Wisconsin Court Race Is Most Expensive Ever. Where Is the Money Coming From?

Wisconsin’s state supreme court election on April 1 is officially the most expensive in U.S. history, with spending that has reached $76 million — with some predictions that the ultimate tally will top $100 million, almost twice the record spending in the state’s 2023 race. The biggest right-wing groups running an attack ad blitz against liberal candidate Susan Crawford are funded by a few very regressive out-of-state billionaires using their cash like a giant megaphone.

Elon Musk and Dick Uihlein are the biggest known backers of Republican Brad Schimel’s efforts to win the swing vote seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The uber-controversial Musk has spent over $19 million so far, backing Schimel. Uihlein is bankrolling multiple groups, including some, like the “Women Speak Out” PAC, that are joining an echo chamber of state anti-abortion groups that are all-in on Schimel. Joining the chorus for Schimel are the MAGA get-out-the vote operation Turning Point Action, fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch’s Americans for Prosperity, the Republican State Leadership Committee (which is heavily funded by groups tied to Federalist Society co-chair and right-wing money man Leonard Leo), the far-right House Freedom Action (tied to the House Freedom Caucus), and the state trade group called Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.

The stakes are high: the outcome will decide the fate of abortion access, fair maps, labor rights and more in that swing state. Big money knows that the composition of the court, which for now has a 4-3 progressive majority, hangs in the balance.

This Wisconsin race stands out for the sheer amount of money being spent, but far-right billionaires and the networks they fund have been spending big across the country in recent elections to install their preferred candidates on state courts — a key lever of power and, in some states, a last bastion of protections for democracy.

Why State Courts? Why Now?

State courts are a key line of defense protecting what a majority of Americans want: better-funded public schools, worker protections, access to abortion care and more. Leo and Koch, in particular, worked for years to capture the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts to impose unpopular policies by undemocratic means. Some lesser-known GOP billionaires — such as Dick Uihlein and Jeffrey Yass –– have also entered the state court capture effort in recent years.

The importance of state courts has only grown in recent years. America entered a new era for spending in state court races in 2022 following the U.S. Supreme Court’s partisan 6-3 ruling in Dobbs, which overturned the Roe v. Wade precedent that protected the federal constitutional right to abortion. That edict sent the issue of abortion access to the states. In response, big money tied to right-wing megadonors and political operatives has increasingly targeted state courts to try to block access to abortion. Judicial election spending nearly doubled any previous midterm cycle’s spending in the 2022 cycle after the Dobbs ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court also largely limited the role of federal courts in disputes over redistricting, the process for drawing boundaries in election maps, which can be hijacked and drawn in partisan ways to lock in legislative control.

Two key national groups with ties to Leo, the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) and the Uihlein-backed Fair Courts America, have been pushing tens of millions of dollars into state court elections across the U.S. in order to place judges on state benches to advance their agendas. RSLC, whose largest donor in recent years is Leo’s Concord Fund (also known as JCN or Judicial Crisis Network), deploys attack ads via its Judicial Fairness Initiative (RSLC-JFI). The Concord Fund alone gave nearly $3 million to RSLC last year, which spent nearly $4 million right before the 2024 elections. RSLC-JFI launched a $2 million ad campaign in Wisconsin in February.

Anti-abortion billionaire Dick Uihlein is also deeply involved in efforts to capture state courts via his Super PAC, Fair Courts America (FCA), which spends directly on judicial elections and funds other right-wing state-level groups that are involved in judicial elections. It is led by Andrew Wynne, who has also led RSLC-JFI. FCA is heavily funded by Uihlein and his Restoration PAC, with some additional funding from billionaires such as Timothy Mellon (a major Trump donor) and poultry magnate Ron Cameron. Notably, the Foundation for Fair Courts, which is also tied to Uihlein’s Restoration PAC, received $2.5 million from Leo’s Concord Fund between 2021-2023. FCA spent $5.5 million in Wisconsin in 2023 and has already spent nearly $4 million backing Brad Schimel so far in 2025.

Past is prologue. Here is an overview of billionaires and right-wing special interests who spent big trying to capture state courts in 2024:

Arizona

In Arizona, big spending helped retain right-wing supreme court justices Clint Bolick and Kathryn Hackett King. These elections took on renewed urgency for reproductive rights activists after the state’s highest court allowed an 1864 abortion ban to stand in the lead-up to the 2024 election. Bolick has deep ties to the right-wing infrastructure in Arizona: he was the longtime vice president of litigation for the Goldwater Institute, a key right-wing legal advocacy group in Arizona. There, he led efforts to create the “Goldwater Litigation Alliance,” which would later become American Juris Link (AJL), a right-wing litigation center that has extensive funding from the Bradley Foundation and groups linked to Charles Koch and Leonard Leo.

Billionaire Randy Kendrick, a board member of the Goldwater Institute, also weighed in. She helped launch a new group called the “Judicial Independence Defense PAC,” which backed the incumbent right-wing justices on the Arizona Supreme Court. Dick Uihlein’s FCA also spent over $500,000 on ads in the final two weeks of that retention election. Both judges won their retention elections.

Michigan

In Michigan, Democratic justices Kyra Harris Bolden and Kimberly Thomas defeated their opponents in a landslide, expanding the Democratic majority on the court to 5-2. The Republican judicial candidates, Patrick O’Grady and Andrew Fink, were backed by groups like Right to Life of Michigan and Citizens for Traditional Values PAC.

RSLC-JFI spent more than $500,000 on ads backing the Michigan Republicans in October, and the billionaire DeVos family also contributed to their election campaigns. A super PAC funded by Michael Bloomberg called “Justice for All” backed the incumbent justices Bolden and Thomas — as did a group called “Justice Project Action,” among others.

Montana

In Montana, the state supreme court has been one of the last-standing bulwarks against what has otherwise been a far-right takeover of the state’s government. The court, which is nonpartisan, has faced the ire of a hyper-partisan GOP governor, attorney general, and state legislature. The legislature created a committee in 2024 to “rein in” Montana courts, and it pre-filed 27 bills for 2025, including bills that would shrink the state supreme court and add partisan labels to judicial elections.

The result in 2024 was mixed: Cory Swanson — who was backed by RSLC, the business lobby, and other right-wing interests — was elected as chief justice. RSLC launched a last-minute $300,000 ad campaign on his behalf in the final weeks of the election, and later bragged that his election “ensures conservatives have an advantage on the state supreme court in Helena.” Katherine Bidegaray, who was backed by the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, defeated Republican-backed Dan Wilson for the other open seat.

Uihlein’s FCA also weighed in and gave $200,000 to a group called the “Montana Judicial Accountability Initiative,” which is tied to Republican operative Jake Eaton, whose groups backed Swanson and Wilson.

North Carolina

In North Carolina, Democrat Allison Riggs defeated Republican Jefferson Griffin, although he has refused to concede the race. Griffin’s strategy to overturn the election on the North Carolina Supreme Court now hinges on asking his colleagues on the very appeals court he sits on to decide the election and discard more than 60,000 of North Carolinians’ lawfully cast votes.

Notably, Charles Koch’s Americans for Prosperity spent over $100,000 on mailers backing Griffin, who also benefitted from ads by the state business chamber and other local industry interests and other groups with funding from “Citizens for a Better NC,” which itself is funded by RSLC and other national GOP interests.

Ohio

Right-wing interests won big in Ohio, where Republicans swept all three seats on the state supreme court. This came after the Republican legislature mandated that political parties be listed alongside the names of judicial candidates in 2021. The race drew widespread attention because of how the outcome could affect abortion access in the state, where voters approved an amendment to enshrine reproductive rights in the state’s constitution in 2023, a measure Republicans continue to fight despite the will of the voters.

Ahead of the 2024 election, the Republican majority on the Ohio Supreme Court drew outrage after it approved severely misleading ballot language for a measure that was intended to ban partisan gerrymandering, Issue One. The measure failed to get enough votes to pass.

To fight Issue One, a new PAC emerged in Ohio, called Frecka PAC. Its sole funder was plastics manufacturer David Frecka, who pumped $2 million into the group, which in turn spent at least $1.2 million in the state court races and opposing Issue One. Frecka has become a major donor to right-wing candidates and causes, including to the Trump-aligned Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), which recognized Frecka as a few of a handful of “heroes” of 2021. CPI has been described as the “nerve center for the rightwing,” that “has become a breeding ground for the next generation of Trump loyalists and an incubator for policies he might pursue.”

Business interests have also long spent heavily in the state to elect judges friendly to corporate interests. A group affiliated with the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, called Ohioans for a Healthy Economy Action (OHE Action), reported spending over $2.3 million in the race. OHE Action received $1 million from Uihlein’s FCA. Other large backers included the Haslam family fortune (which owns the Cleveland Browns) and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. RSLC-JFI also reportedly spent around $1 million in the race with misleading ads painting the Democratic candidates as soft on crime, a dog whistle refrain in the group’s attack ads across the country.

Texas

Texas also saw an avalanche of outside spending in judicial races that Republicans largely swept in the November 2024 elections. Three Republican justices on the state’s nine-member court were up for re-election and won by margins of between 56 to 58 percent of the vote.

Elon Musk contributed heavily to groups spending on Texas judicial races, leading a wave of spending that helped flip 23 state court seats to Republicans in 2024. A group called the Judicial Fairness PAC, for example, received $2 million from Musk, $1 million from Leo’s Concord Fund and millions more from oil and gas interests. The group eventually spent over $15 million, including funding a group attacking Harris County Democrats called “Stop Houston Murders.”

Another group, Texans for Lawsuit Reform — funded by Musk, Miriam Adelson, Harlan Crow and others — spent a total of $1.2 million on Texas’s 2024 judicial races. The Leo group-fueled RSLC-JFI itself also spent nearly $2 million backing 10 Republican judicial candidates.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Has Three Seats Up in November 2025

Pennsylvania also has three Democratic seats up for retention in November. This will likely mean big spending by Pennsylvania billionaire Jeffrey Yass and his “Commonwealth Leaders Fund” to try to capture that supreme court, as they have done in past cycles. Scott Presler’s “Early Vote Action” group, which received $1 million from Musk in 2024, has already been gearing up for those retention elections, launching three websites targeting each justice up for retention. Last year, Pressler’s super PAC heavily targeted a few swing states, and focused most deeply on Pennsylvania. If the justices are not retained, the governor would appoint their replacements to serve until 2027, then open elections would be held for the seats, opening up a possibility for Republicans to flip the court to a 5-2 Republican majority ahead of the 2028 elections. “We’ll make Pennsylvania the next Ohio,” Presler said.

As the Republican-appointees on the U.S. Supreme Court continue to roll back federal protections, the battle over who sits on these state benches is taking on renewed urgency. State courts handle many more cases than federal courts. State court rulings will have far-reaching consequences for our environment, and the rights, health and freedom of millions of people every year.

What’s at stake are our very freedoms — to choose who we can love, to have access to healthcare and contraception, to breathe clean air, to have fair representation and much more. State courts are the battleground where many of our rights as Americans will be won or lost.

Note: True North’s Executive Director Lisa Graves and Researcher Caitlin Mahoney contributed to this article