This is a special presentation of the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome to special live coverage of the Spring General Election, here on your local Civic Media Radio Station.
The polls are closing and you'll hear results from reporters in local communities around Wisconsin,
plus tracking the statewide races including one being watched across the country
and open seat on the State Supreme Court.
Five election coverage of the results and what it means for you starts now.
Here's Todd Alba, host of the Todd Alba Show, along with Dan Schaefer of the Recombobulation Area.
And good evening everybody from the World Headquarters of Civic Media in downtown Madison on a pretty beautiful night here.
Other parts of Wisconsin seems some precipitation but about a block away from the Wisconsin State Capitol here tonight.
Welcome to Wisconsin decides 2025, where by the end of the evening we should know who will be the next justice on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court,
who will be the next superintendent of public instruction here in Wisconsin, as well as do voters say yay or nay to a new constitutional amendment regarding voter ID.
Glad to have you along going to be an exciting evening, no better person to enjoy it within my friend.
My colleague our ongoing contributor here at Civic Media, not only that, but also happens to be the political editor,
the founder of the Recombobulation Area Dan Schaefer.
Dan has been a discombobulating few months in elections here at Wisconsin, but tonight we're going to have some answers.
It sure has Todd records spending in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
The eyes of the nation, perhaps the world, descending once again upon Wisconsin for another everything on the line race.
We've got a lot to get to tonight.
I'm excited to be here with you at Civic Media HQ in Madison, Wisconsin.
It's great to be here and you're right.
I mean, I was watching some of the national news shows.
I mean, you've got reporters from every major network as you said descending on Wisconsin.
It's all over the headlines.
It's kind of cool to be the center of attention by I think for a lot of people.
And we're going to get into this a little bit later on the spending the ads radio TV online.
I think people know there's an election going on and let's get right into it right away.
Some of your reporting, what we're hearing around the state, we could be looking at record turnout for a spring election.
Yeah, that's right.
I think we, you know, we had very high turnout two years ago when the balance of power in the Wisconsin Supreme Court was also on the line when Janet Proto say what's defeated Daniel Kelly.
But I think, you know, and the turnout total for that was about 1.85 million people across Wisconsin.
I would not be surprised at all if we get to 2 million for a turnout here in Wisconsin.
We're getting reports around the state from various municipalities that have had to bring additional ballots to the polls.
We're hearing a little bit of that out of Milwaukee trying to make sense of what's going on there.
Also in Green Bay, they had record turnout.
And so that will be certainly one of the stories that will be monitored throughout the night.
Traditionally in Wisconsin, it's been the old theory is higher turnouts help to tend to help democratic candidates.
But we saw last fall, Dan Schaefer, when there was a record turnout in Donald Trump on the state.
Yeah, that's part of the kind of the realignment that we're seeing in our politics here in Wisconsin and across the nation.
Donald Trump did especially well last year with what those of us in the political science, dark community referred to as low propensity voters.
Now, these are people who might not who may vote in a presidential election, but might not necessarily show up in a midterm, in a spring election.
And you know, your school board or common council races, whatever it might be.
And since Trump did especially well with that group of voters, it might suggest in this election that higher turnout could help Brad Schimmel, the Trump endorsed candidate in the race.
Those that might be listening, standing in line reminder that under Wisconsin law, if you were in line by eight o'clock, stay there to Dan's point of green Bay Milwaukee.
These were reports are that those places are running out of ballots are having to print new ones.
If you were in line at eight o'clock, Dan, it's people's constitutional right in Wisconsin that they get a chance to vote.
If you're in line, stay in line, don't let anyone take away your opportunity to cast your ballot and make your voice heard in this critically important election in Wisconsin.
I'm going on here. We're going to go to Savannah to me Olsen in just a minute at the Susan Crawford campaign. But before we do already some results, Dan, not from Wisconsin, though, the other place that a lot of people are watching tonight in election results are Florida to open congressional seats there.
Of course, Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House and Congress has a very, very slim majority right now.
And these two open seats were critical to have him keep his majority down there.
The thinking was that the Democrats might have a chance, particularly in the Mike Walls seat.
He has gone on to be Donald Trump's national security advisor. That's Florida six, but tonight everything seems fine for the Republican candidate.
Randy Fine was 56.7% of the vote in Josh wheel. Yes, it's pronounced wheel different than our CEO here. It's spelled the same as stage while Josh wheel, the Democrat with 42.7% and 99% of the results are in there.
Florida six is in Republican hands.
I think that is to be expected for this type of race. And when Walt's won last year, he won with more than 66% of the vote.
And that is another kind of piece of the realignment that we're seeing. Those low propensity voters have been shifting more Republican.
But at the same time, some of those more reliable voters, college educated voters, people who might show up in every last election, every time there's something on the ballot, those voters have been trending much more democratic.
In recent years. So, you know, with the tightening margin there, that is, you know, kind of what we've been seeing for some of these special elections in the house in the last few years.
For the Democrats in four to six, as Mack was well smart, used to say on get smart, missed it by that much in four to one.
Not going to amount a whole lot better for Democrats there. Another open seat, the Matt Gates seat. Yes, that Matt Gates, it was a Republican seat.
And tonight, the Republican cruises to victory there, Jimmy Patronus with 57% of the vote and gave Alamond the Democrat with 42.2%, 97% in their APS called it three Republican.
Yeah, no surprises there. And, you know, we'll be getting into the much closer, much more closely contested races here in the purple list of purple states in Wisconsin.
But interesting only again, maybe for just folks like us who watch these things, but I think for voters in Wisconsin, to your point, we're seeing kind of this realignment a little bit races getting even closer in some places in Wisconsin, or maybe municipalities around Milwaukee, those counties called the wild counties might be a little bit more purple.
And to your point, I thought that was great, a great point that the even floor to six, the wall seat, he won this, this fine Republican candidate, but it's a lot smaller. And maybe that shows that could there, this is what we're going to watch tonight, I think, crappy if I'm wrong.
But this to me in Wisconsin tonight is as much a referendum on Donald Trump and Elon Musk as it is the Supreme Court candidates.
I think you're absolutely right about that. I think the fact that this election is happening just 71 days into Donald Trump's second term, everything in the political universe reviewing through the prism of Donald Trump's scorched earth return to office right now.
And especially with given the involvement of Elon Musk, both in hit Donald Trump's administration and in this particular race where he has been by far the biggest most active political donor in this race as well.
So kind of merging the power of being in the lighthouse with the money that he's able to throw around. There's really nothing like this that we've ever seen in Wisconsin politics.
So I think in so many ways this race will be viewed as a referendum on Trump and perhaps even more so a referendum on Elon Musk.
Our mutual friend Charles Franklin runs the Milwaukee Law, pardon me, the Marquette Law School poll here in Wisconsin has talked about the fact that that despite some of these policies of Trump's being controversial, the effects of those policies haven't reached or been felt by a whole lot of Wisconsinites yet.
And that's keeping his popularity so to speak is his positives fairly relatively high.
He has maintained, and you know, this is kind of a joke that Charles will make at those Marquette University Law poll reveals is that nobody really likes anybody.
So Trump's high approval rating is still like a couple points underwater, but that's the case for most politicians across the state of Wisconsin.
Elon Musk, not quite as well like as Donald Trump. So I think that's why Democrats have focused so much on Musk more so than Trump in this race.
The big race of course tonight here in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin State Supreme Court race, and we are going to go to our great reporters all evening long or in the field for us covering judge Susan Crawford's race tonight.
Of course, she is the candidate, which was endorsed officially, officially, technically, this is a non partisan race, but everybody knows that really is the case.
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is endorsed Susan Crawford, the Republican Party Wisconsin has endorsed Brad Chibble.
Let's head out on the road now to the election night party for Judge Susan Crawford, where we find WMDX's Savannah Tome Olson standing by.
Savannah, thanks for being there this evening. Set the stage. What are you seeing and hearing tonight?
Well, I wish I could tell you that there's a ton going on, but it's mostly just us reporters here right now, but it's a big group and one of the biggest I've ever seen.
This is my 10-year covering elections in Wisconsin, and there are easily 35, maybe 45 of us journalists here between the videographers, photographers, writers on air reporters, that sort of thing.
It's a it's a hop in place. If you're in news right now, we have just started to see some people start to walk in here and get their drinks at the bar because you can't have an election night watch party in Wisconsin without the open bar.
But I want to talk about turnout for a second, because you know, the Wisconsin Elections Commission said that we broke early voting records back in 2023, and that state supports Supreme Court race. And then this time they released the data on Sunday morning.
We doubled that record. So there are already tons of people who voted early more than ever before here in Wisconsin. This is the pandemic. We've just seen so many more people voting.
And when I went to go vote today, I always bring my son. It's kind of treacherous, bringing a 20-and-a-half year old to the polling place. Got to bring some trucks and some cars.
But by the time I got there at three in the afternoon, I was voter number 1,000, something and the poll workers told me they had a couple of flow periods throughout the day, but they said they couldn't remember a time where there was not a voter in the polling place.
And they said they, you know, in a spring election had never seen that before. So there are all eyes on this race tonight.
Interesting, very interesting, indeed. For those who can be listening throughout the night, Savannah, where is this party being held tonight for a Judge Susan Crawford?
This is at the best Western Park Hotel here on Madison's Capitol Square. And this room is not gigantic. I would say if this is not a room that could hold, you know, 300 people, especially with so much flocked off for us here with the press.
So I think this will be more of an intimate gathering here than some of the watch parties I've been to in the past.
Sounds great. Savannah, we appreciate you being there. Thanks for the great reporting. We'll check in with you throughout the evening. Let us know as soon as you have any news there. We'll certainly go to you.
Savannah, Tomay Olson from WMDX here in Madison, covering the Republican endorse candidate tonight, Brad Shimmel. He is the former attorney general as well.
And he is the candidate that's endorses me. So by the Republican side, Melissa Kay is standing by, we're going to go to her in just a moment.
Well, first of all, of course, we have to do a little news day. And as it turns out, still have a couple of ads. No, no, no candidate ads, thank goodness tonight.
Finally.
Right. Savannah told me also to open bar. We don't have one of those here tonight at our desk.
You know, we may have to add that to future election night plans here at Civic Media.
Very good. I won't go to come back as we said it and check out Melissa Kay at the Shimmel Watch Party tonight.
Also going to have reports to you at the Jill Underley Watch Party, Dr. Jill Underley at the incumbent Secretary Department of Public Instruction and Brittany Kinzer, the Republican endorse candidate as well.
All that more stay with us is Wisconsin Decide 2025 on the Civic Media. We're ready to work.
And welcome back to Wisconsin Decide 2025 here on election night.
April 1st. No fooling. We will have results for you throughout the evening, along with political editor of Civic Media and the founder of the Recombobulation Area Dan Schaffer.
I'm Todd Allbalk. Glad that you have joined us here on election evening across Civic Media.
Going to go back out the field at just a moment, Dan, but already some results are starting to trickle in in the Supreme Court race.
Yeah, I think one of the counties that I'm going to be watching early in the evening here is my home county of Walker Shot County.
Now, Walker Shot County typically has been a Republican stronghold over the years, but that has been eroding in recent elections.
So the numbers there are really key to the overall statewide result as Walker Shot County is the third most populous county in the state.
And so given that Brad Shimmel is from Walker Shot County, he's a Walker Shot County judge. He has built his career there.
He needs to get, he needs to do well in Walker Shot County in order for him to win.
So with only 22% of the votes counted so far, Brad Shimmel is at just under 62%.
I think 60% is the key number there. Shimmel needs to be over 60% in Walker Shot County.
I think if he wants to, if he wants to win statewide tonight, we'll continue to watch the numbers. No calls yet.
No projections. Also, no results that we have seen yet for the statewide referendum, which we'll be getting to in just a minute.
Let's continue to check in with our field team across Wisconsin. We already talked to Savannah to me Olsen at the Judge Susan Crawford event tonight here in Madison.
Let's go back out on road our own Melissa K from WF HR beautiful Wisconsin Rapids is at the Brad Shimmel event tonight.
Of course, Shimmel a judge from Walker Shot County right now, appointed by Scott Walker on his way out the door.
And of course, the former Republican Attorney General of Wisconsin Melissa. Thank you very much for being there tonight.
Set the stage. Where do we find you tonight? And what are you seeing?
Hi, Todd and Dan. I am at the Marriott West here in Walker Shot. And this place has already happened.
The band set up when I was getting here about 630 or so. The Brad Shimmel band that he's participating in is four on the floor.
And they've got I guess about five to seven people. They haven't started playing yet, but I just get to hear the warm up.
And there's just a steady hum of chatter. People are mingling. They're obviously getting drinks. They've got a great food table set up sandwiches, cheese and crackers.
I'm kind of a little jealous of their veggie tray. They have some from the spherigus beers on there that looks delicious. Very nice.
But overall, it's just a boy in excited, happy crowd here in Walker Shot.
I did not know that the former Attorney General now judge Shimmel as part of a band four on the floor. That's an interesting nugget. Do we know what he plays?
Wow, he plays bass. Really? Wow.
And I think he sings as well or at least he talks because he does have a microphone. And when he was warming up, I got to hear a little preview.
They have a female lead singer tonight. I think that it's kind of a revolving band from what I gathered that they have different musicians kind of join and, you know, play with them at different venues here and there throughout the area.
And I think it's classic rock.
All right. Well, that's great. I think great reporting nicely, a lot of cover bands nicely done. Melissa, I appreciate you setting the stage and you between you and Savannah now Dan and I are both hungry and thirsty tonight.
So enjoy yourself there. We'll check back in with you in just a little while. But thank you, Melissa, for being there tonight. We look forward to your great reporting there at the Mary Out West in Walker Shot on the Judge Brad Shimmel campaign. Thanks, Melissa.
The other big race stand our pleasure. The other big race stand that a lot of people are. We're all watching, of course, is the race for a state superintendent of public instruction, the incumbent, Dr. Jill,
Andre Lee, who is endorsed by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is going against Britney Kinser, a school consultant who is endorsed by the Republican Party.
This one could get very interesting. Of course, there was a Democratic primary in which Jeff Wright lost to under Lee, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin endorsed under Lee in that primary.
The Democratic governor, Tony Evers, who held this position for three terms before becoming governor has refused to endorse fellow Democrat under Lee in the general. What do we make of this?
Well, I think, you know, typically this has not been a particularly close race historically in the state of Wisconsin. I wrote a piece on this after that primary that you mentioned about the state Supreme Court race, did a little digging into the history. It has been since the 1990s that this was decided, this race was decided by a single digit margin.
That could definitely be the case today, given the turn out that we're seeing, given how much the Wisconsin Republicans have been putting behind Britney Kinser's campaign, she's been campaigning with Shimmel.
And so I think, you know, there are not that many split ticket voters in the state of Wisconsin enough to be determined to determine some different outcomes as we've seen over the years.
But given that, you know, heightened turnout, heightened attention to this race and the fact that, you know, under Lee only got less than 40% in that in that primary.
I think she is a vulnerable incumbent, but I do think she is still probably the favorite, but I think Kinser could give her a real run for her money here.
Former Democratic mayor of Madison, Mayor Dave Tushlevich, known as Mayor Dave, endorsed Kinser last week.
And the Madison newspaper, the Wisconsin State Journal editorial board also endorsed Kinser over the weekend.
I would read too much into this. Am I reading too much into this? Or could this be this, this kind of fracturing of Democrats on this race?
Yeah, this has been, you know, the undercard, but compared to the $100 million spending in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
But I think there is a chance for Kinser to win this one. You know, I do wonder if under Lee will do a little bit better in rural areas that really rely on their public schools.
She's been a big champion of public schools. And then, conversely, I think Kinser could do well in the wild counties around Milwaukee, where, you know, the so-called school choice movement is a little bit more popular.
Let's go out to the field right now and our great reporter, James Kelly from WFHW up in the Chippewa Valley up there standing by at the Kinser campaign.
James about two minutes left will come back to you after the break, but set to the stage. Where do we find you tonight? And what do you see?
We are at the Sinestra, Milwaukee West here in Walla, Tosa. I really hope I'm pronouncing that right. It's actually the first time I've been to this part of the state personally.
Pretty good crowd here about 30 people or so, some cheers, some groans as the flipping of the giant projector continues.
All right, very good. Big crowd yet or so still kind of too early at this point.
About 30 people and there's a lot of socializing going on here, which is, you know, not a lot of screen watching and should get a couple of cheers here as Kinser actually just pulled back ahead.
Yeah, it's going back and forth as Dan and I were just chatting tonight. This has kind of gone under the radar, maybe just because of the prominence of the Supreme Court race, but this could get very interesting tonight.
We'll see as it goes along, but we'll be interested in your reporting down there. So thanks for being there, James. We'll check back in with you in just a little bit.
James Kelly at the Kinser campaign and we're checking with the underlay campaign in just a while as well results are starting to trickle in.
We'll update you on where we're at. Dan Schaefer, a political editor is here. I'm here at Todd Alba as well. And as always, our friend, our colleague who holds it all together.
Aaron Zommers on the board doing the great producing job tonight. Stay with us. It's Wisconsin decides 2025 on the civic media.
Ready to know work.
And welcome back to Wisconsin decides 2025 and it's 34 minutes past the hour of eight o'clock. Welcome back into our World Headquarters studios in downtown Madison, along with political editor of civic media and founder of the Recombobulation area, Dan Schaefer.
I'm Todd Alba glad to have you along.
Going to go back to the field in just a moment, get an update from the Dr. Jill underlay campaign, but Dan Schaefer, before we go any further, a fluid story, a breaking news story here.
This coming across channel 3000 about 747. So just over a half an hour ago and say that multiple polling places in Milwaukee have reported a shortage of ballots.
And the city's top official is confirming that, according to West politics, Milwaukee officials have been working to send more ballots to the seven seven polling locations that were affected late today.
The executive director of the Milwaukee election said in a press conference tonight that the city was sending early vote machines to the impacted polling places, allowing voters to cast their vote on an electronic machine.
Then prints a ballot that can be fed into the counts.
Gatera said in a press conference quote, we apologize for the delays that are happening.
We ask you to remain patient, please stay in line. Also she said that the officials have no reason to believe that they would need to find a find any court orders to keep these sites open.
Dan, this is your neck of the woods down there. You're familiar with these folks down there. We don't want alarm people, but I think it's an important story to watch as the evening goes on.
Certainly, I think you know, one of the stories that we are always going to be watching in any statewide election is that Milwaukee central count number that comes at the very end of the night.
If there are added complications as we're seeing here, that could delay things that could, you know, muddy up the system a little bit, but we'll await further updates as to if this was really truly impacting people on the ground in Milwaukee.
I mean, people are still in line and they're printing ballots. I just.
There's also so this is one of the things that happens in Milwaukee. I early voted there as well. And so you kind of there's like a digital system that you kind of punch your, you know, your selections on there and it will print out your completed ballot and that will go into the absentees and that will go into the central count.
So there is a process to be dealt with there. It's just not ideal.
Very good. What is ideal is our great team across the state of Wisconsin and Derek Tritt to standing by as we continue on the Department of Public Instruction race. Dr. Jill underlie the incumbent there and doors by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
Derek is standing by Derek. We appreciate you being there. Where do we find you tonight? And what is the scene?
I'm at the event venue in the concourse hotel in Madison right now and the intimate space, but there is a decent amount of people here. Everyone's lively. I'm looking at about 20 guests, not including the press here.
People are conversing people are having fun. It is looking like everyone's having a great time here. There's also an impressive spread of snacks here. We've got some roasted butter squash, some Swedish meatballs and some vegetable spring rolls.
Not what I was expecting for a campaign watch party, but welcome nonetheless. That sounds fantastic. I appreciate you will give us the rundown as our other reporters have. And you know, if you get a chance to bring something over later on about two o'clock in the morning, do so. There's anything left. We'll be happy to do that.
Derek again. And we've seen the candidate yet as Dr. underlie there or no sign of anybody from the campaign proper, just supporters at this point.
I haven't seen anyone except for the contact for press at from the campaign so far, haven't seen underlie yet. I didn't counter someone who actually was removed from the venue.
So when I thought was part of or part of the guest list was running up and down the halls, yelling, I'm looking for Elon and in the middle of my conversation with them was yanked out of the event.
That's news. That's news and Dan Schaefer. This goes to another story we've seen tonight earlier tonight here just about a half a mile from where where Derek is at the concourse, maybe three quarters of a mile on the e to be a Madison campus.
And again, we don't want to make too much of about it, but it kind of goes hand in hand with Derek just said tells us happening with a Tesla on campus.
There was a reports of I'm reading a tweet from state representative Francesca Hong and Madison. She said there was a cyber truck driver came on to the campus grounds through drug paraphernalia everywhere screaming free weed.
And and he, you know, fortunately, no one was hurt and the driver was apprehended, but you know, we're all we're all in a heightened state here. We're all pretty discombobulated. There's a lot going on.
We got a cyber a Tesla cyber truck with people screaming on campus and Derek's got a guy running up and down the halls screaming for Elon. It could be it could be quite a night.
Just another normal election right here in the state of Wisconsin. Derek, great reporting. We appreciate you, my friend. We'll check in with you throughout the evening. Let us know if you have news. We'll get right to you. So thank you very much.
I think that's a little bit advantage Crawford there. I think Shimmel needs to be north of 60% if he wants to win statewide. Another county that typically counts their votes early is La Crosse County.
Now La Crosse County last fall, like much of Western Wisconsin swung pretty significantly towards Trump. And in the 2024 presidential election, La Crosse County went 54% for Kamala Harris, 45% for Donald Trump.
Now Crawford seems to have a much wider margin there in their early count as we're seeing in La Crosse. Crawford is at 63% in La Crosse County with 80% of the votes in with Shimmel only at 37%. That could be a pretty strong indicator that this map might look a little bit more like the one from 2023 when Janet Proto say what's one.
Very interesting indeed. Lots of spending as we talked about at the top of our broadcast tonight. Lots of dollars record number probably day and correct me if I'm wrong by the time this all shakes out going to be north of 100 million dollars.
Certainly is going to be the case. This is going to be the most expensive state court race in American history. And it might double the record set on that from two years ago from the 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
And so much of that has in so many ways been driven by Elon Musk. He is by far the biggest donor in this race. You know, I was at an event with the Crawford campaign last night in Madison and Susan Crawford was saying that just Elon alone has spent more than $25 million in this race.
Who knows if we see the final reporting come in if that number is going to be somewhere around 30 million.
Let's go to the executive director of the Wisconsin democracy campaign. He is Nick Ramos and his organization has been following this closely. Nick always a pleasure to have you on our broadcast. Thank you for spending time with us. You joined us tonight via stream yard.
What do you make of this? What is Wisconsin democracy campaign? I know you've been tracking this but thoughts on on just this out of record record unprecedented spending in this race.
Well, Dan Todd, it's always a pleasure to be able to see your beautiful faces. I mean, usually it's earlier in the day, but you know, it is election day.
So I'm glad to be here virtually with you fellas. And so all of yours out there. Honestly, our elections are something that a lot of people put a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of blood sweat and tears into, I mean, it's our democracy in action.
Today is one of those days where I feel like it needs to be a breaking point for this state, like no matter who your candidate is.
I don't care if you're liberal, conservative, independent. We really have to be alarmed at the grotesque billionaire arms race. We got to watch happen right after off the heels of a presidential election.
And as you guys have correctly stated, I mean, it's interesting when earlier in this race, I was making projections of about 100 million and people thought I was crazy.
And then here we are. And Dan said it. We broke. We were when the dust settles and we get to look at these final spending reports in July, it will be over $100 million.
And to think about in a time when there's so many people that are working their tails off to try and paper rent feed their families try and make ends meet.
We have billionaires creating our elections like it's a game and treating it like they get an opportunity to, you know, edge bets and, you know, see what works and the thing is is that people in Wisconsin, it's a smart electorate.
We show up and I'm going to wager that beyond just breaking the money record, we're going to break a voter turnout record tonight. And I think when you hear about the reporting that's happening in Milwaukee right now, as far as the unexpected high voter turnout on election day, it's people are sitting here being like, you know what, it's April, it's usually a low voter turnout election.
But we've seen enough and we're tired of people feeling like they're going to trample all over us. And so my hope is is that we could do some real campaign finance reform in the state. And I think after this election, we need to have some serious conversations with every lawmaker about this.
Nick, you're in touch with members all over the state of Wisconsin. You're out there on the ground.
Help us spend a minute or so just talking about this that did this election start to turn and we'll see what the results are. But was there a turning point when Elon Musk really started dumping, you know, millions of millions into this and then he comes into green Bay this weekend personally.
It seems like that part of this race went from policies and differences on these two candidates, Shimmel and Crawford to this is now referendum on someone coming into Wisconsin in Elon Musk and taking our elections.
Was that a turning point for the people you talked to across the state?
I think without a question it was and I heard testimony from folks that said that they weren't planning on voting at all in this election until they heard that there were these just million dollar cash dumps.
Also, it's hard to like in Wisconsin, like we're I guess we're numb to it in the bubble, but like to be literally subjected to nonstop direct mail, commercials, digital ads everywhere you go.
It is being thrown in your face because of the amount of money that's being spent to try and persuade you to go vote.
People are standing up and they're saying like, you know what, like Wisconsin, we don't get bought in this state.
I don't care if it's, you know, a Democrat millionaire billionaire or Republican millionaire billionaire, like people are all like, you know what, I'm going to show you because Wisconsin historically has had great turnout.
It's an interesting situation where you get to watch in real time.
The things that are happening on X slash Twitter and then you see at the national level what's happening and people are like, this is the first time.
I mean, everyone sits there and says, money's a problem, but now they're seeing it infiltrate every aspect of their life during this election cycle.
And you're seeing an energy that I just have not seen and my time being here in Wisconsin and I've been here going on 11 years now.
So I do think that like Elon entering the race did create excitement on the conservative side and also you've got to see, you know, people wanting to rebuke it on the liberal side.
Dan Schaffer looks like we don't have final results yet, but it appears that the trend seems to be turning towards what we're seeing so far coming in tonight.
It seems to be turning towards using Crawford.
Yeah, all indicators right now are pointing towards a Crawford victory in the state of Wisconsin.
You know, we talked about early in the broadcast that Shimmel needed to get over 60% in Waksha County. He's below that number.
He's below number of the indicators in counties in Western Wisconsin.
So the as the night unfolds here again, it's early again, these things can be unpredictable, but everything right now is trending in Susan Crawford's direction.
Yeah, other places around the Wisconsin that Brad Shimmel is just not getting to where I think people that were backing him had hoped with a bagel county.
We talked about that at the top of the broadcast, the so-called bow counties of Brown out of Miami with a bagel.
A lot of people are listening or watching know that as the Valley quote unquote the Fox Valley.
That was a place that Janet Proto say was two years ago was able to flip towards the liberal democratic side would want to say and Dan Kelly lost.
And that was a place and into Nick's point where Elon Musk spent time there this weekend, give it out million dollar checks Brad Shimmel had to do well there if he's going to win tonight.
Absolutely. And you know, I'm a UW Ashkosh graduate myself. I spent a lot of time there last fall writing a writing a piece about the politics of the Fox Valley.
It's a very swingy region. It's a very independent region. And right now we're seeing Crawford head in Winnebago County, which is home to UW Ashkosh.
And it out of gamey County. She has a slight lead as well. And that is a county that Donald Trump won by nearly double digits last year, if not, if not double digits.
So, you know, everything is coming up Crawford right now.
Everything's coming up Crawford. This is a gypsy rosy thing from the musical gypsy. All right, no actual results as we could call at this time, but getting very, very close.
If this were a brewery game, you could spell the brats of the grill. Come on back as Wisconsin decides 2025 with the civic media rate network.
And welcome back to Wisconsin decides 2025 here, the civic video world headquarters, along with civic media's political editor and founder of the recombobulation area, Mr. Dan Schaefer.
I'm Todd Albaugh. Glad to have you along with us as we continue on our way here on election night results are coming in fast and furious.
Many thanks to Nick Ramos, by the way, for being with us here, the executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
We may check back in with him a little while later, but right now coming up about eight minutes before the hour of nine o'clock polls have been closed now in Wisconsin for just under an hour.
We're a reminder, particularly for listeners and viewers in the Milwaukee area, if you are someone you know is still in line, our understanding is there may be some delay in getting ballots to some of these polling locations in the Milwaukee area.
Stay as long as you were there by eight o'clock stay there. You were entitled to cast a ballot right now. Let's go out to the field once again WM DX's Savannah to me Olson standing by.
Just a couple of blocks up from where Dan and I are in on the park here on the Capitol Square at the judge Susan Crawford campaign watch party. Savannah, give us a sense of the room. What are you seeing? What are you hearing up there?
Well, what's funny is that you would think that people will be watching the TV and hearing as the numbers change, right? And the party really just started. There have been so many people that have filtered in just in these last like 30 minutes ish and lots of people are socializing. I honestly don't think a ton of them are turning around and looking at the screen behind them and to their side because everybody seems to be just having a drink having a good time.
And I can smell a fish fry for what it's worth some sort of stuff that's being sent around to everybody, but I keep kind of waiting for people to really start paying attention to the screens because once they do this crowd is going to be pretty thrilled.
Yeah, as as Dan Schaefer is reporting the associative press has not called the race yet, but all indications are from what we are seeing here. It seems to be that Brad Shimmel is not making his marks of where he needed to be if he was going to win this race tonight.
Meanwhile, Susan Crawford seems to be Dan to your point.
The roadmap of Jennifer to say which seems to be followed tonight.
It does and you know, once again in these special elections, we're seeing incredible turnout from Dan County and incredible margins in Dan County right now with 71% of the votes in per the New York Times Susan Crawford is nearing 80% of the vote.
It's just remarkable in a in a county this size to be so lopsided and across the state, Western Wisconsin, Fox Valley, Waksha County, a number of these places we're looking at as swing regions around the state.
It is all going in Crawford's direction right now. She is running well ahead of where Kamala Harris was last fall. She is on track to win this race.
Savannah, you're reporting earlier just based on your own personal experience. You said you went to the polls this morning and it certainly felt like high.
If not record turnout in your neck of the woods, you're in Dan County.
You know, when I was there in the afternoon, the poll workers had told me that they were busy and pretty steady all day, but my husband went at 745 this morning.
So 45 minutes into the polls being open. And in our little precinct of Dan County, he was voted almost voter number 200 and he was floored by that.
He was like, I think I was like 300 in November when I went at the same time. So that really shows just exactly what you're talking about here with the turnout in Dan County.
And that's unsurprising because if you talk to anybody, especially here in Madison, they have had people knocking on their doors just about every day these last two weeks.
The money really shows in the booths on the ground going door to door here.
Yeah, Savannah, I really appreciate your great reporting. Let us know when you have more news and information. We'll certainly go back to you when we can.
And stay and by we'll come back to you. Thank you very much. Savannah told me Olson at the judge Susan Crawford campaign tonight to the best Western into the park at the Capitol Square.
Right now, five minutes before the hour here, the top of the hour, let's go quickly to Melissa K, who is standing by at the Brad Shibbol judge brand, Shibbol watch party in Waukeshaw. Melissa, what are you hearing and seeing on the other side of the spectrum, the Shibbol campaign in Waukeshaw?
Well, Todd, it is definitely a rock and party here. The rock band has taken the stage and they're playing their hearts out up there.
And the mood in the room is, I would say they're just enjoying the music right now. Nobody's paying too much attention to the screen.
And I haven't really seen a whole lot of reaction yet. But the band is playing loud. So I've had to move way down the hall.
So I can hear you and you can hear me. Yes, they're loud.
All right. Well, very good. Thank you very much. I find it. Melissa, you've been doing this for a while as well.
But we hear you and also Savannah at the Crawford party. These people going to watch parties and not watching. This is new to me.
Everybody's just coming together hanging out and having a good time. And once they check their phones, they might have or check civic media's live stream.
Of course, they may have some interesting things, interesting reactions in the room when that happens.
Well, they do have Fox News up on the screen here. And people definitely dress just up to come out and party and socialize though. I think that's what they're focused on.
Very good. Melissa, appreciate you. Great reporting. Let us know when you have new news information. We'll get to you. Melissa Kay at the Brad Shibbol judge Brad Shibbol watch party in walkie shots tonight.
Still waiting official results, Dan Schaefer, but it appears that here in Dane County that Melissa Agaard seems to be on her way to be elected to a full term at the executive of Dane County. But again, that race is not technically been called.
Yeah, we're in the not technically been called stage of the night, even as you know, things are not being technically pregnant or something like that.
I don't want to get into that right now. But I do think, you know, as we take a step back and take a look at the big picture of what's going on in this race.
This Wisconsin Supreme Court raises attracted so much money, so much attention. And you know, this has been in so many ways viewed on as a referendum on what's going on with Donald Trump and with Elon Musk.
And I think if these results hold, this will send an extraordinarily powerful message to the nation.
We are getting very close to results here at the Supreme Court race, also update you on DPI and more stay with us as Wisconsin decides 2025, Dan Schaefer.
Welcome back for our two of the civic media reading network.
Wisconsin decides 2025. Welcome back into the civic media world headquarters in downtown Madison, a block away from the Wisconsin State Capitol, where very shortly, we will find out who the newest jurist, the newest justice.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court will be seated a block away at that state Capitol when the news session gets underway later this year.
Good evening, everybody. I'm Todd Alba from the Todd Alba show, along with the political editor of the civic media and the founder of the Recombobulation area, Mr. Dan Schaefer.
And Dan always a pleasure to join you joining you on these election evenings results are coming in fast and furious.
We don't have technical called races from the associated press, but we're getting pretty darn close.
We're getting a number of calls from a number of different places and not only is everything headed towards being a Susan Crawford victory in this race, it is headed towards being a Susan Crawford wipe out.
She is well running well ahead of where Kamala Harris was in Wisconsin last year.
Shimmel is his numbers are looking much closer to where Daniel Kelly was when he lost by an 11 point margin to Janet Proto saywits two years ago.
I'm not sure if it's going to be that wide of a margin in this one, but everything is looking like Crawford is going to win and win decisively.
The other big races Wisconsin superintendent of public instruction and there again the Democratic adores candidate the incumbent Dr. Jill under Lee seems to have be having a good night.
Yeah, she seems to have be having a pretty clear edge as well. She's running a couple points behind Susan Crawford, which is interesting in this race.
We still have a lot of rural counties waiting to report some of these results, but a number of the swing counties that we tend to look at in the early going in these races have trended towards under Lee.
And again, no official call yet, but we've talked about this ad nauseam, the constitutional amendment question requiring voter ID in Wisconsin.
It looks like a pretty safe bet that that'll probably pass.
Yeah, that one. I'm double checking here. I think that one may have already been called by the AP as well. That one was not expected to be close. And as we expected, it is not close.
The only county so far was gone to the where it is being rejected is Dane County. God bless you, Dane County.
We have a number of reporters across the state of Wisconsin who are covering these races for us, doing Yomans work out in the field tonight.
And right now, why don't we go to one of those if we could, Mr. Zomers? Let's go to our very own James Kelly from up north and northwestern Wisconsin.
And he is standing by the other part of the state in Walnutosa at the Britney Kinser watch party tonight for the superintendent race. James, we appreciate you being there.
What do you know any information at the Kinser party for DPI tonight?
Absolutely. Well, I'm sorry to say this Todd, but it is starting to feel like more of a social event and an election watch party here as well.
There's definitely a quieter energy has the votes have come in. Kinser dipped out of the room a few minutes ago.
And you know, she's down about six points or so currently.
The energy is getting a little low in the room, but everyone's having a good time just talking to each other.
And correct me if I'm wrong, I thought it saw this somewhere earlier in our reporting, but Kinsers people were saying that if, and we don't know for sure, but if she does not come out victorious tonight that she wasn't going to take questions, she was just kind of going to make a statement and leave.
Definitely possible. We'll see how that works out at the end. I would be glad to ask some.
I think I think most of our listeners viewers would like to hear from her tonight, regardless. And again, we don't have official results right now, but to your point and Dan Schaeffer is reporting as well.
It appears that Dr. Underlie the incumbent is looking fairly good right now, but we'll see how the official results go before the evening is good done James anything else before we leave you tonight.
Just have a good rest of the show guys is going great. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say for the rest of the night. I'm just for now for now put it that way.
I'll come back to you guys later. We always appreciate talking to you and you know for another show, but James Kelly happens to be at Dan Schaeffer a New York Yankee fan.
So there's an issue of bats. So we'll come back to that later. We appreciate you James. Thanks for being there tonight. 10 minutes past the hour of eight o'clock.
Part of me nine o'clock right now as we continue on Wisconsin decides 2025 Dan Schaeffer. I'm waiting official results of these races.
Let's go once again back out in the field, our great reporter Derek Tritz is at the underlie campaign. Dr. Jill underlie just a block away or so at the concourse hotel here in downtown Madison.
Derek, I would think it would be a bit more joyous so far as things are again not technically called, but looking pretty good for Dr. Underlie tonight.
The mode is definitely positive in the room, although it is still more of a low key social event. It seems like at least that's always treating it.
You know, they have the current results, the live results up on the monitor, but no one's really paying attention to the monitor right now.
A lot of people here just seem to be happy to see some some old and familiar faces or some new faces and enjoying the fact that underlie is ahead at the moment.
All right, sounds good. Derek, we appreciate you being there. Let us know if anything changes or any other news.
And thank you very much for being there. Derek Tritz at the Dr. Jill underlie campaign. And I want to go back to you, Dan Schaeffer.
Again, as we watch these results come in, we are awaiting the associated press call for the technical call on these races, but it appears that it's going to be a pretty good night for Judge Susan Crawford and Dr. Jill underlie.
I want to go back to this point that you were making earlier about the possible margins. And again, in the Supreme Court race right now, what do we have in in terms of total numbers.
It looks like what is 58% so just I have 60% right now, but if current trends hold and if particularly Susan Crawford wins on a large margin here, what message does this send not just about to the voters of Wisconsin, but to the nation.
I think because of the timing of this election and because it is happening under the under the spending record spending from Elon Musk, it is going to send an extraordinarily powerful message not just around Wisconsin, but nationally.
You know, everybody's always going to look at Wisconsin as a bell weather, being that it is, you know, the most closely contested state on the electoral map was the closest state in the nation in the 2024 presidential election.
If people see the results here and see not just a victory for Susan Crawford, but a sizable victory, which is kind of the direction that we are looking at right now, it is going to speak volumes as a referendum on Donald Trump as a referendum on Elon Musk.
And I think, you know, in the in the counter example here, if Shimmel were winning, it would be it would seem like this would be the template for Republicans to take from state to state to state that they would, you know, bring this Elon spending to every race in the country.
Now, maybe they have to have to rethink that and consider the possibility that, you know, of the backlash vote of what we're seeing in this election here in the state of Wisconsin.
If you're just joining us, it's 13 minutes past the hour of nine o'clock civic media, special coverage of Wisconsin decides 2025 the spring election.
We are awaiting the associate impresses a technical call of these races, but we can tell you was 62% now of the vote in Susan Crawford leads Brad Shimmel for the Supreme Court 55.9% to 44.1%.
In the department of public instruction race between the incumbent Dr Jill under Lee and Brittany Kinzer, it is under Lee with 53.5% of the vote and Kinzer with 46.5% of the vote again about 60% of the total vote about cast thus far.
And in the statewide referendum on voter ID requirement to amend the Wisconsin Constitution 55% of the vote in technically not called, but the yes vote is 60.8% and the no 39.2% as we continue to follow these races and await the technical call and our great reporters out in the field tonight as well.
Dan Schaeffer political editor, you've been a journalist in the Wisconsin's largest newspaper walk in general central for years. You're found in the recombobulation area.
You know this really, really well. I want to get down into the geeky stuff for a second in politics.
The chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Ben Wickler ran for the national chairmanship of the DNC and he was unsuccessful.
That meant that he ref after and that happened what February, so kind of early ish middish in this race for Supreme Court.
If Susan Crawford goes on to win tonight and Dr Jill under Lee and if Crawford wins by big numbers, how much does Ben Wickler losing that DNC race and coming back and focusing on this race affected.
It is an interesting point, right? I think the infrastructure was there. I think Wickler wanted to see this race through regardless of how that DNC chair vote unfolded there, but it is an interesting wrinkle because it does seem like the campaign really started gaining steam when he was back in this race as well.
I want to point out one thing for you on the results here that are happening statewide.
And so I mentioned early in the broadcaster, I was taking a look at what was happening in Walker Shaw County. This is Brad Shimmel's home, home county. This is where he was appointed as a judge.
This has been a long time Republican stronghold. Right now with 87% of the votes counted, Brad Shimmel is at 57.8%.
If that were to hold, that means he would run behind Daniel Kelly in Walker Shaw County. So in his home county where he needed to get well over 60% of the vote to really be competitive on a statewide scale.
Again, this is the third most populous county in the state of Wisconsin, but he not only is he underperforming expectations. He's underperforming Daniel Kelly, who was perhaps the worst statewide candidate in Wisconsin in recent memory.
And that's why I chucked a little bit when you said that because he almost be even amongst, you know, people that listen to my show, they know I was a lifelong Republican until 2011 when I left the party.
But even people I still keep in contact with the Republican party privately off the record said we got no chance with this guy, Dan Kelly.
And I think a lot of people when they went out and basically read, well, you can say, recruiting what have you Brad Shimmel is a guy who was one statewide as attorney general.
And and he was thought to be a more likeable person, better on the stump, better at the grassroots, better fundraising, and he may count them in tonight, a bigger loser than Kelly.
It's possible. It is possible. And I think we have an AP call to announce here. How about that, Mr. Todd Alba?
How about that? You want to do it?
Sure, with the official call at 916 PM on April 1st, 2025, the Associated Press has called that Susan Crawford has won the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court.
How about that? How about that?
And early call in Wisconsin statewide race doesn't happen often.
Not even 10 o'clock.
Not even 10 o'clock.
We got time to go have an old fashioned. No, no, we have much more to come. We're going to take a quick break, do some business and we'll come back.
Let's talk to Nick Ramos again since he was here, like to get Nick's take on this call that Susan Crawford is one tonight.
Stay with us, Dan Schaefer, Aaron Zomers, Nick Ramos, Todd Alba, everybody else. We'll come back more if Wisconsin decides 2025 on Civic Media.
Welcome back to Wisconsin decides 2025 here on April 1st, election night Civic Media World Headquarters of downtown Madison, Wisconsin.
Todd Alba, along with Civic Media's political director, editor, sorry about that, Dan.
You're in charge of politics here. Let's put it that way. And also the founder of the recapobulation area.
We finally have some official results tonight in the Supreme Court race. Susan Crawford has in fact defeated Brad Schimmel and reports tonight.
Some people like keeping contact with in Robin Vos's hometown of Burlington, Wisconsin, some watch parties and people seem to be ecstatic about that tonight.
Other of the results.
Interesting. Interesting.
Things are popping in Burlington. Yeah, yeah, as it turns out.
But you want to say this has some results tonight. Crawford win have some very long term implications that Wisconsin.
It absolutely does. And so this is, you know, the 2023 race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, the Janet protests say what's won by 11 point margin.
That flipped the balance of power to liberal control for the first time in quite a while.
Now, once again, we had the balance of power on the line this year with Ann Walsh Bradley retiring this race between Susan Crawford and Brad Schimmel with Susan Crawford now winning this race.
This will mean that there will likely be liberal control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court until at least 2028.
I think, you know, the next two justices that will be up are Rebecca Bradley in 2026.
And if she chooses to run again and that's Eglier in 2027. So there would really not be a chance for conservatives to flip the balance of power on the court until Rebecca Dallas term is up in 2028.
So if you're exhausted with these everything on the line, balance of power elections in Wisconsin, we're not going to have one for Wisconsin Supreme Court for another few years.
I think, I think most Wisconsinites can at least take some relief in that.
Indeed, 23 minutes past hour at a clock, Wisconsin decides 2025. Let's go back out into the field, a great reporter from WMDX here in Madison, Savannah, till they Olsen standing by.
What Savannah, I would think would be a very boisterous and have they started looking at the results. Yeah, have they started looking at the TVs at the best western end of the park at the Crawford campaign.
You know, they finally did, but it was a slow start. I talked to a couple voters in the crowd who said that they were really being cautious, especially after what happened in November, Ben Wickler, care of wisdom, just walked in the room. That was the hearing you just heard in the background.
But there were a lot of it felt like it was quiet until it wasn't in here. Once CNN called it, there were tons of tears. I spoke to one woman who immediately dispersed into tears.
And there was a camp of F Elon Musk in a small group. So you can really see where these voters were coming from and what this race meant to them.
I think this was an emotional race contest for a lot of people. There's a lot of issues that people wanted to pull for today, whether it was women's reproductive or health care rights, whether it was marriage equality.
There is some very personal things here. This wasn't just about maps or this wasn't just about, you know, issues that came before the court. I think a lot of voters today took this race very personally. And could that be the reason that there's so emotional tonight at the Crawford campaign.
I mean, that's for sure. And I would say, especially because this is a, I would say at least more than 50% women crowd in this room right now. And that kind of tells you just how important this race was to, I think, women across the state, especially.
There were, and there are people of all ages here too, which I was kind of surprised by. You don't always see that at election night watch parties. But it's a really diverse crowd here. I'm waving over at Ben Wickler right at this moment. It's nice. He's so tall.
You know, this crowd was really taking their time. This was interesting. I've never really been in a watch party where a crowd was seeing results this good, but not really reacting.
But that shows you just how burned a lot of people feel by how things went in November and really wanted to wait and wait and wait. And then just the release for people here was pretty big and monumental.
Yeah, let's keep your mic open. Savannah stay with us just for a second. And if you get Ben Wickler, the chairman of the Democratic Party over there. Just give us a holler. We'll go to your right away. We'll keep your mic open for a second. But Dan Schaefer to Savannah's point.
You know, a lot of Democrats in this state worked hard for Kamala Harris. They really thought there would be a tipping. I think a lot of people went into election night on the Democratic side thinking it would be a Harris win at least in Wisconsin.
Could to Savannah's point where Democrats just afraid of being snakebed again tonight.
You know, I think going into November last year, the line that many Democrats were telling me was that they were nauseously optimistic about the election.
You know, I heard many of those same type of energy when I was talking to sources over the course of the week. But I think there was a little that optimism was really starting to show toward the very end here.
And, you know, I think it is partially because Democrats had been burned last year, you know, even though Kamala Harris lost, she had more total votes in 2024 than Joe Biden had in 2020. There was a lot of energy in the state of Wisconsin.
And I think now that has, you know, what's happened with this race, but the way it's been nationalized with the amount of attention that it is garnered clearly the people have recognized how much was on the line with this race.
And, you know, obviously a victory for the Crawford campaign is going to bring about a pretty celebratory mood around the corner here in Madison.
Absolutely. Savannah, do you have anything more before we leave you tonight? Anything more in report right now? Or should we go to Melissa at this point?
Not much here. We've just got lots of mingling and celebrating right now. I'm looking at.
Oh, yeah, we're not on. That's okay.
I got you. I got you. Well, you're doing it. Yeah, I got you. You're on. You're absolutely on. I keep doing a great job. And I have to tell. Yeah, go ahead.
I have to tell you here, Todd. I'm looking at a group of women and judges, robes and cowboy hats that have cow print on them right now.
So I think the party is just starting there.
Doing a great job of giving us a sense of the room. I love that. Thank you very much. Stand by. We're going to come back to you in a minute at the Crawford campaign.
A couple of blocks were where Dan and I are at right now. You're at the Capitol Square in the park at the Crawford campaign.
They're Savannah. Let's go at the meantime to our other great reporter Melissa K tonight, who is in walkie-shot at the Mary out West at the judge Brad Shimmel party.
And Melissa, my suspicion is things are not quite as jubilist down in walkie-shot tonight.
No, things have become subdued a little bit. Brad Shimmel got up and gave his concession speech. He thanked everybody that helped him on his campaign, especially his wife.
He said during his first time that he ran for office, she was a single mom this time she was a campaign widow.
And he made sure to name all of the people who helped him along his way, including his bus driver.
And the mood in the room was subdued, but you know, people congratulated him. He thanked everybody.
People are still here. A few people have left, but they're still learning the food. It does sound like the band is going to play a little bit more.
But yeah, there's still a ton of people here.
Stay tuned, Melissa K. Thank you. Thank you very much. We'll come back to you in a minute at the Shimmel campaign.
Dan and I are back after this. Wisconsin decides 2025. You're listening to ongoing coverage on the Civic Media. We're ready to work.
Welcome back to Wisconsin decides 2025 on the Civic Media. We're ready to work for the World Headquarters of Civic Media in downtown Madison.
Good evening, everybody. I'm Todd Allball along with Dan Schaefer, Civic Media's political editor and founder of the Recombobulation area.
As we continue on with election night here, it has been decided the voters of Wisconsin have rejected outside money interests and have elected Susan Crawford as the next Supreme Court Justice.
That race has been called by the AP. We now go to the Victory Party for Susan Crawford, where Judge Crawford the Justice elect is giving her victory speech.
And I'm so grateful to have earned the trust and support of voters across this great state.
And I'm here tonight because I've spent my life fighting to do what's right. That's why I got into this race to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of all Wisconsinites.
Yes!
Growing up in Chippewa Falls, I was blessed with a loving family. Yeah, Chippewa! Yeah!
It was a great community where people watched out for each other. And my experiences growing up in small town Wisconsin shaped me into the person that I am today.
Someone who values hard work, common sense, honesty, and who can tell right from wrong.
Someone who watches out for people. But I've got to tell you, as a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I'd be taking on the richest man in the world.
For justice in Wisconsin, and we won!
I spent my whole career fighting for Wisconsin as a prosecutor, a lawyer, a judge, and now a soon to be justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Standing up for our fundamental rights and freedoms, protecting Wisconsin families and communities. My promise to Wisconsin is clear. I will be a fair, impartial, and common sense justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
And I want to thank everyone across the state who helped to get us to this point. I'm here because of you. To every volunteer who made this happen, for every phone call, every door knocked, every text sent, every postcard written and mailed, it all paid off. Thank you so much.
To all of my friends and colleagues, thank you for your unwavering support, friendship, and words of encouragement. To my campaign staff, led by the incredible Cassie Finnelli.
Thank you for all of your work to make this happen. All the late nights, all the long drives. I'm so grateful to all of you for all your work. Thank you.
She's the best. They're all the best. To all of our partners and everyone who worked so tirelessly to get us to this point. Thank you.
And to my friends, justices, Ann Walsh Bradley.
Justice Rebecca Dallet. Justice Jill Carovsky.
And Justice Janet Proto Sayway.
I am so humbled to have had all of your unwavering support and encouragement since day one in this race. And to Ann, although no one can truly fill your shoes, I am incredibly honored to succeed you on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
You leave an incredible legacy of service to our state. And you are the embodiment of fairness and integrity, and I'll try to make you proud.
And to my family, who stand with me here today.
My husband, Sean. My kids, Fred and Maisie. My brothers, Eric and Phillip, who are here somewhere. They're there.
My nephew, Evan. And to my mom and dad and the rest of the family watching from home.
Thank you for all of your love and support and for standing by me throughout this crazy journey.
And to Petra and Phoebe, our furry friends. And to my mom. Happy birthday.
Again, this is now Justice elect Susan Crawford, giving her victory speech tonight.
Big night for her. Just up the street to the end of the park at the Capitol Square here in downtown Madison. She has won the race tonight with 72% of the vote now in.
It is Crawford with 55% of the vote and Brad Gible with 45% of the vote.
I'll go back to Savannah to me, Olsen in a minute, but first of all, Dan Schaeffer.
And wonderful as I speeches for her and her supporters tonight, I think perhaps the bigger news.
And perhaps the more important thing tonight is there is reporting from those in the room that the person who lost the race tonight for Republican attorney general and judge Brad Chimble of Wachishaw said he called.
Justice like Crawford tonight and conceded the race. And we're going to play a bit of his concession speech tonight. But in this day and age, that is news.
It is. And I think it is really important that Chimble did, you know, address his supporters and speak and concede in this race because we saw last fall.
Eric Huffley, who we lost to Tammy Baldwin, we saw he didn't concede in the race. We saw all the craziness that happened after the results in 2020.
It's not it shouldn't be a lot to ask for candidates to accept these results. But in this day and age, it is important. And I think it is meaningful that Chimble went forward and conceded in this race tonight.
That whoever loses says, look, we might not be happy, but we're conceding a race.
Summers, if we can, let's take a little bit of that speech now here is Judge Brad Chimble from Wachishaw tonight just moments ago with his concession speech.
We're too bad. And we're not going to pull this off. So thank you guys from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you. Thank you.
God bless you. God bless you.
Thank you very much.
God bless America.
Thank you very much.
Do you realize it, Kim?
Did you get up to fight another day?
That is what we are doing.
Thank you guys. God bless you.
Brad Chimble, Judge Brad Chimble in his concession speech tonight in Wachishaw again reports from people there that Chimble said that he called Justice elect Susan Crawford and conceded the election again with 73% of the vote in it is Crawford almost 54.9
almost 55% and Brad Chimble 45% right now.
Let's go over Ken too Melissa K who is standing by at Wachishaw at the Chimble event and Melissa we just played a bit if you got that audio.
Thank you very much for doing that.
And again, Dan and I were saying in today's day and there was a time when it was just normal and accepted and anticipated.
But the fact that Judge Chimble tonight conceded I think was a big thing in this race tonight in again just maintaining people's faith in the elections in Wisconsin.
Absolutely because politics should be about the people and they want to work for the people well you can't be a sore loser and you know say you want what's best for people when people voted.
And I think that that was overall the kind of I would say the over you know everybody was disappointed in that room obviously.
But I did get to speak with Senator Cory Tomcheck a little bit after the race was announced and he said you know Wisconsin people voted and he said I hope that they get what they voted for.
So it was kind of the over overarching results there.
Anything else Melissa came before we say goodnight to you great job tonight down there walk a shot the Chimble event at the Mary out west but any other just kind of overarching things you'd like to make sure our listeners across Wisconsin note tonight from the Chimble event.
I think that it was just such a nice results of I did get from Cory Tomcheck as well a little bit of insight into the election he was at Central County any talk to the election process and how professional it was done.
Yes, there are some things that can be improved but Wisconsin voters turned out tonight and they spoke and and our elections are secure and free and fair.
Great job tonight Melissa as always we really appreciate you careful the drive back to Wisconsin Rapids tonight but great job tonight we really appreciate you thank you so very much.
Thank you Todd and Dan thank you our pleasure that is Melissa K great report tonight walk a shot at the Chimble event or judge Chimble did in fact concede to now justice like Susan Crawford tonight.
The summer is where we want to go I want to go to the DPI race before the break here very quickly very good let's go to Derek tritz who is just a block away from Dan and I at the concourse hotel at the Dr Jill underly campaign I've left you about a minute before the break Derek but no official call yet but what do you know so far the underly event.
Things are looking positive here just a little while ago I saw people at the underly party watching the Crawford speech and with the results still pulling ahead it looks like people are still keeping a positive spirits up I think I was just hearing that there the monkey general said no had called it for underly but no official results on my end yet here.
All right great job Derek thank you very much for that information Dan this one is tightened up a bit now is 76% of the results in 52% for underly 47% for kids are other places may be calling it it looks like underly is on this way but it's going to be a smaller margin than Crawford's victory yeah that's right I think you know Crawford is going to run a little bit ahead of underly but underly is on track to win this race but you know as we kind of we talked about early on and throughout this state superintendent race.
This is going to be a much closer margin than we've seen in this race in quite some time this is not typically been a very closely contested race it has been since the 1990s when there has been a single digit margin in the race you know underly right now has about a 5 to 6% lead in the race you know this is much closer than it has been in a long time again it does look like underly is going to pull this one off.
All right very good we're going to come back and go to James Kelly who is at the Britney Kinser event tonight of course the Republican endorse candidate will come back talk to him and wrap things up here as Wisconsin decides 2025 you're listening to the civic media ready network.
Welcome back to Wisconsin decides 2025 9 minutes before the hour of 10 o'clock along with civic media's political editor and founder the recombobulation area Dan Schaeffer I'm Todd all bulk glad to have you here with us this evening we can tell you that judge Susan Crawford is now Justice elect Susan Crawford as the Democratic backed candidate has defeated.
Republican backed candidate of Judge Brad Shimmel so far was 76% of the votes in it is Crawford 54.6% Brad Shimmel 45.4% Crawford has given her victory speech and Brad Shimmel just as importantly perhaps more importantly has given a concession speech tonight and is called Judge Justice elect Crawford to concede the race.
In the question of voter ID requirement amending the Wisconsin Constitution again no official call but with well 80% of the vote now in the yeses have it at 62.9 and the nose at 37.1 and Dan Schaeffer now Iowa County has joined Dame in voting no how about that how about that.
The only two counties of Wisconsin voting no the voter ID requirement and in the DPI raised a department of public instruction now with 78% of the vote in it is the incumbent Democratic Party Democratic Party Wisconsin backed Jill under Lee with 52.5% of the vote and Republican Party Wisconsin backed Britney Kinzer with 47.5% of the vote.
We heard for Derek Tritz at the under Lee campaigns go back out in the field I great reporter James Kelly who is standing by at the Kinzer event in Wavitosa and James what can you tell us what is the mood what are people saying there at the Kinzer event tonight James.
Well a handful of people have already started to leave grabs their coats Kinzer backed out of the room about nine o'clock has yet to return I assume to watch the results come in a little more closely in private without getting swamps by all the attendees at the party.
But news is starting to get around that this election may not be going their way so I believe they are getting ready to speak soon.
All right very good but no no word of a talk of a concession speech or anything like that yet from from Kinzer's people.
Not yet they've mostly been hanging out in the back hallways right now but a bit of movement back there so I think things are going to get going here pretty soon.
All right sounds good well James keep us up to date doing a great job down there in Wavitosa.
I think I think putting up a hotel you have to drive all the way back to O'Claire tonight.
Oh I'm saying here I didn't know I'm concerned about you that's all I will make sure you're taking care of I appreciate.
All right James thank you very much great job tonight my friend really appreciate all your great work down there the Kinzer campaign in Wavitosa.
Dan Schaeffer starting to wrap things up here now and it's looking more and more like it will be under Lee although it might be much closer.
But again give us your overall thoughts tonight as it appears that Susan Crawford is going to win this Supreme Court race by.
As much of maybe bigger margins than Jennifer to say which one or her race two years ago.
Yeah this is a big night for Wisconsin Democrats a big night for Wisconsin voters who I think in so many ways wanted to send a message to the Trump administration to Elon Musk.
I think this race became because because it's happening just 71 days into the Trump Trump's second term after everything that's been happening with.
You know kind of taking a wrecking boss of various federal agencies for the past few months.
This is going to be seen as a referendum on Trump or referendum on Musk and you know as Democrats in the national level have kind of had uneven responses to what's been going on here.
I think you know polls and narratives and all those different things carry certain amount of weight votes in a state like Wisconsin.
Carry so much more weight and I think these results are going to speak volumes before we go back to Savannah to a also give us 45 seconds a minute.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin. This is a big loss for them tonight at least for the Supreme Court race maybe the DPI as well.
There is a governor's race coming up and less than two years in this state.
What where does this leave the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
Well, I think the big question for Republicans not just in Wisconsin, but nationally is are it is that coalition that they've built with Trump going to hold without Trump on himself on the ballot.
Because I think when Trump has been on the ballot.
Wisconsin Republicans have done especially well when he's not been on the ballot.
They are not winning in the same way.
So I think that is going to be a challenge for them going forward and for you know getting some of those low propensity voters that swung towards Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
What that's going to mean for them going forward because look Brad Jimbles running in this race for a really long time.
He announced for this race before Eric Houghney jumped into the race for Senate like they clearly prioritize this they have their candidate and not only is he not going to win.
He's going to get lose by a pretty significant margin, not unlike the margin that Daniel Kelly lost by without all the Elon money without the state party support that he lost with two years ago.
But the college Republican chair of Madison is a million dollars richer.
Let's go quickly to Savannah to me Olson standing by and a Victoria's Crawford campaign.
If you could do it in about 45 seconds Savannah rap things up there.
What do you know?
So pretty overjoyed by here. We've now got party in the USA playing by Miley Cyrus over the loudspeakers.
People were really hesitant at first to start celebrating before these calls were officially made and the speech prices and Crawford had a lot of tears on the stage.
She had all liberal justices with her all women as some people in the crowds pointed out on the stage with her and it was pretty emotional especially for Justice Joe Krofty.
Across the room there.
Great job tonight Savannah as always. Thank you so very much for being there.
I know you'll update us more on civic media tomorrow. Thank you very much.
Savannah have a great evening here in Madison, the Susan Crawford campaign into the park.
Dan Schafer.
Stay for the last 20 seconds. We're happening up.
It's an extraordinary night for Wisconsin.
This is perhaps the biggest state level race.
We're seeing anywhere in the country this year in Wisconsin delivered a powerful message.
Before we leave you tonight, we want to take a moment to thank all the people behind the mics and cameras and make this happen.
Our CEO, Sage Wilde, Vice President Cory Hartman, Content Director David Highland, Operations Director Luke Mathers executive producer Jamie Martinson,
Engineer at Chris Casper, producer and engineer. The fantastic Mr. Aaron Zomers.
This has been Wisconsin decides.
2025 stay tuned now for regular programming across civic media for our entire team.
For my co-anchor Dan Schafer, I'm Todd Allball. Thanks for joining us.
You've been listening to the Civic Media Radio Network.
