Category: UW Experts in the News

Overall, it may look like Schimel and his conservative allies aired more crime-related TV ads than did Crawford, said University of Wisconsin political science professor Barry Burden. But Burden noted that most of the spending on the left went through Crawford’s campaign. On the right, many conservative groups spent their own cash instead of funneling it through the state Republican Party to Schimel.

“Campaigns who spend directly are guaranteed by law to get lower ad rates, so even equal spending by the two sides means that Schimel was able to purchase less because more of his support came from outside groups,” Burden said.

“Democrats are now a party of higher income and more educated voters, rather than lower income and less educated voters, and that makes them more reliable voters,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center.

The role of Musk — who is overseeing a controversial cost-cutting operation for Trump — made the race in part a referendum on him, said Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Elections Research Center.

“He is such an unusual person and he has this outsize influence in what is going on,” Burden said of Musk, who is listed by Forbes as the world’s richest person. “So that concern fit the narrative of what he was doing in the Wisconsin race, throwing his weight around and using his wealth. It was just a step too far for a lot of voters.”

In 2023’s state Supreme Court election, Wisconsin’s young voters voted at a higher rate than ever recorded, Howard Schweber, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told the Washington Examiner.

“I’m not shocked that we might see that record broken again,” he added. “It’s a reflection of a lot of things – the nationalization of the election, the enormous flow of money, the enormous number of ads, the genuine stakes. I do like to think that there is also something about the Wisconsin culture of civic engagement and getting out there and having your voice heard.”

“The (Republican) Party is behaving as if it has a mandate for really dramatic action,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor and director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Elections Research Center.

“A loss by conservatives in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race would be a big symbolic setback,” he continued. “It would suggest the public is tired of that and wants the administration to stop and go in a different direction.”

“It looks like Elon Musk’s intervention probably backfired,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center. “It really provided fuel for Crawford’s campaign and a kind of focal point for people who were upset by what’s happening in Washington.”

“We could see this kind of back-and-forth at fairly short terms — a year, two years, three years in between them — in a way that deprives the court of one of the key things that is supposed to separate law from politics, which is stability,” said Howard Schweber, professor emeritus of political science and legal studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“The court’s upcoming decisions on abortion, union rights and election laws have helped make this a blockbuster election,” says Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin political scientist. Another matter at stake could be the shape of the state’s congressional delegation, which is currently filled by six Republicans and two Democrats. If Crawford wins, a round of redistricting for the congressional map could follow the one already implemented for state legislative seats.

The level of intensity in the state feels about like a presidential election, said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“It’s now become kind of a national referendum, or at least a way to measure the temperature of the electorate a couple of months into the Trump administration. The fact that the court is up for grabs ideologically and is weighing in on these important issues and money is so easily spread into these campaigns has really been the kind of magic stew that has put these elections on the map for everyone.”

Allison Prasch, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specialises in US political rhetoric, said this race was a strategy test for both sides.

“We know that Wisconsin, up to the very end of the presidential cycle, was very close,” she said, noting that some cities such as Milwaukee and Madison unexpectedly swung towards Trump and helped deliver him the state’s electoral college votes. “What happens in Wisconsin [now] is going to tell us a lot about what’s going to happen, not just in 2026 but in 2028.”

Emeritus Professor of Public Affairs and Applied Economics at University of Wisconsin Madison, Andrew Reschovsky, said low income students, students with disabilities and rural school districts can impact how much each student costs, when calculating state aid allocated per pupil. He added that the formula used to determine state aid amounts in Wisconsin does not take these factors into account.

“Those sort of factors are not part of our what are called general aid formula in Wisconsin. In most other states, they are integral to the main funding formula,” said Reschovsky.