From New York Times, I'm Michael Barrow.

This is the Daily.

On paper, today's election in Wisconsin is about whether Democrats or Republicans should control the state's highest court.

In reality, it's become a referendum on

Elon Musk, his agenda in Washington, and his willingness to flood American politics with his money.

Today, my colleague, Reid Epstein, on the local election that everyone is watching.

Thank you. on the local election that everyone is watching.

It's Tuesday, April 1st. You're ready, read? I'm ready. My first. You're ready, Reed? I'm ready. My phone is on Do Not Disturb. Get that last sip

of Spindrift in? I have a backup here, too. We have more water, so. Perfect. Reed, as we know,

after every presidential election, the political cognizanty.

Is that how you say that word?

I think that's how you say it.

I think that's an only in-journalism word.

Okay.

The political class, the political world, turns its attention to the first batch of special elections,

these off-season races that happen when

somebody retires or gets chosen to be in the president's cabinet and they leave a vacant seat.

And we study these, as you know, for signs of how the voting public feels about the new president,

direction of the country, and both parties. And it's a temperature-taking exercise. And we've had a few of them, even though

this presidency is just a couple months old. Yeah, this really began about a week after Trump was

inaugurated in a state Senate election in eastern Iowa, in a rural Republican part of the state,

where the Republican who had held the seat before had won by 22 points the last time the seat was up.

...