After Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice-elect Susan Crawford’s decisive win in her race against former state Attorney General Brad Schimel, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R‑WI) believes he may lose his job.
Van Orden said he believes he and Rep. Bryan Steil (R‑WI) could lose their House races if the state Supreme Court, which maintained its liberal majority, decides to redraw the state’s congressional maps. He also admitted that he has made peace with that.
“Being a member of Congress is not my identity,” Van Orden said in an interview with Politico after Crawford’s win. “So if through all these crazy machinations I don’t get reelected because far-leftists on the court decide to redistrict and make it nearly impossible for me to get reelected, I can accept that without any malice or bitterness.”
Crawford beat Schimel handily, 55% to 45%, on Tuesday in the state’s Supreme Court race, maintaining liberals’ 4–3 majority on the court. Van Orden said he would work “doggedly” to get reelected in 2026 and that Crawford’s win was “a disaster for the nation.”
Eau Claire County, home to the largest city in Van Orden’s district, Eau Claire, shifted 15 points to the left from the 2024 presidential election. Richland County, which voted for Van Orden 53.8% to 46.2% in his 2024 reelection bid, shifted 17 points to the left relative to Trump’s 56%-43% margin of victory there, the second-largest shift from the presidential vote.
Van Orden’s Democratic challenger, Rebecca Cooke, who lost 51.3% to 48.6% in 2024, campaigned for Crawford. She recently announced that she will launch a 2026 House run in hopes of facing off against Van Orden again. The Washington Examiner reached out to her campaign for comment but received no response.
Democrats are optimistic they can oust Van Orden.
“Susan Crawford’s victory was a complete rejection of the extremism of Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Wisconsin Republicans, who are fighting to take away our freedoms and our jobs,” Democratic strategist and Crawford adviser Patrick Guarasci told the Washington Examiner. “Judge Crawford’s platform resonated because Wisconsinites want to know their elected officials are on their side.”
“If I were Derrick Van Orden, or any other elected acolyte of Trump and Musk, I’d be incredibly worried after last night’s results,” he added. “This election was a temperature check on the state of the state, and turns out, they’re pissed off — by reckless cuts that threaten the economy and by out-of-state billionaires trying to buy their votes.”
“Voters were so turned off by Republicans’ efforts that they came out in droves to vote for Susan,” he added. “Polling locations ran out of ballots. This should be a forewarning for Van Orden and other Republicans who think coming for Wisconsinites’ rights is a good tactic.”
Elon Musk offered a pair of $1 million checks to Wisconsin voters who attended his speech over the weekend before later deleting the offer. Though his move drew controversy, there have been other reasons offered for the leftward shift in Wisconsin.
“Donald Trump does two things wonderfully: He gets people to turn out to vote for him and he gets liberals to turn out and vote against anyone he supports,” Waupun, Wisconsin, Mayor Rohn Bishop, a Republican, reportedly said. “The problem is that he can never turn out conservatives to vote for his candidate when he’s not on the ballot.”
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Steil, who Van Orden mentioned could be at risk in 2026, likely has less to worry about. He won his 2024 race by double digits over Democrat Peter Barca and saw smaller leftward shifts in voter bases in Kenosha and Racine counties in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election.
However, Tuesday’s race indicates Steil could be in for a more competitive fight than previously thought if Democratic enthusiasm holds.