous amounts of money from partisan donors and turn that into results on the court,” Schimel told Breitbart News in an exclusive phone interview, referring to the email. Breitbart News reached out to Crawford’s campaign for comment but did not receive a response. 

“This is going to affect not just Wisconsin, this will affect the nation,” Schimel continued. “When people talk about the timeline that President Trump has to push his goals, that timeline will be cut short or even shorter if they use the Wisconsin Supreme Court to gerrymander the maps as a court and change our representation in the House of Representatives.” 

Like every election since the Supreme Court overturned the invented federal right to abortion in 2022, Democrats and left-leaning media are largely framing the election as another referendum on abortion. When Roe v. Wade was struck down, Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion restriction went into effect, but was put on hold in December 2023 and is expected to come before the state’s high court later this year.

Crawford has declined to say how she would rule on the law, but she did say in an interview that the government should not regulate abortions, according to a New York Times article with the headline “One of 2025’s Biggest Battles Over Abortion Rights Has Already Begun.”

“I believe as a woman that I should be the one to make decisions about my own body and my health care, together with my doctors,” she said. “I trust other women to make those same decisions.”

Conservative activist Scott Presler, whose organization works in swing states to register Republicans and encourage early voting, told Breitbart News in a phone interview that Democrats’ approach is not in line with what the majority of Americans are actually concerned about and lauded Schimel’s emphasis on public safety and restoring impartiality to the state’s high court.

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“I just think that in this age of information — thanks to people like Elon Musk who has really opened up a platform for free speech — people are understanding … our government with USAID is a really big issue. The border is a big issue. Inflation is a big issue. Having peace, not war, is a big issue. Deporting criminal illegal aliens who are in states like Wisconsin is a big issue,” Presler said. “And so therefore, I would argue that [with] abortion, the Democrats are going to try to make it their top number one priority like they did with Kamala, [but] ultimately, voters are sensing and feeling struggles that are much bigger and have a larger priority in their lives than abortion.”

Presler, who posts to X every day about the stakes of the race, said he believes redistricting and election integrity will be the biggest ramifications of the April 1 election, state-wise. Soon after the election of Protasiewicz in 2023, the Wisconsin Supreme Court liberal majority notably undid a prohibition on ballot drop boxes in the state and prompted the Republican-controlled state legislature to redraw State Assembly and State Senate maps. The April ballot also includes a proposed amendment seeking to enshrine voter ID requirements into the state constitution.

But Presler sees the election as potentially impacting the 2028 presidential election as well.

“It’s not just the Wisconsin Supreme Court. It’s potentially taking the House majority away from Republicans, therefore stalling President Trump and taking away his ability to govern and legislate,” he said. “Furthermore, it also has 2028 ramifications. I’m already in the mode of working towards presumptive nominee presidential candidate JD Vance in 2028. There is no stop to work that we do, and so I am cognizant that these Supreme Court races are going to impact even the next presidential election.”

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Twitter @thekat_hamilton.