MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Susan Crawford, winner of Tuesday’s race to fill a key seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, was backed by national Democrats and made opposition to Elon Musk a centerpiece of her campaign.

Here’s what to know about her:

A longtime judge in Wisconsin’s capital city

Crawford, 60, has served as a Dane County Circuit Court judge since 2018.

She won election to the seat that year and again in 2022 in the county, which is home to the liberal state capital, Madison.

Crawford previously worked as an assistant attorney general for both the Iowa and Wisconsin departments of justice and as an attorney in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

In 2009, she joined Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle’s staff as his legal counsel. After Doyle left office in 2011, Crawford joined a liberal Madison law firm that filed numerous lawsuits challenging Republican-enacted laws.

In that role she represented Planned Parenthood in a pair of cases challenging limitations to abortion. She also spoke against the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. Two cases challenging an 1849 Wisconsin abortion ban law are pending before the state Supreme Court.

She represented unions in a landmark case

Crawford represented public teacher unions in a case challenging a GOP law that effectively ended collective bargaining for teachers and most other public workers.

That law, known as Act 10, was the centerpiece of Republican former Gov. Scott Walker’s tenure and made Wisconsin the center of the national debate over union rights.

Last year a Dane County judge struck down most of the statute as unconstitutional, and an appeal is expected to reach the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Crawford also fought a Republican-written law requiring voters to show photo ID at the polls.

She grew up in Chippewa Falls and graduated from Lawrence University in Appleton in 1987 and the University of Iowa College of Law in 1994.

Crawford lives in Madison and is married with two children.

Scott Bauer, The Associated Press

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s Republican chief financial officer Jimmy Patronis fended off a challenge by Democrat Gay Valimont to win Tuesday’s special election for northwest Florida’s 1st Congressional District, which President Donald Trump carried by about 37 points in November.

Patronis, who was endorsed by Trump, was the heavy favorite for the reliably conservative seat, which opened up after former Rep. Matt Gaetz was tapped to be Trump’s attorney general. Gaetz later withdrew himself from consideration amid allegations of sexual misconduct, which he has denied.

Here’s what to know about Patronis:

He’s a familiar face in Florida politics

Patronis’ family founded the well-known Panama City restaurant Capt. Anderson’s, located along the Gulf of Mexico. He has been involved in Florida politics since he was in college, interning in the state Senate before being elected to the state House in 2006. He was appointed by then-Gov. Rick Scott to become the state’s CFO in 2017 and won races to keep the Cabinet-level office in 2018 and 2022.

Patronis won the endorsement of Trump in November, which appeared to head off a more robust Republican primary, even though Patronis doesn’t live in the district.

He faced a tougher than expected challenger

Patronis was far outraised and outspent by his Democratic opponent, who pulled in more than $6 million from donors in all 50 states, according to the most recent campaign finance reports.

Valimont focused on Trump’s push to fire federal workers and dismantle federal agencies, as well as to tie Patronis to Florida’s property insurance crisis. His office helps regulate insurance in the state, which has some of the highest rates in the country.

Even Trump got involved

National Democrats had pointed to their massive fundraising hauls in the conservative oasis of Florida as a sign voters are dissatisfied with the Republican president’s second term. They were hoping to carve into the GOP’s margin of victory in the 1st District as they work to build grassroots support and raise more money ahead of the 2026 midterms.

In the final days of the campaign, the president directly got involved, joining Patronis by telephone on a tele-town hall to help get out the vote in what he called the “all-important” April 1 election.

“The whole country’s actually watching this one,” Trump said of the race.

___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Kate Payne, The Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida state Sen. Randy Fine won Tuesday’s special election for a vacant congressional seat that the president carried by 30 points less than five months ago.

The Trump-backed Republican had faced mounting pressure from his party in the final days of the campaign after Democrat Josh Weil outraised Fine by a nearly 10-to-1 margin. Democrats outraged by President Donald Trump ’s second term poured millions of dollars into the campaign for Florida’s 6th Congressional District.

The seat opened up after Mike Waltz was tapped to be Trump’s national security adviser in what was widely seen then as a move without much political risk.

Here’s what to know about Fine:

He’s a self-described ‘conservative firebrand’

Fine is known for his socially conservative stances and combative approach to politics. A fierce defender of Israel, he’s embraced the nickname “Hebrew Hammer.”

Fine has also backed some of the state’s most controversial proposals, cosponsoring a bill restricting how gender and sexuality can be discussed in public schools, a measure that critics labeled the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

He’s clashed with DeSantis

Once an ally of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Florida Legislature, Fine publicly turned on the governor to endorse Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign. Since then, Fine has become one of DeSantis’ loudest critics in the Capitol — and the dislike is mutual.

In the week before the April 1 election, the governor said he expected Fine to underperform compared to his and Trump’s performance in the district, calling it a “reflection of the specific candidate running in that race.”

He came under pressure from his own party

Fine’s bid for what’s considered a reliably conservative district north of Orlando seemed like an easy win a few months ago until national Democrats began pouring millions into Weil’s campaign.

Frustrated by Fine’s relative lack of fundraising, Republican officials worked to head off the embarrassment of a better-than-expected showing by Democrats in a district Trump carried by 30 points in November.

In the final days of the campaign, the president himself joined Fine by telephone on a tele-town hall.

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Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Kate Payne, The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Pennsylvania accuses billionaire Elon Musk and the political action committee he started of failing to pay a suburban Philadelphia man more than $20,000 for getting people to sign a petition in favor of free speech and gun rights.

The lawsuit seeking class-action status claims the man, referred to as Bucks County resident John Doe and requesting to remain anonymous, received hourly pay for canvassing ahead of the November presidential election, but that he was not fully paid for the petition referrals.

It claims “John Doe” has repeatedly tried to obtain payment but has not been successful. He says he has been in touch with others who have the same complaint.

“There’s been a lot of discussion and concern from people who were not paid what they understood they were going to be paid,” Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer for “John Doe,” said in a phone interview late Tuesday. The lawsuit was first reported by The New York Times.

Musk’s America PAC offered to pay $100 for registered voters to sign the petition and $100 for people who referred a registered voter who signed the petition.

“America PAC is committed to paying for every legitimate petition signature, which is evidenced by the fact that we have paid tens of millions of dollars to canvassers for their hard work in support of our mission,” America PAC spokesperson Andrew Romeo said in an email. “While we don’t yet know who this ‘John Doe’ plaintiff is and can’t speak to their specific circumstances, we can say that we are also committed to rooting out fraud and have the right to withhold payments to fraudsters.”

The America PAC website says it has mailed out “the overwhelming majority” of the checks it owes to petition signers but that some “have been flagged for mismatched information” that requires attention.

“The answer is basically, ‘we’re working on it,’ but I think that’s been up there for a while,” Liss-Riordan said.

The lawsuit accuses Musk, the PAC and Group America LLC of breaching a contract and violating Pennsylvania state wage payment law.

Musk gave $1 million checks Sunday to two Wisconsin voters, calling them spokespeople for the political group, as voters there were electing a Supreme Court justice on Tuesday.

In Pennsylvania last year, Democratic District Attorney Larry Krasner of Philadelphia sued to challenge a $1 million voter sweepstakes Musk ran. But a judge allowed it to continue, ruling Krasner had not shown it amounted to an illegal lottery.

The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers won’t change state policies allowing transgender kids and teens to play on sports teams consistent with their gender identities amid heated nationwide debates over the participation of trans youth in athletics.

Democratic lawmakers on the state Assembly’s Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Tourism rejected two proposals by Republican lawmakers on Tuesday after hours of impassioned debate and commentary.

One bill would have required the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body for high school sports, to adopt rules banning students whose sex was assigned male at birth from participating on a girls school sports team. The other would have reversed a 2013 law allowing students to participate in sex-segregated school programs, including on sports teams, and use bathrooms and other facilities that align with their gender identity. It would have applied to K-12 and college students.

The hearing came a day after Transgender Day of Visibility, and weeks after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom angered his political allies when he suggested on his podcast it’s unfair for transgender athletes to participate in girls sports.

Democratic Assemblymember Chris Ward, the committee chair who leads the legislative LGBTQ+ caucus, said the bills were part of a broader attack on the rights of transgender youth. He said they could also be invasive to cisgender girls who might be asked to prove their sex.

“I don’t think anybody should be gender policing women and girls,” Ward said.

But Republican Assemblymember Bill Essayli, who authored the bill to reverse the 2013 law, said the proposal was about fairness.

“Biology matters,” he said. “Sports are one of the places where that reality is most obvious.”

Taylor Starling, a student-athlete in Riverside who says a trans runner took her spot on her high school’s varsity cross country team, said a ban would help ensure female athletes are treated fairly.

“Why are girls being told that we must sit down and be quiet while boys unfairly get ahead of us in life?” she said.

But LGBTQ+ advocates and parents of transgender children urged lawmakers to support trans kids — in sports and beyond.

Cati Johnson, a parent of a transgender girl in middle school said it was important to defend the rights and protections of trans kids, such as the ability to use a restroom that aligns with their gender identity.

“The facilities ban really sends the message that she is not welcome as her authentic self,” Johnson said of her daughter. “And that’s just not OK.”

At least 24 states have laws on the books barring transgender women and girls from participating in certain women’s or girls sports competitions. Judges have temporarily blocked bans in Arizona, Idaho and Utah. In New Hampshire and West Virginia, students who sued those states over bans were allowed to compete. At the federal level, President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month aimed at barring transgender athletes from participating in girls and women’s sports.

Some states have also imposed bans on gender-affirming care and required schools to share students’ gender identity with parents without the students’ consent.

Essayli and other proponents of the proposals referred multiple times to Newsom’s comments. The governor later told The Los Angeles Times he had deliberated on the issue for years, and he stuck by his comments.

“I know that hurt a lot of people. But respectfully, I just disagree with those on the other side of this,” he said.

Newsom has not directly called for a reversal of existing state law and won’t have to weigh in after the bills died.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent Newsom a letter last week, saying his remarks on his podcast caught her attention and requesting he clarify his stance.

“Take a stand on your convictions,” she wrote. “Be clear about the harms of gender confusion. Protect female spaces. Do not encourage children to seek permanent medical interventions to their sex. Inform parents.”

The U.S. Department of Education also announced an investigation last week into the state education department over a law banning school districts from requiring teachers and staff to notify parents if a student changes their gender identity at school.

___

Austin is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on X: @sophieadanna

Sophie Austin, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Naval Academy has removed nearly 400 books from its library after being told by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office to review and get rid of ones that promote diversity, equity and inclusion, U.S officials said Tuesday.

Academy officials were told to review the library late last week, and an initial search had identified about 900 books for a closer look. They decided on nearly 400 to remove and began doing so Monday, finishing before Hegseth arrived for a visit Tuesday that had already been planned and was not connected to the library purge, officials said. A list of the books has not yet been made available.

Pulling the books off the shelves is another step in the Trump administration’s far-reaching effort to eliminate so-called DEI content from federal agencies, including policies, programs, online and social media postings and curriculum at schools.

The Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, had not been included in President Donald Trump’s executive order in January that banned DEI instruction, programs or curriculum in kindergarten through 12th grade schools that receive federal funding. That is because the academies are colleges.

Pentagon leaders, however, suddenly turned their attention to the Naval Academy last week when a media report noted that the school had not removed books that promoted DEI. A U.S. official said the academy was told late last week to conduct the review and removal. It isn’t clear if the order was directed by Hegseth or someone else on his staff.

A West Point official confirmed that the school had completed a review of its curriculum and was prepared to review library content if directed by the Army. The Air Force and Naval academies had also done curriculum reviews as had been required.

An Air Force Academy official said the school continually reviews its curriculum, coursework and other materials to ensure it all complies with executive orders and Defense Department policies. Last week, Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, the Air Force Academy superintendent, told Congress that the school was in the middle of its course review, but there was no mention of books.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss academy policies.

Hegseth has aggressively pushed the department to erase DEI programs and online content, but the campaign has been met with questions from angry lawmakers, local leaders and citizens over the removal of military heroes and historic mentions from Defense Department websites and social media pages.

In response, the department has scrambled to restore some of those posts as their removals have come to light.

The confusion about how to interpret the DEI policy was underscored Monday as Naval Academy personnel mistakenly removed some photos of distinguished female Jewish graduates from a display case as they prepared for Hegseth’s visit. The photos were put back.

In a statement, the Navy said it is aware that photos were mistakenly removed from the Naval Academy Jewish Center. It said U.S. Naval Academy leadership was immediately taking steps to review and correct the unauthorized removal.

Hegseth spoke with students and had lunch at the academy Tuesday, but media were not invited or allowed to cover the visit.

Lolita C. Baldor, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — It started as an ordinary D.C. intersection — a tourist destination with a modest white church on the corner, notable largely for an unobstructed view of the White House across Lafayette Park. Then, in the pandemic summer of 2020, it transformed.

The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police turned the nexus of 16th and H streets into a focal point for decades-old grievances over police brutality and racial inequities.

Even before it was named Black Lives Matter Plaza, thousands of protesters descended there daily, many staying around the clock as support tents and infrastructure sprung up. At times, the protests turned violent: A groundskeeper building in the park burned down; the church, St. John’s Episcopal, briefly caught fire; and at least one night saw storefronts destroyed downtown.

At other times, the violence was directed at protesters, including when police abruptly used chemical agents to clear out protesters, so President Donald Trump could pose in front of St. John’s holding a Bible.

Later that year, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered the creation of Black Lives Matter Plaza, with official street signs and “Black Lives Matter” painted in giant yellow letters on a multiblock stretch of 16th Street. The move was symbolic, but the impact concrete: BLM Plaza became a magnet point for years of political activism. Hundreds of protests started, ended or rallied there. Semipermanent protesters mingled with tourists; crowds brought vendors and food trucks, creating a street-fair vibe.

But Bowser’s move was derided by local activists, who accused her of co-opting an organic movement whose values she did not share. In a brief game of cat-and-mouse, activists erased the stars from the Washington, D.C., flag painted on the street, creating the image of an equal sign; they temporarily changed the message to “Black Lives Matter = Defund the Police.”

Despite local resistance, Bowser’s act of public defiance established her as a prominent foil for Trump in his first term.

Now, the site has changed again, an indicator of America’s political pendulum swings. Bowser announced early this month that the city would remove the words as she struggled with threats of encroachment from Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress.

The work was supposed to take at least six weeks, but appears to be finishing ahead of schedule. Workers have completed removing the letters.

And the street signs reading Black Lives Matter Plaza have come down.

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By Ashraf Khalil, The Associated Press

As many as four in five immigrants at risk of deportation from the United States are Christian, according to a new report that calls on their fellow believers to consider the impact of the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation policies.

The report says about 10 million Christians are vulnerable to deportation and 7 million U.S. citizens who are Christian live in households where someone is at risk of deportation.

The report, under the auspices of major Catholic and evangelical organizations, draws on a range of data, including percentages of religious affiliation in various migrant and national populations and on an advocacy group’s analysis of U.S. census data on migrants.

“Though we’re deeply concerned about fellow Christians, we’re not exclusively concerned with immigrants who happen to share our faith,” said Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, an evangelical humanitarian organization that cosponsored the report.

“As Christians, we believe that all people, regardless of their religious tradition or nationality, are made in God’s image with inherent dignity,” Soerens said in a video statement. But he added that many Christians in the U.S. may not realize that most of those who could be deported share their faith.

Other groups that helped produce the report include the National Association of Evangelicals, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration and the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. While the report doesn’t advocate any political positions, it mainly seeks to raise awareness of the issue among Christians, and some of its sponsoring groups have individually advocated for reforms that would give some categories of immigrants a path to legal status.

Immigrants at risk of deportation range from those who crossed the border illegally to those who may have some sort of legal status that could be revoked. For example, the Trump administration has taken steps to end temporary protected status, held by many from Venezuela and Haiti, as well as humanitarian parole that had been granted for others from those troubled countries as well as Cuba and Nicaragua.

President Donald Trump enjoyed wide support from certain Christian blocs in all three of his campaigns. In 2024, he was supported by about 8 in 10 white evangelical Christian voters, about 6 in 10 white Catholics and just over half of Latino evangelicals, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 120,000 voters.

While the report doesn’t directly refer to that support, it says it seeks to raise awareness of the potential impact of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Even the fear of deportation could cause people to avoid going to public places — such as worship services. In an era when a growing number of people in the U.S. don’t have a religious affiliation, many immigrants who are Christian have helped reenergize churches and spur their growth, said Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

“They’re coming from parts of the world where the church is actually thriving,” Kim said. “Not only are they bringing that thriving faith and contributing to America, they’re also contributing to the vibrancy of the church in America.”

Mass deportation would amount to a government-fostered “church decline strategy,” Kim said.

Kim said his organization has long advocated for reforms that would distinguish between those convicted of violent crimes and “the much larger share of immigrants who are contributing to our communities and to our churches, and who are serious and eager” to stay in the country.

Many studies have found immigrants are less drawn to violent crime than native-born citizens.

The recent report said Catholics in particular represent more than half of all those vulnerable to deportation in the United States, noted Bishop Mark Seitz, chair of the Committee on Migration of the bishops’ conference.

The deportations would likely separate family members, Seitz said.

“We know the impact of tearing apart the family unity and also the tremendous threats that are faced by people who are summarily deported to their home countries, which they fled in the first place because of the tremendous threats they were living under there,” said Seitz, who heads the Diocese of El Paso, Texas.

They face danger from government oppression and organized crime in their home countries, Seitz said.

“People are going to die if this deportation effort continues at the level it is,” he said.

The report’s methodology included calculating the percentages of Catholics, evangelicals and other Christian groups in the countries from which immigrants originated, based on self-reported affiliations. The report then applied those percentages to immigrant populations within various categories of immigrants.

While such methods include numerous assumptions, many regions of origin for major immigrants and refugee groups, including Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Ukraine, have large Christian populations.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Peter Smith, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Another major international law firm has reached a deal with President Donald Trump to dedicate at least $100 million in free legal services to causes such as supporting veterans and combating antisemitism, the White House and the law firm announced Tuesday.

The agreement makes Willkie Farr & Gallagher the third law firm in the last two weeks to cut a deal with the White House to avert sanctions. Under the agreement, Willkie also agreed to disavow the use of equity, diversity and inclusion considerations in its hiring decisions and to not deny representation to any client “because of the personal political views of individual lawyers.”

The resolution underscores the differing approaches some of the world’s most elite law firms have taken as Trump aims to punish them in some instances over their association with prosecutors who have previously investigated him, as well as their perceived association with causes that are out of favor with the administration.

The firm is home to Doug Emhoff, the husband of 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, and Timothy Heaphy, who was chief investigative counsel to the House of Representatives committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The firm also represented two former Georgia election workers in a successful defamation lawsuit against former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Leaders of Willkie learned Sunday that they would be targeted for an executive order like the one leveled at nearly a half-dozen other major firms over the last month, according to an internal email from the firm’s executive committee obtained by The Associated Press.

“We were invited to contact the Administration on Sunday, and they outlined a proposed alternative to receiving an Executive Order. After determining that the three principles on which an agreement would be based are consistent with our Firm’s longstanding practices, we engaged in discussions to see if an acceptable resolution could be reached,” the email said.

Emhoff made it known internally that he disagreed with this deal and told firm leadership they should fight, according to a person familiar with the situation who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The Trump executive orders have threatened the security clearances of attorneys at the firms as well as the termination of the firms’ federal contracts and access by employees to federal buildings.

Last Friday, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom agreed to provide $100 million in pro bono legal services to avert an executive order, following the path of Paul Weiss, a firm that cut a deal just a week after it was targeted.

In other instances, federal judges have blocked from enforcement key portions of the orders having to do with federal contracts and access to federal buildings.

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Associated Press writer Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

Eric Tucker, The Associated Press