'They clearly need to step up': Why Advocates think 2020 Dems should talk more about judges
Three years after Donald Trump won the presidency partly by making judicial nominations a centerpiece of his candidacy, liberal advocacy groups are struggling to get 2020 Democratic hopefuls to stress the importance of the third branch of government on the campaign trail.
Yet it’s been an uphill battle for the progressive judicial groups pressing candidates to talk about the courts. In five hours of debate between 2020 Democratic candidates in July, for example, judicial nominations weren’t brought up once. No Democratic candidate has released a list of judges they would consider nominating to the Supreme Court the way Trump did in 2016.
Story continuesSome 2020 Democrats have responded, in ways large and small. South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg has released a plan to reform the Supreme Court, in part by increasing the number of justices from nine to 15, promoting the issue to a more significant part of his platform. Candidates including California Sen. Kamala Harris and former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke have also suggested they would be open to expanding the size of the Court.
Baker and others say the candidates need to do a better job framing the issues they campaign on around the role judges play. “Every single issue that the candidates are talking about ultimately goes back to, are they going to have judges on the federal bench who enforce the rights that they’re advocating for?” says Baker. “Or who will tear it down every step of the way?”
Traditionally, the right has been more focused on judges than the left, with its base enthusiastic about the issue and a better-funded constellation of outside groups like the Federalist Society creating a pipeline for conservative judges. Exit polls in 2016 showed that 21% of voters said Supreme Court appointments were the most important factor in their vote, and 56% of those voters cast a ballot for Trump.
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