
What to watch for Tuesday in Wisconsin’s high-stakes Supreme Court race and special elections in Florida
CNN
Tuesday’s election to fill a Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin has emerged as the country’s first major political battle since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. It offers both an early test of the president’s popularity in a state he narrowly flipped last year and a gauge of the political machine that Trump ally Elon Musk has deployed to drive up turnout in this swing state.
Tuesday’s election to fill a Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin has emerged as the country’s first major political battle since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. It offers both an early test of the president’s popularity in a state he narrowly flipped last year and a gauge of the political machine that Trump ally Elon Musk has deployed to drive up turnout in this swing state. A pair of special elections for two vacant House seats in Florida have garnered considerably less attention. But the outcomes on Tuesday could deliver Republicans some much-needed reinforcements to pad Speaker Mike Johnson’s narrow majority and provide more hints into the mood of voters in a state that has lurched hard to the right over the past decade. The results in both states could provide Republicans and Democrats with roadmaps for how to run in the second Trump era. In Wisconsin, the race between the liberal candidate, Susan Crawford, and Brad Schimel, the conservative favored by Trump and Musk, will determine the ideological balance of the high court in a perennial battleground. A Crawford win would help liberals retain a 4-3 majority on the court, while a Schimel victory would flip the court to conservatives. In a state with divided government — Gov. Tony Evers is a Democrat, while Republicans control the state legislature — the Supreme Court has become the final arbiter of hot-button issues. Battles over the future of abortion, voting rules, the bargaining rights of public sector unions and congressional redistricting all loom over the court. The battle for the seat has shattered records to become the most expensive judicial race in US history — with more than $90 million already plowed into advertising, canvassing and other expenses, according to a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school.

Bent on infamy and obsessed with mass killings and school shootings, Audrey Hale extensively chronicled her grievances against her parents and others she blamed for her fraught life as she stocked up on firearms and meticulously prepared for the March 2023 massacre at a Christian school, according to a police investigative report released Wednesday.

President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs are facing blowback from all corners – a market sell-off, foreign retaliation, anger from corporate America and skepticism from the Federal Reserve chairman and some allies in Congress. So far, the president is defiant in the face of the global turbulence.