Democrats hail major win as Susan Crawford delivers blow to Trump and Musk in Wisconsin

Susan Crawford’s victory in the race for a seat on the Wisconsin supreme court has been hailed as a major win for Democrats after the contest was framed as a referendum on Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s popularity.

Crawford, a liberal judge from Dane county, defeated Brad Schimel, a former Republican attorney general and conservative judge from Waukesha county, after Musk and groups associated with the tech billionaire spent millions to boost his candidacy in what became the most expensive judicial contest in American history.

More than $80m was spent on the race, with Musk and affiliated groups spending more than $20m alone. Musk reprised some of the tactics that he used last fall to help Trump win, including offering $100 to people who signed a petition opposing “activist judges” and offering $1m checks to a smaller number of voters.

However, two US House of Representatives seats in Florida, vacated by cabinet appointees, went to Republicans on Tuesday, dashing Democratic hopes for an upset victory in the first federal special elections held since the president began his second term.

Democratic candidates Josh Weil and Gay Valimont were on track to lose the solidly red districts by much smaller margins than the more than 30 points that Democrats lost them by in November.

Elsewhere, Cory Booker, the Democratic US senator from New Jersey, broke the record for longest speech ever by a lone senator – beating the record first established by Strom Thurmond, who spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

“I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able,” Booker said near the start of his speech. “I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our nation is in crisis.” He concluded his speech after 25 hours and five minutes.

Key events

Democrats have been reacting to the Wisconsin supreme court result in celebratory mood, as one might expect.

Posting on Elon Musk’s X social media network, Tim Walz wrote simply:

Wisconsin beat the billionaire.

Elizabeth Warren said:

Wisconsin cannot be bought. Our democracy is not for sale. And when we fight, we win. Congratulations, @CrawfordForWI

Meanwhile, the Democrats official account called Musk a “loser”, complete with mocking imagery.

Carter Sherman

In its first abortion-related case since Donald Trump retook control of the White House, the US supreme court will hear oral arguments on Wednesday morning in a case challenging South Carolina’s attempt to effectively “defund” Planned Parenthood because the reproductive health giant performs abortions.

The case, Medina v Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, deals with a 2018 executive order from the South Carolina governor Henry McMaster that blocked clinics that provide abortions from receiving reimbursements via Medicaid, the US government’s healthcare program for low-income people, despite the fact that those reimbursements don’t actually cover abortions. “Payment of taxpayer funds to abortion clinics, for any purpose, results in the subsidy of abortion and the denial of the right to life,” McMaster said at the time.

However, federal law bans Medicaid from covering the vast majority of abortions, which only comprised about 4% of Planned Parenthood’s activities in fiscal year 2022. Instead, people use Medicaid to cover Planned Parenthood’s other services. In the same year, the organization performed nearly half a million Pap tests and breast exams as well as 4.6m STI tests and treatments. It also provided birth control services to more than 2.2 million people.

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, a Planned Parenthood affiliate that operates two clinics in South Carolina, teamed up with a patient who sought birth control, Julie Edwards, to sue over McMaster’s order. Lower courts have since kept the order from going into effect.

US health agency layoffs gut mine safety, infertility and smoking programs

Jessica Glenza

From experts in mine safety to smoking and infertility – mass layoffs hit branch after branch of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s plan to downsize nearly a quarter of the 82,000-person workforce took effect.

Even as the sprawling nature of layoffs became apparent on Tuesday, a complete accounting was elusive. Layoffs were undertaken with few public details, with even apoplectic congressional lawmakers left in the dark.

The result was a day of desperate crowdsourcing, as employees themselves and experts outside government became aware of programs and positions eliminated – and then processed how it would ultimately impact American lives.

Layoff notices started coming down earlier in the day, embodied by lines of staffers wrapping the sidewalk of the “Parklawn” building in Maryland – waiting to see if their badges would still work, and employees in building elevators carrying boxes of personal belongings.

A combined more than $80m was spent on the race, topping the previous record of $51m that was spent in the 2023 Wisconsin state supreme court race.

Elon Musk and affiliated groups spent more than $20m alone. Musk reprised some of the tactics that he used last fall to help Trump win, including offering $100 to people who signed a petition opposing “activist judges” and offering $1m checks to voters.

Pointing to the potential to redraw House districts, Musk had said the race “might decide the future of America and western civilization”.

Democrats seized on Musk’s involvement in the race to energize voters who were upset about the wrecking ball he and his unofficial “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, have taken to federal agencies.

They raised the stakes of an already high-stakes contest by holding out Wisconsin as a test case for Musk, saying that if he succeeded, he would take his model across the country.

The result in Wisconsin means that liberals will keep a 4-3 ideological majority on the state supreme court.

That majority is hugely significant because the court will hear major cases on abortion and collective bargaining rights. The court could also potentially consider cases that could cause the state to redraw its eight congressional districts, which are now drawn to advantage Republicans.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city, reported “historic turnout” for a spring election, with election officials saying in a statement Tuesday evening that due to the “unprecedented high turnout,” seven polling places ran out of ballots. The city’s elections commission said it was working to replenish resources to voters during the evening rush.

Susan Crawford won the race for a seat on the Wisconsin supreme court on Tuesday, a win which the liberal judge said showed “our courts are not for sale”.

“Today Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy,” Crawford said in a speech at her victory night event in Madison. “Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.”

With more than 84% of the vote tallied, Crawford led Schimel by nearly 10 percentage points.

In remarks on Tuesday night, Schimel said he and his team “didn’t leave anything on the field” and announced that he had conceded the race in a call to his opponent before taking the stage. When his supporters began to boo, Schimel stopped them. “No, you gotta accept the results,” he said, adding: “The numbers aren’t gonna turn around. They’re too bad, and we’re not gonna pull this off.”

Musk said hours after the result that “The long con of the left is corruption of the judiciary” and that the most important thing was that a vote on the addition of voter ID requirements passed.

The UK government will not engage in a “kneejerk” response to any tariffs imposed by Donald Trump, as it warned there will be a “difficult period” ahead in trade relations with the US and called for calm, Alexandra Topping reports.

The education secretary Bridget Phillipson said the government had been “working through every eventuality”. “We still have negotiations under way with our US counterparts about securing an economic deal, but we will always act in the national interest and the interest of the British people.”

However, others are urging Keir Starmer to take a different approach, as Andrew Sparrow reports in the UK politics live blog. While the main opposition party, the Conservatives, have supported the UK PM’s stance of attempting to curry favour with Trump, other parties such as the Liberal Democrats have urged the UK to form a united front with the EU and Canada to retaliate.

Trump set to announce new round of tariffs on what he has called ‘liberation day’

Donald Trump is due announce new tariffs at the White House on Wednesday afternoon and is threatening to unleash a global trade war on what he has called “liberation day”.

Global stock markets, corporate executives and economists have all been shaken but no details of Wednesday’s plans have been made available ahead of the announcement. The president is set to speak at 4pm ET (9pm GMT, 10pm CET). White House officials said the implementation of the tariffs would be immediate.

Trump hopes to bring manufacturing back to the US, respond to what he considers unfair trade policies from other countries, increase tax revenue and incentivize crackdowns on migration and drug trafficking.

The implementation of his tariffs has so far been haphazard, with multiple rollbacks and delays and vague promises that have yet to come to fruition. The threats have soured US relations with its largest trading partners. Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has called them “unjustified” and pledged to retaliate. The European Union has said it has a “strong plan” to retaliate.

Ahead of the announcement, Trump repeated the idea of imposing so-called reciprocal tariffs, where the US would tax imports at the same rates that a country uses for US exports. Trump has specifically mentioned countries like South Korea, Brazil and India, along with the EU, as being possible targets for reciprocal tariffs.

“The world has been ripping off the United States for the last 40 years and more,” Trump told NBC over the weekend. “All we’re doing is being fair.”