Crawford elected to Wisconsin Supreme Court, Underly as state school superintendent
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — Susan Crawford won the April 1 election for Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, and Jill Underly was re-elected as the superintendent of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Crawford received 1,301,128 votes, and her opponent, Brad Schimel received 1,063,244 votes, according to unofficial election results.
Out of the total votes cast, Crawford won 55 percent of the vote, compared to 45 percent for Schimel.
Crawford, who grew up in Chippewa Falls, started out her career as an assistant attorney general in the Iowa Department of Justice and worked in the criminal justice appeals division.
She became an assistant attorney general for the Wisconsin Department of Justice, after being admitted to the Wisconsin Bar in 1997, and worked as the director of the appellate unit for criminal appeals under former attorney general Jim Doyle.
Crawford also has worked for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
After Jim Doyle was elected as governor of Wisconsin in 2003, Crawford was selected to be Governor Doyle’s chief legal counsel in 2009.
Crawford first ran for an open circuit court judgeship in Dane County in 2018, was elected and then was re-elected in 2024.
Schimel, who served one term as Wisconsin attorney general, was elected as attorney general in November of 2014.
He served as the district attorney in Waukesha County from 2007 to 2015.
While he was governor, Scott Walker appointed Schimel in 2019 as a Waukesha County circuit court judge.
Schimel was born in West Allis, graduated from Mukwonago High School, and in 1987, earned a bachelor’s degree from UW-Milwaukee, and obtained his Juris Doctor degree in 1990 from the University of Wisconsin Law School.
DPI
Jill Underly, the superintendent of the Wisconsin Department of Pubic Instruction, won the April 1 election for state superintendent with 1,148,451 votes.
Brittany Kinser, who also was on the ballot for state superintendent, received 1,022,350 votes.
Underly received 52.9 percent of the total votes cast, while Kinser received 47.1 percent of the votes.
Underly, who is originally from Indiana, worked as a staff member for Undergraduate Academic Services in the College of Letters and Sciences and UW-Madison.
In 2008, she earned a second master’s degree and licensure in educational administration.
Underly worked for the DPI as an assistant director and education consultant until 2014.
She earned her doctorate in education leadership and policy analysis in 2012 from UW-Madison.
Underly served as the district administrator of the Pecatonica Area School District prior to being elected as state superintendent in 2021.
According to news reports, Kinser has never held a Wisconsin teaching license, and her Wisconsin administrator’s license expired in 2024.
Kinser served as a teacher and instructional coach in Chicago public schools for nine years. For 3.5 years, she served as an instructional leader for a charter school network in Chicago and then as a principal in a charter school for 1.5 years in California.
Kinser went to work for Rocketship schools in Wisconsin in 2013. Rocketship is part of a national network of public charter schools.
In 2022, Kinser started working for City Forward Collective, an education non-profit organization in Milwaukee that advocates for charter schools and voucher schools.
She also founded Kinser Consulting in 2022.
