MADISON, Wis. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday called on his supporters to vote for a candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court who already had the full-throated backing of Trump's billionaire adviser Elon Musk.
“All Voters who believe in Common Sense should GET OUT TO VOTE EARLY for Brad Schimel,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump's post came a little over a week before the April 1 election that will determine control of the court, which since 2023 has a majority of liberal justices. Who controls the court will impact a wide range of pending high profile issues, like abortion rights and congressional district boundaries, but it could also determine what the voting rules are for the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential election in the battleground state.
Schimel reacted to Trump's post with a statement saying: “I’m humbled and deeply honored to receive the endorsement of our President.” He added, “On April 1, Wisconsin conservatives must unite to restore objectivity to our Supreme Court and save our state like we saved our country in November.”
Schimel, a former Republican attorney general, is a Trump backer who had previously said he would welcome an endorsement from the president. He also appeared at a rally with Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., in March, posed for a picture in front of a giant inflated Trump and attended Trump's inauguration in January. Schimel has also benefited from more than $12 million spent by groups funded by Musk.
One of the mailers used by the Musk group says that Schimel would back Trump's agenda from the Supreme Court. Trump Jr. stressed that a Schimel win was needed to protect his father's agenda. And Schimel told a group of Turning Point USA canvassers earlier this month that he needs to be elected to be part of a “support network” for Trump.
“Donald Trump doesn’t do this by himself; there has to be a support network around him,” Schimel said, according to a video of his comments posted on YouTube. “They filed over 70 lawsuits against him since he took the oath of office barely a month ago, over 70 lawsuits to try to stop almost every single thing he’s doing because they don’t want him to get a win. ”
Schimel has also echoed unfounded concerns about unproven voter fraud that Trump raised following his 2020 loss.
Despite all of that, Schimel has repeatedly said he would not let his feelings about Trump impact any rulings he would make on the state Supreme Court, which came one vote away from reversing Trump's loss in Wisconsin in 2020. Trump won the state in both 2016 and 2024.
“If President Trump or anyone defies Wisconsin law and I end up with a case in front of me, I’ll hold them accountable as I would anybody in my courtroom,” Schimel said during a March debate.
Schimel faces Democratic-backed candidate Susan Crawford in the election for an open seat. Liberals currently hold a 4-3 majority on the court. Whoever wins will be elected to a 10-year term that begins in August.
On Truth Social, Trump called Crawford “the handpicked voice of the Leftists who are out to destroy your State, and our Country — And if she wins, the Movement to restore our Nation will bypass Wisconsin.”
A spokesman for Crawford's campaign said, “Schimel has spent his entire career on bent knee to right-wing special interests, we assumed he had this endorsement locked up months ago.”
This isn't the first time Trump has gotten involved in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race. He endorsed the conservative candidate in the 2023 whose loss led to liberals taking control of the court for the first time in 15 years.
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates Brad Schimel and Susan Crawford participate in a debate Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Former Wisconsin Attorney General and state Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel, middle, greets Donald Trump Jr., as Charlie Kirk looks on during a town hall Monday, March 17, 2025, in Oconomowoc, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes across the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 26 Palestinians overnight into Sunday, including a Hamas political leader and several women and children. Residents said tanks had advanced into an area of the southern city of Rafah as the military ordered it evacuated.
Gaza's Health Ministry said the total number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war has now passed 50,000 after Israel ended the ceasefire last week with a wave of strikes that have killed nearly 700.
The military ordered people to leave the already heavily destroyed Tel al-Sultan neighborhood on foot along a single route to Muwasi, a sprawling area of squalid tent camps.
Late Saturday, Israel's Cabinet approved a proposal to set up a new directorate tasked with advancing the “voluntary departure" of Palestinians in line with U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to depopulate Gaza and rebuild it for others. Palestinians say they do not want to leave their homeland, and rights groups have said the plan could amount to expulsion in violation of international law.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the new body would be “subject to Israeli and international law” and coordinate "passage by land, sea and air to the destination countries.”
In Rafah on Sunday, Palestinian men, women and children could be seen walking along a dirt road and carrying their belongings in their arms, a recurring scene in a war that has forced most of Gaza's population to flee within the territory, often multiple times.
“It’s displacement under fire,” said Mustafa Gaber, a local journalist who left Tel al-Sultan with his family. In a video call, he said hundreds of people were fleeing as tank and drone fire echoed nearby. “There are wounded people among us. The situation is very difficult,” he said.
Mohammed Abu Taha, another resident who fled, said many people were unable to evacuate because of the surprise incursion overnight. He also said his sister and her family were sheltering in a school in an area of Rafah surrounded by Israeli forces.
Hamas said that Salah Bardawil, a member of its political bureau and the Palestinian parliament, was killed in a strike in Muwasi that also killed his wife. Bardawil was a well-known member of the group’s political wing who gave media interviews over the years.
Hospitals in southern Gaza said they had received another 24 bodies from strikes overnight, including several women and children.
The European Hospital said five children and their parents were killed in a strike on the southern city of Khan Younis. Another family — two girls and their parents — were killed in a separate strike. The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said it received the bodies of two children and their parents who were killed in a strike on their home. Two other children are still under the rubble, according to the hospital.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said a total of 50,021 Palestinians have been killed in the war and more than 113,000 have been wounded. The latest toll announced Sunday includes 673 people killed since Israel's surprise bombardment on Tuesday.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its records but has said women and children make up more than half the dead. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service said Israeli forces were preventing its ambulances from responding to strikes in Rafah and that several of its medics had been wounded.
There was no immediate comment from the military.
In a separate development, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are allied with Hamas, launched another missile at Israel overnight and into Sunday, setting off air raid sirens. The Israeli military said the projectile was intercepted, and there were no reports of casualties or damage.
The Houthis resumed their attacks on Israel, portraying them as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians, despite recent U.S. strikes targeting the Yemeni rebels.
The ceasefire that took hold in January paused 15 months of heavy fighting ignited by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack into Israel.
Twenty-five Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight others were released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, Israeli forces pulled back to a buffer zone, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to return to what remains of their homes, and there was a surge in humanitarian aid.
The sides were supposed to begin negotiations in early February on the next phase of the truce, in which Hamas was to release the remaining 59 hostages — 35 of whom are believed to be dead — in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.
Those talks never began, and Israel backed out of the ceasefire agreement after Hamas refused Israeli and U.S.-backed proposals to release more hostages ahead of any talks on a lasting truce.
Tens of thousands of Israelis returned to the streets late Saturday in the latest of several mass protests calling for a deal that returns the hostages.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage in the Oct. 7 attack. Most of the captives have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals, while Israeli forces rescued eight alive and recovered dozens of bodies.
The offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and at its height had displaced around 90% of the population. Israel sealed off the territory of 2 million Palestinians from food, fuel, medicine and other supplies earlier this month to pressure Hamas to change the ceasefire agreement.
Magdy reported from Cairo.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
People take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, March 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
