Wisconsin Supreme Court Race, Florida's Special Elections, Trump's Trade War
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A state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin is the most expensive judicial race in American history.
They will try to stop all of the government reforms that we are doing.
Why is this race in particular getting record spending?
I'm Michelle Martin-Dencey-Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. Democrats think they have a shot at flipping congressional seats in two Florida special elections.
He will be there whenever I need him. He wants to be there whenever we need him.
Will President Trump's support help or hurt the Republican candidate's chances?
And a lesson about tariffs from one of the most protected industries in the U.S.
If you go on the candy aisle and look at the hard candy, you'll see most of it is made outside the United States.
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That's so funny. That's what my grandmother used to say. Stay sweet. Stay sweet. And I'll be like, why?
I want to be sour.
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Voters in Wisconsin have been casting ballots in the state's closely watched Supreme Court election.
It is the most expensive court race in American history, with billionaire Elon Musk and other out-of-state donors spending millions to decide the next justice of the court. Here's Musk over the weekend with a last-minute pitch for the conservative candidate and for what he says are the stakes for President Trump's agenda.
They will try to stop all of the government reforms that we are doing, and we're getting done for you, the American people.
So... Join us for more is Wisconsin Public Radio's Anya Van Wagtindonk. Anya, so this state Supreme Court race is getting lots of national attention. I mean, why is it getting that much attention and who are the candidates?
Yeah, so this is a contest between Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel. It's technically a nonpartisan race, but Crawford is very clearly the liberal candidate and Schimel is very clearly the conservative candidate. So whoever wins will determine the ideological balance of the court. And that obviously really matters for state law here, of course. But this is also just a really significant election coming after President Donald Trump's win in November. So it's a bit of a test of how voters feel about his first few months in office. And that's a big reason for all of that interest and just tons of money being spent here.
Yeah, that money, where's it coming from? I mean, the numbers are similar to what we see in U.S. Senate races. I mean...
Yeah, it is just wild. The latest estimates from WisPolitics, which is a news service here, show that this race has so far cost more than $100 million. That's almost twice what our last record-setting judge race here in Wisconsin cost two years ago. It's coming from both political parties and from all across the country. It includes Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and George Soros, who are backing Crawford. I've seen some celebrity names in the campaign finance reports also supporting her. and a few major conservative business people are backing Schimel, but far and away the biggest and most significant spender has been Elon Musk supporting Schimel. He says it's really about congressional redistricting.
He says that if Schimel loses, Democrats could gain more seats in the U.S. House. Crawford says it's about Musk's business interests. Here's Crawford at a debate with Schimel.
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