Judge Susan Crawford won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday, defeating Judge Brad Schimel, who was backed by President Trump, and overcoming $25 million in spending from Elon Musk in a race that became somewhat of a referendum on the billionaire and his slashing of the federal government. Her election could affect decisions on abortion and labor rights.
While Judge Crawford, 60, may not have been a nationally recognizable name before Tuesday, this was not her first election. In 2018, she was elected as a circuit judge in Dane County, and she won re-election in 2022.
Before becoming a judge, she spent years working for the Wisconsin Department of Justice, including as assistant attorney general.
In 2009, Gov. Jim Doyle appointed her as his chief legal counsel, a job that she held until 2010. In that job, she also led the Governor’s Pardon Advisory Board, which reviews pardon applications and makes recommendations to the governor.
In 2011, she joined the private law firm Cullen Weston Pines & Bach. Among the cases she worked on were a constitutional challenge to the state’s voter ID law and a contractual dispute between a passenger train manufacturer and the State of Wisconsin, according to the firm, which is now named Pines Bach. In 2013, she became a partner at the firm.
Judge Crawford has spoken out in favor of abortion rights and has been a public proponent of collective bargaining rights and voting rights.
Her campaign website promotes her time as a private practice attorney, when she “protected voting and workers’ rights, and represented Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin to defend access to reproductive health care.”
Judge Crawford lives in Madison, the state’s capital. She is married to Shawn Peters, an academic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and they have two children.
