A woke Wisconsin win is just the start of the left’s 2026 push

When I went to bed Tuesday night, the race for the open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court had already been called — unsurprisingly — for Susan Crawford, the ultra-woke candidate. With more than two-thirds of the votes counted, Crawford held a lead of more than 10 percentage points.

Despite complaints from Wisconsin Democrats about Elon Musk’s support for Republican candidate Brad Schimel, Crawford outspent him by a margin of roughly 2 to 1. Her campaign benefited from funding from George Soros, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), and other wealthy backers with culturally progressive agendas. Powerful public-sector unions in Wisconsin also rallied behind Crawford, opposing Musk’s calls for reducing the influence of government bureaucrats.

Does anyone seriously believe Democrats won’t use Susan Crawford’s court victory to gerrymander two new congressional districts?

As usual, the Democratic base — racial minorities and college-educated white women — turned out in strong numbers to support her.

Watching the activist left unite behind a candidate who embraces the very ideologies that writer Christopher Rufo has documented in his research on institutional wokeness, I was reminded of the overly optimistic narratives coming from some in the conservative media.

We keep hearing that the Democratic Party is falling apart — that it’s resorting to riots and hurling obscenities because it has lost the support of ordinary voters. But these talking points ignore political reality.

The claim seems to rest on Donald Trump’s victory in 2024, which was hardly a landslide, and came against a tongue-tied mediocrity. Tuesday night’s results in Wisconsin tell a different story. With record Democratic turnout, Crawford defeated Schimel handily. The left, far from collapsing, remains highly mobilized and effective.

The cheerleading from Fox News pundits likely stems from their inability — or unwillingness — to believe that anyone could support a party as deeply unserious and radical as today’s Democrats. But the reality is right in front of us.

Why would any voter — citizen or not — back candidates who insist there are more than two genders, advocate for biological men in women’s sports, excuse the burning of Tesla dealerships, and elevate political carnival acts like Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.)?

The answer is straightforward: The left, across the Western world, is backed by immense institutional power. It enjoys the support of major financial interests, the legacy media, most of the entertainment industry, and nearly the entire education system. It also benefits from every new expansion of the electorate.

More importantly, the left plays to win — and to stay in power. Does anyone seriously believe Democrats won’t use Susan Crawford’s court victory to gerrymander two new congressional districts? Of course they will. And if they retake the House, they’ll waste no time rallying their obedient congressional foot soldiers for yet another effort to impeach Donald Trump.

Democrats will also keep using the courts to target Trump’s administration, relying on friendly federal district judges to strike down any executive action that doesn’t serve their agenda.

And let’s not forget the 10 to 20 million illegal aliens the Democratic Party has welcomed and intends to keep here — criminal gang members included. These individuals are not just here to stay; they’re here to vote. As Elon Musk pointed out, though lapdog media outlets rushed to deny it, Democratic politicians and bureaucrats have pushed to issue Social Security numbers to noncitizens — numbers that can serve as voter ID.

The left has mastered the art of weaponizing the judiciary, both in the United States and across Europe, against its already weakened opposition. It reflexively smears anyone who resists its cultural agenda — on family, gender, or borders — as a “Nazi.” And it works.

The left wins because it has more power: more institutional support, more funding, more cultural dominance. The notion that it's collapsing because it acts outrageously is laughable. That behavior energizes its base. As we saw on April 1, even in so-called purple states, that base remains large — and ready to deliver.

One major advantage the American right still holds — unlike, say, its counterparts in Germany, England, Spain, and elsewhere in the West — is a substantial electoral base. Roughly 40% of the electorate continues to resist a full leftist takeover. We also have a president willing to use whatever authority he’s given to push back against the left’s grip on the permanent bureaucracy.

These advantages matter. I’m delighted they still exist. But let’s not kid ourselves: The Democrats and their ideological allies are not vanishing. Far from it.

And there’s no reason to pretend that those who reliably vote with the left, excuse its political games, and indulge its outbursts and riots somehow share “common ground” with their opponents. That fantasy only weakens the real resistance. It promotes the delusion that if we’re just a little “nicer,” the Democrats will magically start playing fair.

We’re told we can return to the supposed golden age when Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill shared drinks and Irish jokes after trading barbs in public. If that era ever existed, it’s gone — and it isn’t coming back.