It's the Most Expensive Judicial Race in History

It's a big day at the voting booth, thanks mainly to two closely watched races. One is a special House election in a deep-red district of Florida that is shaping up to be surprisingly close. The one getting even more attention, however, is for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The details on that one:

• The candidates: The contest pits Susan Crawford, a liberal judge in Dane County, against Brad Schimel, a conservative judge in Waukesha County and former state attorney general. The winner will give the seven-member court a 4-3 split either in favor of liberals or conservatives, reports USA Today.
• Record money: It has become the most expensive judicial race in the nation, notes the Washington Post. More than $90 million has poured in, with $20 million of that coming from Elon Musk or PACs affiliated with him. (Musk even handed out $1 million checks to signers of a Wisconsin petition against "activist judges.")

• Proxy vote: Because of Musk's money and Trump's backing of Schimel, the Wisconsin race is widely seen as a referendum on the president. "It's really the first major election since Trump and Republicans took office in January," Barry Burden of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Elections Research Center tells USA Today. A New York Times story has a similar gist: "This is going to be the first litmus test," a 40-year-old resident of suburban Milwaukee tells the newspaper.
• The stakes: Beyond the Trump factor, the court has a number of big cases on its docket involving abortion, union rights, and the redrawing of the state's congressional map. A lawsuit involving Musk's Tesla also might end up there—the company has sued the state over a law that prevents car manufacturers from owning dealerships and selling directly to customers, per CBS News.
• Deciding factor? Wisconsin is a swing state, with the last three presidential elections decided by 1 point or less, notes Steve Kornacki at NBC News. Meaning, the state already is "polarized" about the president. To Kornacki, "the outcome hinges on whether the pro-Trump side has become more engaged in an election like this than it has been up to this point."

(More Wisconsin stories.)