High-Stakes Wisconsin Supreme Court Election Could Impact Abortion Rights and State Politics

(CTN News) – On Tuesday, Wisconsin voters will choose which state Supreme Court candidates will run in the April election, which will significantly impact abortion rights, state government power, and the 2024 presidential race.

The top two finishers in the election will face off in a one-on-one contest in April to decide whether a right- or left-wing majority would govern the state’s seven-member high court. There are four candidates on the ballot: two liberals and two conservatives.

The Importance of Abortion Rights in the Election

The newly created court will likely rule whether to preserve the state’s 1849 almost comprehensive abortion ban, which became effective following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last June and end a universal right to abortion.

The state’s Republican-drawn legislative maps, which have assisted the party in maintaining control of the legislature despite a sharply split electorate, may potentially be reviewed by the court.

Election to impact abortion rights, state government power, and 2024 presidential race

And because Wisconsin is anticipated to be a swing state in the 2024 presidential election, the judges’ decisions on election law might impact the contest’s result.

Ben Wikler, the leader of the state’s Democratic Party, noted in an interview that “the stakes in this campaign for Wisconsin and American democracy at large can’t be emphasized.”

The state Supreme Court’s conservative 4-3 majority has handed down a run of judgments that have benefitted Republicans due to frequent conflict between the Republican-dominated legislature and the Democratic governor, Tony Evers.

However, a conservative judge is retiring this year, raising concerns about the court’s political slant.

Although the contest is impartial in theory, a casual viewer may not be aware of that fact.

There is little question about the candidates’ ideologies: conservative Daniel Kelly and Jennifer Dorow, a liberal, and liberals Janet Protasiewicz and Everett Mitchell.

Each pair of like-minded candidates has the support of both the state Democratic and Republican parties, and a slew of interest organizations have endorsed them and contributed millions of dollars to their campaigns.

According to Douglas Keith, a lawyer at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice who studies spending on judicial elections, the campaign is already among the most costly state supreme court contests in history.

With six weeks before the general election, more than $7 million has been spent on television advertising, putting it on pace to break the $15 million total expenditure record for a single-seat contest, established in Illinois in 2004.

Roe v. Wade decision and Wisconsin’s 19th-century statute outlawing abortion in focus

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, state court elections have drawn more attention. This tendency has been accelerated.

The decision led to the 19th-century statute outlawing the practice in Wisconsin. Josh Kaul, the Democratic Attorney General, filed a lawsuit asserting that the act is unconstitutional; the issue ultimately reached the state Supreme Court.

According to Gracie Skogman, a Wisconsin Right to Life representative supporting conservative candidates, “This is Wisconsin’s Roe moment.”

According to the ideological make-up of the court, “Not only is the future of our existing legislation in peril, but they have the chance to set the norm for pro-life and abortion policy for decades to come.”

Right to Life is enlisting voters’ support via voter registration drives, phone calls, direct mail, and social media campaigns.

According to spokesman Tiffany Wynn of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, the organization intends to devote more funds to the campaign than any other judicial contest.

After Tuesday’s primary, the organization intends to launch an advertising blitz and has recruited personnel to canvass homes.

Other laws, like those requiring voter identification and allowing the concealed carry of weapons, might be reviewed by a new liberal majority.

According to Republican state party head Mark Jefferson, “these are topics right up and down the line that we’ve been pursuing over the past generation that would be on the chopping block.”

Related CTN News:

State Legislatures Battle Over Abortion Restrictions and Protections in 2023