GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — With the Wisconsin Supreme Court election less than 24 hours away, republican-backed candidate Brad Schimel takes on Brown County one final time, but not without seeing liberal supporters show up against him and his top donors.
- Video shows Wisconsin State Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel giving remarks at the Brown County Republican Party headquarters in Bellevue
- Demonstrators gathered outside the headquarters to protest against Schimel, Elon Musk
- Wisconsin State Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford held a campaign event in Madison Monday evening
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
This afternoon, Waukesha County judge Brad Schimel focusing on Brown County support.
"I’m in this because our Supreme Court got hijacked by activist judges," Schimel said. "I’m running to end their reign, to restore objectivity on our court, to follow the law rather than make the law from the bench."
Schimel's arrival in Bellevue came off the heels of Elon Musk's town hall event in downtown Green Bay Sunday evening, where two $1 million checks were given to Wisconsin voters by the billionaire.
Schimel said he has not yet watched the town hall and instead focused on the impact Musk has on bringing out young voters.
"We're seeing this at all of our rallies, young people like I’ve never seen before in any campaigns for statewide office because they normally aren’t very engaged in this," Schimel said. "They are now, and I think we may find out that (Musk) is kind of a Piper to the young people with messaging they want to hear."
Moments before Schimel's arrival at the Brown County Republican headquarters, liberal supporters, including Dr. Anna Igler, marched in protest.
"Elon and Trump, if they can hold on to power in this corrupt and illegal way," Igler said. "And it's not okay. We can't be bought, our votes can't be bought."
Dr. Igler is a local obstetrician and gynecologist.
She said Musk's monetary incentive is unjust even as overall campaign spending has reached more than $100 million between both sides.
"Let's get the vote out, let's win this election," Democratic-backed candidate, and Dane County judge, Susan Crawford, said.
In Madison, Crawford made her final push to voters.
Crawford is supported by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and billionaire investor George Soros.
"She really kind of fights for the freedoms of everybody and is willing to uphold the Constitution," a supporter at the campaign event, said.
ANDREW AMOUZOU: What is your message to people who might be in the middle between you and Crawford?
SCHIMEL: We need to restore objectivity in the court. It may feel good some decision that some judge prejudges, but the next one won’t. Instead of the voters deciding what the law is through their legislative representatives, you’ve got four justices on the Supreme Court that will decide what the law is for you. In the end, that’s the death of our Republic. We have to restore that.
