Wisconsin voters elected liberal Janet Protasiewicz to the state Supreme Court, flipping control to a liberal majority ahead of rulings on an abortion ban and other matters that could play a role in the 2024 US presidential election
Protasiewicz defeated conservative candidate Daniel Kelly in what New York University's Brennan Center for Justice called the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history. More than $42.3 million had been spent as of Monday, according to a WisPolitics.com review, far outstripping the previous record of $15.2 million.
The Associated Press called the race in favor of Protasiewicz. With 62% of the votes counted, Protasiewicz had 56.4% of the vote to 43.6% for Kelly, a lead of nearly 144,000 votes. In a major victory for abortion rights advocates, the result turns a court with a former 4-3 conservative majority to liberal control after 15 years, likely affecting a number of issues that have polarized Americans in other states such as voting rights and partisan control over drawing legislative maps.
But it was abortion that dominated the campaign, with the court expected in the coming months to decide whether to uphold the state's 1849 abortion ban. That law took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year to eliminate a nationwide right to abortion. The state's Democratic attorney general, Josh Kaul, has challenged the statute's validity in a lawsuit backed by Democratic Governor Tony Evers.Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz waits to vote at Franklin City Hall in Wisconsin's Supreme Court election, in Franklin, Wisconsin, U.S., April 4, 2023.
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