“I think the way Judge Crawford ran her race was disgusting… I’m not looking forward to working with her. She’s bought and paid for by the Democratic Party.”

— Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley, talking to a reporter about Susan Crawford, the victor in this week’s election.

“Mayor Eric Adams is opting out of New York City’s Democratic primary and running for reelection as an independent — embarking on narrow path as he further isolates himself from the city’s dominant political party,” Politico reports.

“I’m honestly shocked. I thought we had it in the bag. I thought Musk was gonna be an asset for this race. People love Trump, but maybe they don’t love everybody he supports. Maybe I have blinders on.”

— Pam Van Handel, Chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s Outagamie County, quoted by Politico.

Playbook: “In truth, Dems had been desperate to make yesterday’s elections all about Musk, who has several significant drawbacks in his unlikely new role as GOP election figurehead. They include dismal personal poll ratings, unfathomable wealth and a tendency to talk about Social Security as if he’d quite like to give it the chainsaw treatment.”

“But Musk played right into Dems’ hands — plowing not just millions of dollars into the race in Wisconsin, but huge amounts of personal and political capital, making himself the most visible GOP campaigner on the election trail.”

New York Times: “Nobody expended more political capital in the Wisconsin Supreme Court contest than Mr. Musk, with the possible exception of the candidates. He invested at least $25 million to elect Judge Schimel, posted about it seemingly nonstop on his social media platform, gave money to voters who signed a petition or posted photos in front of polling places and came to the state for a rally where he handed out a pair of $1 million checks.”

“And in the end, Judge Schimel lost by just a little bit less than the last conservative candidate for the court, who was all but abandoned by Republican donors two years ago.”

CNN: “Musk’s high-profile gamble – and loss – in Wisconsin raises questions about the effectiveness of his money and brand moving forward as he works to help Republicans next year attempt to buck the trend of the president’s party losing ground in the midterms.”

Susan Crawford defeated Brad Schimel in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, preserving liberals’ 4-3 majority, according to projections from Decision Desk HQ and the Cook Political Report.

NBC News: “The outcome is a setback for President Trump and his billionaire adviser, Elon Musk. Trump endorsed Schimel in the final stretch of the race, while Musk injected himself into the center of it, spending huge sums of money, visiting Wisconsin days out from Election Day and frequently posting about the race on his X feed.”

New York Times: “For Democrats, the result is a jolt of momentum… Her win showed that, at least in one instance, Mr. Musk’s seemingly endless reserves of political cash had energized more Democrats than Republicans.”

For members: Wisconsin Race Carries Major Political Implications

Milwaukee election officials are reporting ballot shortages at voting sites due to what they say is “unprecedented high turnout” in Tuesday’s election, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Officials urged patience and said confirmed that anyone in line by 8 p.m. will be able to vote.

Florida chief financial officer Jimmy Patronis (R) was projected to win the special election to replace former Rep. Matt Gatez (R-FL) in the 1st congressional district, defeating Gay Valimont (D), according to Decision Desk HQ.

Polls close at 7 p.m. ET in Florida’s 6th congressional district — which has become unexpectedly competitive — and at 8 p.m. ET in the 1st congressional district.

Polls close in Wisconsin for the Supreme Court race at 9 p.m. ET.

Leave your reactions in the comments as the results come in.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Tuesday’s special election in the state’s 6th congressional district is not a referendum on President Trump’s first few months back in office, The Hill reports.

Said DeSantis: “This is a rejection of a specific candidate amongst some voters who either choose not to vote, maybe even vote third party. I don’t know how many Republicans would cross over and vote for a lunatic Democrat.”

“In an odd quirk of the hotly contested race to succeed National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, neither Republican Randy Fine nor Democrat Josh Weil live in the district they’re hoping to represent in Congress, so they can’t vote for themselves in the race,” CNN reports.

New York Times: “Election officials said that early voting turnout had surpassed 600,000 votes, suggesting total turnout could surpass two million. About 1.8 million people voted in the 2023 State Supreme Court election.”

Bloomberg: “From a national perspective, Tuesday’s election is poised to provide one of the first real tests of how voters in Republican strongholds are reacting to Trump’s agenda, including his focus on tariffs and immigration, as well as Elon Musk’s drastic reshaping of the federal bureaucracy. Democrats have been outpacing the GOP in fundraising in a second Florida race as well.”

“At stake isn’t just Trump’s perceived popularity. Any loss would narrow the GOP’s razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, where the party holds 218 seats to the Democrats’ 213. Already, the White House has showed how worried it is about that majority by withdrawing New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s nomination to be US ambassador to the United Nations.”

Split Ticket: “Although we will not be releasing a model for this race, the early vote data we have extensively analyzed and modeled suggests Democratic-aligned liberal judge Susan Crawford is a clear favorite to win this election.”

“While the GOP-aligned conservative Brad Schimel certainly could pull off an upset (and it would be foolish to rule him out this early), the early vote suggests that this would be a monumental feat for him, and he is staring down the barrel of an immense deficit that he is unlikely to overturn on election day.”

“The early vote data shows that even relative to 2024, Democrats are significantly more likely to show up than Republicans are — and in a state that Donald Trump won by less than a percentage point in 2024, this makes the GOP’s job much harder.”

Playbook: “Millions of voters can head to the polls today to cast the first official verdict on Donald Trump’s second term as president. But this being April in an off-year, today’s elections will likely be decidedly low-turnout affairs — even as their outcomes will take on outsize importance in the national conversation.”

“Voters across the swing state of Wisconsin and in two deep-red Florida congressional districts will cast their votes in elections which should provide the first meaningful gauge of the public mood since Trump’s inauguration. Forget all the noise of the past 72 days — today, we’ll see some real democracy in action.”

New York Times: What to watch in Tuesday’s big elections in Wisconsin and Florida.

The Economist: “To get a sense of what the Republican Party thinks of the electoral value of Elon Musk, listen to what Brad Schimel, a conservative candidate for the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, has to say about the billionaire.”

“At an event on March 29th at an airsoft range (a more serious version of paintball) just outside Kenosha, five speakers, including Mr Schimel, spoke for over an hour about the importance of the election to the Republican cause. Mr Musk’s political action committees have poured over $20m into the race, far more than any other donor’s. But over the course of the event, his name came up precisely zero times.”

Associated Press: Musk PAC spends big and goes door to door in Wisconsin Supreme Court race.