![]() ![]() ![]() “It’s going to be close,” former President Barack Obama said Tuesday in a tweet urging Wisconsin voters to cast their ballots early. Those high stakes have turned the state Supreme Court race into one of the nation’s most closely watched contests of 2023. The April 4 election will set the stage for the 2024 presidential race, with the court likely to be asked to weigh in again on election rules, including the state’s voter identification law, and potentially sort through another round of legal challenges afterward. It has voted in recent years to prohibit ballot drop boxes and have selected maps that cemented Republicans’ solid majority in the state legislature. The court has also shaped Wisconsin’s election laws. The court played a pivotal role in the outcome of Wisconsin’s 2020 election: Justices voted 4-3, with conservative Brian Hagedorn joining the court’s three liberals, to reject former President Donald Trump’s efforts to throw out ballots in Democratic-leaning counties. “Whoever wins the Supreme Court race will cast the deciding vote on questions like voting rights decisions, our abortion ban and even potentially whether to overturn the results of the 2024 presidential election.” “This election is the most important election in the country in 2023 because Wisconsin is the tipping point state for presidential elections,” Wikler said in an interview Tuesday. A Protasiewicz victory would tip the balance of power on the seven-member court.īen Wikler, chairman Wisconsin Democratic Party, said the implications of the Supreme Court race could not be overstated for the state and the nation. The two are battling to replace Justice Patience Roggensack, a conservative. That split has placed the state Supreme Court, where conservatives currently hold a 4-3 majority, at the center of pitched, partisan battles over several key issues, including abortion rights, election challenges, and legislative and congressional district lines.Īnd because Wisconsin is one of 14 states to directly elect Supreme Court justices, the race between Janet Protasiewicz, the liberal Milwaukee County judge, and Daniel Kelly, the conservative former state Supreme Court justice, has shattered spending records on statewide judicial races, with more than $30 million in television advertising already flooding the state’s airwaves ahead of the April 4 election. Power in Wisconsin – the state that was the tipping point in the 20 presidential elections – is divided between a Democratic governor, Tony Evers, and a Republican-controlled legislature. ![]() In one of the nation’s most important political battlegrounds, the future of election laws, abortion rights and more could hinge on the outcome of an April race for a seat that will determine control of the state Supreme Court. ![]()
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