The contest for the Wisconsin Supreme Court added to its heavily partisan flavoring Monday night as President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., campaigned in Waukesha County for court candidate Brad Schimel.
The younger Trump took the stage with conservative political activist Charlie Kirk. Kirk said the race between Waukesha County Judge Schimel and Dane County Judge Susan Crawford is now about boosting conservative turnout.
“This is not a persuasion election. This is not about winning people in the middle. It is about driving Trump voters and Republican voters out to the polls, coming into April,” Kirk told the crowd.
Trump Jr. agreed and compared Circuit Judge Crawford, who is backed by many liberal groups, to a Washington, D.C., U.S. district judge. That jurist, James Boasberg, is reviewing whether the Trump administration violated his order by deporting more than 200 migrants to El Salvador with little or no due process.
“And a liberal judge just like this overruled the will of the president of the United States and the people who put them there,” Trump Jr. complained.
The younger Trump also said the Wisconsin contest is key to protecting his father’s agenda over the next three and a half years.
A Crawford victory on April 1 would maintain the state court’s 4-3 liberal majority.
Schimel spoke briefly at the rally and joined Trump and Kirk for photos.
A few hundred people attended the GOP event, including Mike Moeller of South Milwaukee. As a small-business owner, he says he appreciates efforts by President Trump and business executive Elon Musk to cut the federal budget.
“Maybe a lot of people are going to be upset about it. But that’s what happens when, you know, you gotta tighten the belt, right?" Moeller tells WUWM.
Moeller acknowledges Musk has spent more than $10 million to help Schimel’s candidacy but says liberal activists like George Soros are backing Crawford.
Outside the venue, prior to the Republican rally, a few people held signs criticizing Musk, Trump and Schimel. Kathy Sadowski of Dousman says she’s heard the Waukesha County judge say things that show he would not be impartial on the state court.
“You know, that he needs to get elected to help Trump fix his agenda, and I don’t like that. I want our judiciary to be independent," Sadowski says.
Liba Brent of Madison says she defected from the Czech Republic in 1984, prior to its separation from the Soviet bloc. Brent says she worries about the Trump administration replacing democracy here.
“I mean, plutocracy, autocracy, this is what we are heading towards," Brent says.
Tuesday morning, on the first day of early voting for the April election, groups backing Crawford plan a press conference at Milwaukee’s War Memorial ahead of a Schimel appearance at the Milwaukee Press Club.
