Abortion, Unions And Redistricting Cases Await The Wisconsin Supreme Court After A Liberal's Win

Susan Crawford's Wisconsin Supreme Court election victory over a conservative candidate backed by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk cemented a liberal majority on the state's top court for at least three more years and dealt a devastating blow to Republicans who fear it paves the way for a wide array of rulings that will overturn or block the GOP's agenda in the swing state.

Trump, Musk and other Republican leaders fear that Crawford's win means the court controlled 4-3 by liberals will redraw Wisconsin's congressional lines in a way that could result in the Democrats picking up at least two seats and helping the party regain the majority.

Crawford backers, including Democratic U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, told supporters that electing Crawford was important so that she and other liberal justices can order Wisconsin's congressional boundary lines to be redrawn.

Last year, the court declined to take up a Democratic-backed challenge to the state's congressional lines, drawing criticism from one of Wisconsin's two House Democrats, Rep. Mark Pocan, who had urged the court to take the case then. Pocan said Wednesday that he hopes a new lawsuit will be filed soon.

"If you have two seats out of eight in a purple, 50-50 state, clearly there's gerrymandering going on," Pocan said.