The candidate for what will evidently be an open seat on the Wisconsin state Supreme Court who was aligned with the Democrats has won the race, handing liberals control of the bench for the first time in what NPR identified as 15 years.
The liberal candidate, who has expressed support for access to abortion and opposition to the partisan slant of legislative district lines that have been drawn and implemented in the state, was Janet Protasiewicz, a judge. She finished with a lead over conservative contender Dan Kelly of some 11 percent, nabbing over 1 million votes around the state to Kelly’s over 818,000. Members of that judicial body are ordinarily elected by residents.
Control of the court could have wide-reaching policy implications. It’s this body that ruled against almost all usage of drop boxes for mail-in ballots in the state, preceding another round of clamoring from Donald Trump about the supposed problems with the results from the 2020 presidential election. He even had a phone conversation with Robin Vos, the Speaker in the state’s lower legislative chamber, who Donald pushed to take action on the years-old results, which Vos resisted and about which he was eventually questioned in Congress.
Besides cases related to the handling of elections, also at issue in Wisconsin could be abortion rights and district lines. “Our state is taking a step forward to a better and brighter future where our rights and freedoms will be protected,” Protasiewicz said in an election night address, per NPR. “And while there is still work to be done, tonight we celebrate this historic victory that has obviously reignited hope in so many of us.” Also present at her election night event were the three liberal Justices who she will be joining on the state’s highest court. The race for the seat she nabbed was expensive, passing — per multiple calculations — the most spent on a state Supreme Court race ever.
Democrats also saw success in this state in the midterm elections last year, with Tony Evers holding onto the governorship over a challenge from a Republican contender aligned with Trump named Tim Michels, who’d thrown his rhetorical hat in with those raising unfounded complaints about the state’s and nation’s elections.
Image: Gage Skidmore/ Creative Commons
