Wisconsin Supreme Court Race, Florida's Special Elections, Trump's Trade War

Speaker 1 A state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin is the most expensive judicial race in American history.

Speaker 2 They will try to stop all of the government reforms that we are doing.

Speaker 3 Why is this race in particular getting record spending?

Speaker 1 I'm Michelle Martin. That's a Martinez, and this is up first from NPR News.

Speaker 1 Democrats think they have a shot at flipping congressional seats in two Florida special elections.

Speaker 4 He will be there whenever I need him. He wants to be there whenever we need him.

Speaker 1 Will President Trump's support help or hurt the Republican candidates' chances?

Speaker 3 And a lesson about tariffs from one of the most protected industries in the U.S.

Speaker 5 If you go under the candy aisle and look at the hard candy, you'll see most of it is made outside the United States.

Speaker 3 Stay sweet and stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

Speaker 1 That's so funny. That's what I was wanting my grandmother used to say.
Stay sweet.

Speaker 3 Stay sweet.

Speaker 1 And I'll be like, why?

Speaker 3 I want to be sour. Exactly.

Speaker 1 I want to be salty.

Speaker 6 Support for NPR and the following message come from NBC News. When the news feels overwhelming, NBC News brings clarity by reporting on the facts that shape daily life for Americans.

Speaker 6 Coverage that looks deeper and stories that connect. NBC News Reporting for America.
This message comes from Schwab. At Schwab, how you invest is your choice, not theirs.

Speaker 6 That's why when it comes to managing your wealth, Schwab gives you more choices. You can invest and trade on your own.

Speaker 6 Plus, get advice and more comprehensive wealth solutions to help meet your unique needs. With award-winning service, low costs, and transparent advice, you can manage your wealth your way at Schwab.

Speaker 6 Visit Schwab.com to learn more. This message comes from Babel.

Speaker 6 Babel's conversation-based language technique teaches you useful words and phrases to get you speaking quickly about the things you actually talk about in the real world.

Speaker 6 With lessons handcrafted by over 200 language experts and voiced by real native speakers, start speaking with Babel today.

Speaker 6 Get up to 55% off your Babel subscription right now at babel.com slash NPR. Spelled B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash NPR.
Rules and restrictions may apply.

Speaker 3 Voters in Wisconsin have been casting ballots in the state's closely watched Supreme Court election.

Speaker 1 It is the most expensive court race in American history, with billionaire Elon Musk and other out-of-state donors spending millions to decide the next Justice of the Court.

Speaker 1 Here's Musk over the weekend with a last-minute pitch for the conservative candidate and for what he says are the stakes for President Trump's agenda.

Speaker 2 They will try to stop all of the government reforms that we are doing and we're getting done for you, the American people.

Speaker 3 Joining us for more is Wisconsin Public Radio's Anya Van Wagtendonk. Anya, so this state Supreme Court race is getting lots of national attention.
I mean, why is it getting that much attention?

Speaker 3 And who are the candidates?

Speaker 7 Yeah, so this is a contest between Susan Crawford and Brad Schimmel.

Speaker 7 It's technically a nonpartisan race, but Crawford is very clearly the liberal candidate and Schimmel is very clearly the conservative candidate.

Speaker 7 So whoever wins will determine the ideological balance of the court. And that obviously really matters for state law here, of course.

Speaker 7 But this is also just a really significant election coming after President Donald Trump's win in November. So it's a bit of a test of how voters feel about his first few months in office.

Speaker 7 And that's a big reason for all of that interest and just tons of money being spent here.

Speaker 3 Yeah, that money, where is it coming from? I mean, the numbers are similar to what we see in U.S. Senate races.

Speaker 7 I mean, Yeah, it is just wild. The latest estimates from Wis Politics, which is a news service here, show that this race has so far cost more than $100 million.

Speaker 7 That's almost twice what our last record-setting judge race here in Wisconsin cost two years ago. It's coming from both political parties and from all across the country.

Speaker 7 It includes Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and George Soros, who are back in Crawford.

Speaker 7 I've seen some celebrity names in the campaign finance reports also supporting her, and a few major conservative business people are backing Schimmel.

Speaker 7 But far and away, the biggest and most significant spender has been Elon Musk supporting Schimmel. He says it's really about congressional redistricting.

Speaker 7 He says that if Schimmel loses, Democrats could gain more seats in the U.S. House.
Crawford says it's about Musk's business interests. Here's Crawford at a debate with Schimmel.

Speaker 8 Elon Musk started spending that money within days of Tesla filing a lawsuit in Wisconsin.

Speaker 8 He's trying to buy access and influence.

Speaker 7 You know, both candidates are making those accusations about campaign influence. In Crawford's case, she's referring to a case where Tesla is challenging Wisconsin's car dealership laws.

Speaker 7 Right now, the company isn't allowed to sell cars in Wisconsin. And Musk isn't just making traditional campaign donations.
He also gave out million-dollar checks to registered voters here.

Speaker 7 That's really skirting the line of, you know, not out and out paying them to vote, which is illegal.

Speaker 3 Now, what else is at stake in this race?

Speaker 7 Abortion law, I think, is the most significant issue. There's a case to determine whether abortion is legal.
It's already being heard by this court.

Speaker 7 It's unclear whether that case will have been decided before the winner of this race takes the bench. There's also a major case involving labor law and collective bargaining rights.

Speaker 7 It's probably going before the state court. Again, exact timing of that is unclear.

Speaker 7 And then I'll just note that the Wisconsin Supreme Court has decided a number of voting and election-related cases in the past.

Speaker 7 It came incredibly close to overturning Joe Biden's victory in the state in 2020.

Speaker 7 So there's just such electoral interest tied up in having control of the highest court in what might be America's swingiest swing state.

Speaker 3 Swingiest swing state. That's right.
I was trying to say that five times fast, but for

Speaker 3 me, Wisconsin Public Radio's Anya Van Wagtin Dong. Thank you very much.

Speaker 7 Thank you.

Speaker 3 All right, other important races today are in Florida, where Democrats think they have a chance to pick up one or two congressional seats that have been held by Republicans.

Speaker 1 In both contests, the Democratic candidates have raised far more money than the Republicans, and the central issue is, once again, President Trump and his agenda.

Speaker 3 NPR's Greg Allen has been following the races. He joins us now from Miami.
So, Greg, I mean, why are these two congressional seats open now?

Speaker 9 Well, you know, as you started to indicate, these two special elections in Florida are all about President Trump. He looked to the state when it came time to stock his cabinet.

Speaker 9 You know, remember his first pick for Attorney General was Congressman Matt Gates, who represented the first district in the panhandle.

Speaker 9 Gates later withdrew his nomination and left Congress, leaving the seat open. The other seat is in Florida's 6th district on the East Coast.

Speaker 9 It was held by Trump's now National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz. Trump won both of those districts in November by more than 30 points, so Republicans are favored to hold on to the seats.

Speaker 9 But a lot of things have changed since Trump started carrying out his agenda, and Democrats have contributed millions of dollars to both races. They think they're competitive in both of them.

Speaker 3 All right, so tell us about the candidates.

Speaker 9 Well, in both districts, the Republican candidates have close ties to Trump. In the panhandle, Florida's chief financial officer, Jimmy Petronas, is running with Trump's endorsement.

Speaker 9 His opponent is Democrat Gabe Valamant, who lost in November by more than 30 points to Matt Gates.

Speaker 9 This is the first congressional district up near Pensacola, where there's a lot of military bases and a lot of veterans.

Speaker 9 Valamant's been talking about the Trump administration cuts to the VA, so she's hoping that will resonate. She's raised more than $6 million, several times what her opponent has pulled in.

Speaker 9 In the other district on Florida's East Coast, Republican State Senator Randy Fine is running, also with Trump's endorsement.

Speaker 9 Back when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was challenging Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, Fine was one of just a handful of Republicans in the state legislature who snubbed DeSantis and backed Trump.

Speaker 9 And Trump referenced that in a campaign call for Fine last week.

Speaker 4 He was one of 14 Florida state legislatures who endorsed me very early in my campaign for president.

Speaker 9 That's why Randy will always have a very open door to the oval office he will be there whenever i need him fine's opponent is democrat josh wheel he's a school teacher who's raised some ten million dollars again that's several times what his opponent has pulled in all right so campaign cash clearly flowing there but how real are democrats chances of flipping seats that have been held by republicans well they think they have a shot at doing it especially in the 6th district on the east coast two recent polls there show wheel is just three or four points behind fine which is within the margin of error democrats see these special elections as a place to begin rallying a party that saw big losses in November.

Speaker 9 The National Democratic Party chair Ken Martin was here this weekend campaigning for both candidates.

Speaker 9 He pointed to special elections in Pennsylvania last week, in which Democrats won two legislative seats that had been Republican.

Speaker 10 One of them helped us win back the state House majority and another seat that hasn't been represented by a Democrat since the 1880s.

Speaker 10 It's a plus 23% Republican district, and we won that in Pennsylvania.

Speaker 9 Martin says, you know, even if they come up short, though, the Democratic candidates in Florida will overperform expectations.

Speaker 9 It's clear also that Republicans, including President Trump, are worried about every congressional race and the possibility that they could lose their narrow majority in Congress.

Speaker 9 You know, that's why last week we saw Trump poll Congresswoman Elise Stefanik's nomination for U.N. ambassador.
Instead of going to the U.N. now, she's going to be remaining in Congress.

Speaker 3 That's NPR's Greg Allen in Miami. Greg, thanks.
You're welcome.

Speaker 3 All right, it's been a rough few months in the stock market. Both the SP 500 and the NASDAQ Composite just closed out their worst quarter in three years.

Speaker 1 Investors are bracing for more turbulence as President Trump prepares to unveil the next phase in his trade war, what he's calling Liberation Day.

Speaker 1 Trump has said he will impose reciprocal tariffs to match the duties other countries place on American goods.

Speaker 3 MPR Scott Horsley joins us now. So, Scott, why are investors so concerned about tariffs?

Speaker 11 Well, hey, tariffs are taxes. They generally push up prices.
They're a potential drag on spending. And they invite retaliation against U.S.
exports.

Speaker 11 On top of that, you've got the unpredictable way the Trump administration has rolled out his tariff agenda on one day, off the next, back on again.

Speaker 11 All that just adds the uncertainty and makes it very hard for businesses to plan.

Speaker 3 All right, then how does the U.S. stack up against other countries when it comes to trade barriers?

Speaker 11 Since the Second World War, the U.S. has generally pushed to lower trade barriers, not raise them.

Speaker 11 But there have always been a few domestic industries that have enjoyed special protection, and those offer some clues about how Trump's protectionist instincts might play out in other parts of the economy.

Speaker 11 One of the most protected industries in this country is sugar. The U.S.
has high trade barriers against imported sugar.

Speaker 11 As a result, the price of sugar in this country is usually about twice what it is on the world market.

Speaker 11 Now, that might not be a big deal if you're just putting a spoonful of sugar in your coffee every morning, but it's a very big deal if you buy sugar by the truckload like Kirk Vashaw does.

Speaker 11 He's the CEO of Spangler Candy, which makes dum-dums, bit of honey, and candy canes in Bryan, Ohio. His is one of the last hard candy manufacturers that still operates in this country.

Speaker 5 Chicago used to be the candy capital of the United States, and it's not anymore.

Speaker 11 It's been hollowed out.

Speaker 5 If you go under the candy aisle and look at hard candy, you'll see most of it is made outside the United States. It's not the cost of the labor, it's the cost of the sugar.

Speaker 11 So lesson one, trade barriers drive up cost, and while that's meant higher profits for U.S. sugar producers, it's been very expensive for all the businesses and consumers who buy sweets.

Speaker 11 In some cases, it's driven them out of the country.

Speaker 3 Trade barriers not only affect the bottom line, but also how businesses operate, too, right?

Speaker 11 Yeah, and a good example of that is the so-called chicken tax. Back in the 1960s, Germany slapped a tariff on imported chickens from the U.S.

Speaker 11 So the U.S. retaliated with the tax on imported pickup trucks.
And that pickup truck tariff is still in place decades later. And the tariff is 25%, 10 times what the U.S.

Speaker 11 had been charging on imported cars. That's why you see a lot of imported cars in the U.S., but very few imported pickup trucks.
There's a deep protectionist moat around the U.S. pickup market.

Speaker 11 And Chief Economist Eugenio Alemana of Raymond Jane says that's why domestic automakers have put so much of their focus on building pickup trucks and SUVs.

Speaker 12 It is more profitable to produce light trucks than to be competitive in sedans.

Speaker 12 Basically, the U.S. auto manufacturers abandon any idea of competing in the global economy with small cars.

Speaker 11 And so that's a second lesson from these protected industries.

Speaker 11 Industries that are protected by high trade barriers typically have less incentive to invest and innovate and compete in worldwide markets.

Speaker 11 And, you know, this week, President Trump is widening that moat around pickup trucks to protect domestic autos with a 25% tariff as well.

Speaker 3 That's NPR's Scott Horsey. Scott, thanks.

Speaker 11 You're welcome.

Speaker 3 And that's up first for Tuesday, April 1st. Emmy Martinez.

Speaker 1 And I'm Michelle Martin. Your next listen is Consider This from NPR.
We hear it up first, give you the three big stories of the day. Our Consider This colleagues take a different approach.

Speaker 1 They dive into a single news story and what it means to you. Learn about a big story of the day in less than 15 minutes.
Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 3 Today's episode of Up First was edited by Acacia Squires, Russell Lewis, Raphael Nam, Lisa Thompson, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Buch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas.

Speaker 3 We get engineering support from Nisha Highness, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.

Speaker 6 This message comes from Jackson. Let's face it, retirement planning can be confusing.
At Jackson, we're working to make retirement clear for everyone, starting with you.

Speaker 6 Our easy-to-understand resources and user-friendly digital tools help simplify your entire experience. You can have confidence in your retirement with clarity from Jackson.

Speaker 6 Seek the clarity you deserve at jackson.com.

Speaker 6 Jackson is short for Jackson Financial Incorporated, Jackson National Life Insurance Insurance Company, Lansing, Michigan, and Jackson National Life Insurance Company of New York, Purchase, New York.

Speaker 13 This message comes from Vital Farms, who works with small American farms to bring you pastor-raised eggs.

Speaker 13 Farmer Tanner Pace shares why he chose to collaborate with Vital Farms when he brought pastor-raised hens to his small Missouri farm.

Speaker 15 Probably the best thing about being a Vital Farms farmer is working with a group that is not just motivated for one thing.

Speaker 15 They're motivated for the well-being of the animals, for the well-being of the earth. They care about it all, you know, and that means a lot to me.

Speaker 13 To learn more about how vital farms farmers care for their hens, visit vitalfarms.com.

Speaker 14 This message comes from Mint Mobile. Starting at $15 a month, make the switch at mintmobile.com/slash switch.

Speaker 13 $45 upfront payment for three months.

Speaker 14 5 gigabyte plan equivalent to $15 a month. Taxes and fees extra.
First three months only. See terms.