MILWAUKEE, Wis. (AP) — Democrats won the state’s open supreme court seat in an off-year election in Wisconsin, giving liberals dominance of the court for the first time in 15 years.
According to The Associated Press, Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated former state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly in the hotly contested election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The amount spent on the campaign broke the prior national record for a state supreme court election.
Protasiewicz’s victory comes at a critical juncture for the bench and the Democratic voters who elected her. With a liberal majority, the justices are almost certain to hear a challenge to Wisconsin’s pre-Civil War abortion prohibition, and they’re also likely to consider a case that could overturn Wisconsin’s Republican-drawn legislative maps.
Unless something unexpected happens, the victory also ensures that liberals will have a majority on the bench ahead of next year’s presidential election, when Wisconsin, the perennial swing state, is anticipated to play a key role in the race for the White House. Protasiewicz will be one of the seven justices who will have the final say if election lawsuits are brought in state court.
The Saint Kate hotel in downtown Milwaukee erupted as Protasiewicz approached the platform for her victory speech, and some of her closest supporters danced on stage.
Protasiewicz was joined onstage near the end of her address by the three liberal justices she will soon join on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
“Our state is moving towards a better and brighter future in which our rights and freedoms will be protected,” Protasiewicz said. “And, while there is still work to be done, tonight we celebrate this historic victory, which has clearly restored hope in so many of us.”
Democrats’ high hopes
If the court redraws the maps and gives Democrats a better chance of winning legislative races, they expect to finally shift the state’s political trajectory to the left. The court could also redraw Wisconsin’s congressional map, where Republicans presently hold six of the state’s eight U.S. House seats in an otherwise evenly divided state.
Protasiewicz grew up on Milwaukee’s south side and spent 25 years as a lawyer in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office before becoming a judge for the majority of the last decade.
While she never promised to decide on Supreme Court cases, Protasiewicz was particularly candid about her political views during the campaign. On abortion, she stated that she believes women have the freedom to choose. She labelled the state’s Republican-drawn legislative maps “rigged” when it came to redistricting.
Her campaign also relied more than any in history on the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s financial support, so much so that Protasiewicz vowed to recuse herself from cases involving the state party once she takes office.
Kelly’s loss and the money
In his concession speech to supporters in Green Lake, Wis., Kelly had sharp words for Protasiewicz, saying she had “demeaned the judiciary” with her campaign.
“I respect the decision that the people of Wisconsin have made,” Kelly said. “But I think this does not end well.”
Kelly downplayed his political beliefs throughout the campaign, but he brought a long Republican resume to the contest. In 2016, he was nominated to the court by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Kelly worked as an attorney for the majority of his tenure. He successfully protected Wisconsin’s Republican-drawn legislative maps in federal court in 2012. After losing his first election in 2020, Kelly returned to private practice, where he represented both the local and national Republican parties.
Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and an organisation called Fair Courts America, which is financed by GOP megadonor Richard Uihlein, were among Kelly’s biggest financial backers. They spent more than $10 million on advertisements criticising Protasiewicz’s sentences as a judge in Milwaukee County.
While money from Kelly and conservative organisations poured in during the final weeks of the campaign, Protasiewicz was able to counter with an unprecedented fundraising haul in a judicial contest, raising more than $14 million this year. The majority of the funds came from payments from the state Democratic Party.
The race broke the prior national record for the most money spent on a state Supreme Court race. The previous record of $15.2 million was established in a 2004 race for the Illinois Supreme Court, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. According to the centre’s tracking, nearly $29 million in political ads were spent in Wisconsin’s election. Another running tally, this time by the Wisconsin political news website WisPolitics, discovered total expenditures on the race had hit $45 million.
Protasiewicz will take office on Aug. 1 for a term that runs until 2033. Barring the unexpected, the next chance conservatives have to flip the court back will be in 2025.