“I know that Donald Trump has said some things that are bad,” Judge Schimel said as a voice in the crowd cried out, “Get over it!” He added: “I’m the father of two daughters. My daughters look up to me, and I don’t like hearing anyone talk that way about women. But Donald Trump will appoint judges who will defend our Constitution and respect our Constitution.”
Now, as Judge Schimel aims to return a conservative majority to the court after Wisconsin liberals flipped it in 2023, he is hoping to sustain the pro-Trump energy that helped the president carry the battleground state last fall.
Following a path blazed by Wisconsin Democrats, who successfully injected national politics into the State Supreme Court election two years ago, Judge Schimel is campaigning for the ostensibly nonpartisan post in an openly partisan way — as an outspoken supporter of Mr. Trump.
Judge Schimel has echoed Mr. Trump’s lies about elections, attended his campaign rallies and walked door to door to encourage voters to back him in the April 1 election. Last fall, Judge Schimel wore a Trump-as-garbage-man costume while shaking what appeared to be a pair of maracas and playing bass guitar at a Halloween party, an episode captured on a video obtained by The New York Times. And this month, he told supporters that he wanted to help build “a support network” around Mr. Trump.
“They’re so desperate for him to not get a win that they won’t let America have a win,” Judge Schimel said at an event hosted by the conservative group Turning Point Action, referring to Democrats and other Trump opponents. “That’s what they’re doing. The only way we’re going to stop that is if the courts stop it.”
Judge Schimel, whose campaign declined to comment for this article, is clearly fishing for an endorsement from Mr. Trump that could help turn out Wisconsin’s conservative voters. He recently told supporters at a private event, a recording of which was obtained by The Times, that he had formally asked for the president to hold a campaign event in Wisconsin this month. He also said in a television interview that he would welcome Mr. Trump’s backing.
Yet in a televised debate on Wednesday night, Judge Schimel said that if elected, he would rule against Mr. Trump if he broke the law or were wrong on the merits of a case — even as he added that he could not say if the court had been correct to reject Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. “I don’t have any personal loyalty to him that supersedes the oath I take as a judge,” he said.
So far, Mr. Trump, who endorsed the conservative candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2020 and stayed out of the 2023 race, has not discussed wading into this year’s contest, according to a person briefed on his political engagements.
Musk’s millions dominate a race
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is no stranger to Trumpian politics and conspiracy theories. In 2020, it narrowly rejected the president’s efforts to overturn the state’s election results.
In 2023, when Wisconsin liberals took control of the court for the first time in 15 years, they were powered by a gusher of money and grass-roots anger over the abolition of abortion rights in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade the previous summer.
But now Republicans are the ones with the most money, thanks to $6.2 million and counting from Elon Musk’s super PAC — and millions more from another group with ties to Mr. Musk. Democrats have found themselves playing defense to hold a seat they view as crucial to their political strength in the state.
Judge Schimel’s liberal opponent, Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge, and Wisconsin Democrats have zeroed in on Mr. Musk’s spending. The state’s Democratic Party is airing television ads tying Mr. Musk to Judge Schimel, and it has branded a series of town-hall gatherings as “The People v. Musk.” During the Wednesday debate, Judge Crawford referred to her opponent as “Elon Schimel.”
Judge Crawford herself said last month that she “never could have imagined that I’d be fighting the world’s richest man.” She has generally abstained from making overt political statements in favor of Democrats, but she has said she supports abortion rights. In January, she also participated in a meeting with Democratic donors advertised as a “chance to put two more House seats in play for 2026,” a reference to a potential lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s congressional maps.
More than $59 million has already been spent on the race, according to WisPolitics.com, a local news outlet, outstripping the cost of the 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court contest to become the most expensive judicial election in American history.
The Democrats’ focus on Mr. Musk’s support for Judge Schimel, rather than the judge’s backing of Mr. Trump, reflects the president’s sustained popularity in the state, which he has won twice in the last three presidential elections.
Framing the election as a fight against the billionaire White House adviser also allows Democrats to draw attention to a boogeyman their voters dislike. A poll conducted last month by Marquette University Law School found that 97 percent of Democrats viewed Mr. Musk unfavorably.
“Musk waving his chain saw around and provoking debates over whether the Nazi salute and the Roman salute are the same thing has provoked an explosive level of fury,” said Ben Wikler, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “There is white-hot rage.”
Wisconsin Democrats have in recent years enjoyed an advantage in off-year and midterm elections. Their voters tend to be more attuned to political news than Republicans, and more likely to vote in contests other than presidential elections.
At the same time, Mr. Musk’s super PAC is targeting Trump voters with a clear message: Help Mr. Trump by voting for Judge Schimel.
“President Trump needs your vote,” reads direct mail from the group to Wisconsin Republicans. “Liberal Susan Crawford will stop President Trump’s agenda.”
Judge Schimel’s loyalty to Mr. Trump may wind up helping him even if it energizes Democrats. Brian Schimming, the chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party, said that if Judge Schimel could turn out 60 percent of Mr. Trump’s voters from November, he would win.
“People who supported Donald Trump need to know this is not a guy who’s stiff-arming Trump,” said Mr. Walker, the state’s former governor, who added that he had personally appealed to the White House to have Mr. Trump hold a rally for Judge Schimel. Republicans, Mr. Walker said, “can’t afford to have anybody who voted for Donald Trump this fall not be excited about” Judge Schimel.
Praising Trump, and dressing up as him
Judge Schimel’s affection for Mr. Trump has not dissipated since 2016. During the 2020 presidential campaign, he praised Mr. Trump at a campaign rally, despite Wisconsin judicial ethics rules that prohibit judges from participating in partisan political activity.
And for years, Judge Schimel has repeated some of Mr. Trump’s talking points about Wisconsin elections.
During an April 2018 interview with one of the state’s leading conservative talk-radio hosts, Judge Schimel said it was not clear that Mr. Trump, who carried the state in 2016 by fewer than 23,000 votes, or Senator Johnson, who won by about 99,000 votes that year, would have prevailed had the state’s voter identification law not been in place.
In January, he said he did not object to Mr. Trump’s pardons of supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Then there was the Halloween party last year.
In the final week before the election, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. appeared to call Trump supporters “garbage.” Mr. Trump responded by dressing up in a sanitation worker’s reflective vest and driving a garbage truck.
Two days later, when Judge Schimel’s cover band, 4 on The Floor, played a Halloween gig at Michael’s Funky Monkey bar in Waukesha, he wore a reflective vest just like Mr. Trump’s and rocked out while playing the Rolling Stones classic “Sympathy for the Devil.”
Nick Corasaniti contributed reporting.
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