The FFRF Action Fund is pleased to endorse Judge Susan Crawford in her April 1 bid for Wisconsin Supreme Court justice.
The New York Times has called the Wisconsin court race “potentially the biggest, highest-stakes election in the year after Mr. Trump’s return to power.” Crawford supports the separation of state and church and believes in upholding the fundamental rights and freedoms of all Wisconsinites.
The election comes two years after Janet Protasiewicz decisively won a Wisconsin Supreme Court race in 2023 that flipped the state high court from conservative to liberal. It was believed to be the most expensive state Supreme Court contest in history, with $56 million spent. The 2025 race is expected to be a replay or possibly top that total. According to the Cap Times, the amount of money raised by both Crawford and her opponent “dwarfs the $2.7 million collectively raised by the four candidates in the 2023 primary at this point in the race.”
Among many hot-button issues at stake is abortion rights, with a legal challenge of Wisconsin’s archaic 1849 so-called abortion ban now before the state high court. Clinics were shuttered for more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, until a Wisconsin county judge ruled that the 1849 ban only applied to actions leading to unwanted abortions. Also coming before the court are labor rights, gerrymandering challenges, private school vouchers and more.
Throughout her lengthy legal career, Crawford has continually fought to safeguard the rights and freedoms of Wisconsinites. She currently serves as a Dane County circuit judge. Previously, Crawford served as Wisconsin’s assistant attorney general, held leadership positions at the Department of Corrections and the Department of Natural Resources and was later named chief legal counsel to then-Gov. Jim Doyle. Additionally, Crawford practiced law in the private sector, where she worked to protect voter and workers’ rights and represented Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin to defend access to essential reproductive health care.
Crawford has proven her commitment to reproductive rights and abortion accessibility throughout her impressive career and has consistently aligned herself with FFRF Action Fund’s values. She is seeking the 10-year term, and if she wins, a liberal majority will retain control of the court through 2028.
Crawford’s opponent, Brad Schimel, is a well-known anti-abortion extremist who supports Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban and has said “there is not a constitutional right to abortion” in the state and that “life begins at conception.” As Wisconsin’s attorney general, Schimel defended a 2013 statute requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital — one of the kinds of laws dubbed as “TRAP” (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers). After a district and appeals ruled it unconstitutional, saying the law imposed an undue burden on women seeking abortion, Schimel asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. The petition was denied. Pro-Life Wisconsin said that the “easiest road” to enacting a total abortion ban in Wisconsin will be to elect Schimel to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Schimel is now serving as a circuit court judge in Waukesha County.
While occupying the post of state attorney general, Schimel also established a chaplain program for Department of Justice employees, featuring five chaplains, who were all male and all Christian. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, FFRF Action Fund’s parent organization, successfully sued in 2018 to stop the program and was able to dismiss the lawsuit the following year after the Department of Justice dropped the unconstitutional chaplaincy program.
Judge Crawford is also endorsed by current Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices Ann Walsh Bradley, Rebecca Dallet, Jill Karofsky and Janet Protasiewicz, as well as Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin AFL-CIO and Wisconsin Conservation Voters.
Please learn more about Crawford by visiting her campaign website.
FFRF Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church. It also advocates for the rights and views of nonbelievers, endorses candidates for political office, and publicizes the views of elected officials concerning religious liberty issues.