Investigating Power
The more than $100 million spent on this spring’s Supreme Court election in Wisconsin set a new national record for spending on a state judicial race. The figure almost doubles the previous record of $51 million, which donors poured into the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in 2023.
Heritage Action, the advocacy arm of the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation — the right-wing think tank behind Project 2025 — provided Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray with model legislation, detailed feedback, and line-by-line edits for a bill that limits foreign spending on campaigns for state ballot measures.
Spending in support of Democratic candidate Susan Crawford stands at approximately $40.3 million. The Crawford campaign spent roughly $22 million of that total, while the remaining spending has come from independent groups.
Schimel’s record on environmental issues is clear. When he served as attorney general between 2015 and 2019, he repeatedly sided with major polluters and worked to undermine environmental protections.
Turning Point Action, which campaigned for Donald Trump in Wisconsin in 2024, is deploying its get-out-the-vote machinery to back Brad Schimel in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election on April 1, 2025.
An arm of the Republican State Leadership Committee, dubbed the “Judicial Fairness Initiative” (RSLC-JFI), has spent at least $2 million dollars to aid the election ambitions of Brad Schimel for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
An in-state network of right-wing political donors, groups, and operatives has teamed up to spend even more for Schimel than Elon Musk has.
Behind closed doors last month, House Democrats expressed their frustration at an unexpected target: their own base.
Schimel, a Republican, previously served as Wisconsin’s attorney general from 2015–19. He has held close associations with several right-wing organizations and taken far-right positions on hot-button issues from abortion to guns, health care, and the J6 rioters who attacked the Capitol.
For Republicans, the extreme right-wing freedom caucuses that have emerged in state legislatures in the past few years have played the same obstructionist role as the U.S. House Freedom Caucus.