Key Highlights :
1. The fate of abortion access in Wisconsin likely rests with the outcome of the heated race for state Supreme Court.
2. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has been under conservative control for 15 years, serving as the final word on a wide array of Republican policies enacted by the GOP-controlled Legislature.
3. The court came within one vote of overturning President Joe Biden’s narrow win in 2020.
4. Democratic-backed candidate Janet Protasiewicz faces Republican-backed Dan Kelly in the race that is the most expensive court race in U.S. history, nearly tripling the previous $15 million record set in Illinois in 2004.
5. Democrats hope to win the race to wrest conservative control for at least the next two years, including the run-up and aftermath of the 2024 presidential election.
6. Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a percentage point and Trump turned to the courts in 2020 in his unsuccessful push to overturn roughly 21,000 votes.
7. Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee County judge, largely focused the race around abortion , saying she supports abortion rights, but stopping short of saying how she would rule on a pending lawsuit challenging Wisconsin's 174-year-old ban that was enacted a year after statehood.
8. Kelly did not say how he would rule.
9. Kelly has expressed opposition to abortion in the past, including in a 2012 blog post in which he said the Democratic Party and the National Organization for Women were committed to normalizing the taking of human life.
10. Kelly also has done legal work for Wisconsin Right to Life.
11. Kelly is a former justice who previously did work for Republicans and advised them on the plan to have fake GOP electors cast their ballots for Trump following the 2020 election even though he had lost.
12. He is endorsed by the state's top three anti-abortion groups , while Protasiewicz is backed by Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights advocates.
13. In a sign of how personal the race has become, Protasiewicz has been endorsed by a fellow Milwaukee County judge who is also the daughter of the retiring conservative Justice Pat Roggensack.
14. Judge Ellen Bostrom wrote in an opinion piece a week before the election that Kelly was “unfit” to serve because of his involvement in the fake elector scheme.
15. Protasiewicz called Kelly “a true threat to our democracy” because of that work.
16. Kelly was endorsed by Trump in 2020 during an unsuccessful run for the court after he served four years on the court following an appointment. Trump did not endorse this year.
17. Protasiewicz’s endorsements include Hillary Clinton.
18. Kelly tried to distance himself from his work for Republicans, saying it was “irrelevant” to how he would
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has been under conservative control for 15 years. Democrats hope to finally change that in a close race.
The current justices were appointed by Republican governors and are generally conservative. The high court has been a stronghold of the Republican Party, ruling in favor of the party's positions more than 90% of the time.
This conservative control has been a major issue for Democrats in the state. They have campaigned on changing the court's direction, and they hope that a close race will result in a change of control.
The two main candidates in the race are incumbent Justice Rebecca Dallet and state senator Tony Evers. Dallet is a Democrat, and Evers is a progressive Democrat.
Both candidates have made changes to their positions in order to appeal to different parts of the Democratic Party. Dallet has shifted to the left on some issues, while Evers has shifted to the right.
The race is close, and it is possible that a change in control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court will occur in the coming months.
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