WASHINGTON, April 2 (Xinhua) - Democrats won an expensive Wisconsin Supreme Court race, while Republicans held onto two House seats in Florida, in the first major elections of the year, which were held on Tuesday.
Susan Crawford, a county circuit judge who was supported by Democrats, emerged as the winner in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race against Brad Schimel, a county circuit judge and former Republican attorney general who was backed by Elon Musk.
The high-profile race in a major swing state for presidential elections became the most expensive state Supreme Court race in U.S. history, according to U.S. media.
Despite the more than 15 million U.S. dollars that Musk and groups affiliated with him dropped into the race, "Democrats overall held a narrow ad spending advantage," the NBC News cited AdImpact as saying.
Democratic-aligned groups spent millions of dollars blasting Musk as "trying to buy" Schimel and the election, the report said, noting that Musk even offered 100 dollars to Wisconsin voters to sign a petition to oppose "activist judges."
In Florida, Republican candidates won two special House elections, replacing former GOP Representative Matt Gaetz and former GOP Representative Michael Waltz, who is now President Donald Trump's national security adviser.
Waltz faced significant scrutiny after inadvertently adding Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to a confidential group chat on the messaging app Signal, where high-level Trump administration officials discussed military plans for strikes against the Houthi group in Yemen.
In their respective races, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis defeated Democrat Josh Weil, while Republican State Senator Randy Fine beat Democrat Gay Valimont. These victories are crucial for Republicans as they manage an already slim majority in the House.
Currently, Republicans hold 218 seats in the lower chamber, while Democrats hold 213 seats. There are four vacancies, following the death of two Democratic representatives in March. Enditem
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