Battle for control of Wisconsin Supreme Court sees liberal and conservative advance to final round

Liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz and conservative Daniel Kelly will face off in an April election to determine ideological control of the Wisconsin state Supreme Court — with implications for the future of abortion access, redistricting and voting rights ahead of the 2024 election in the battleground state.

Conservative judges currently have a 4-3 majority on the court, but one of them, Justice Patience Roggensack, is retiring later this year. Although Tuesday’s primary and the April 4 general election are nonpartisan, local and national Democrats have looked to the race as a rare chance to flip control of the court, which conservatives have had for over a decade.

Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge, earned 46 percent of the vote, followed by Kelly, a former state Supreme Court justice, with 24 percent, when the Associated Press called the top-two primary race with 87 percent of the vote in. Conservative Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow and liberal Dane County Circuit Judge Everett Mitchell received 22 percent and 7 percent of the vote, respectively.

“I can’t tell you how I’ll rule in any case, but throughout this race, I’ve been clear about what my values are,” Protasiewicz said during her victory speech, pointing to her support for abortion access, voting rights and public safety.

The eventual winner will help decide major cases that are likely to come before the court. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and state Attorney General Josh Kaul sued to overturn a more than century-old state law banning most abortions, which could make its way to the state Supreme Court later this year. The court may also be poised to have a say on election laws, as it has in the past.

The race — a down-ballot contest in an off-year — brought in millions of dollars. From the beginning of the year through the primary election, ad spending reached over $9 million on television, digital and radio, per AdImpact. The top spender was Fair Courts America, a super PAC linked to GOP megadonor Richard Uihlein, which has put in around $2.8 million in support of Kelly. Last year, the group said it intended to spend “millions of dollars” on Kelly’s candidacy.

Not far behind Fair Courts America was Protasiewicz, who aired a robust ad blitz backed by a $2.3 million spend. She raised more than $725,000 from the beginning of the year through Feb. 6 — more than all of her opponents’ combined fundraising in that period. Her campaign said it raised more than $2 million since she entered the race in May, a record-breaking sum for a spring primary candidate in Wisconsin.

A Better Wisconsin Together Political Fund — the same group that spent close to $4 million on the governor’s race in support of Evers last election — spent $2.2 million on advertisements hitting Dorow. Dorow spent over $600,000, and outside groups made up the rest of the spending.