Array
Liberal candidate Judge Janet Protasiewicz won Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race Tuesday, beating conservative candidate Justice Daniel Kelly, according to the New York Times.
Protasiewicz beat Kelly 55.8% to 44.2% in the most expensive state Supreme Court race since a 2004 Illinois election, the NYT reported with 63% of the votes in. The win for Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee county judge who said she “embraces” the progressive label, will alter the ideology of the court, changing the balance from a 4-3 conservative majority to a 4-3 liberal majority.
“It’s entirely possible that I’ve misread my fellow Wisconsinites: maybe they’re tired of the Constitution, maybe they don’t really care about the liberties it protects, maybe they’re content with having Janet … [dictate] what laws they can and cannot have, and which liberties they may or may not enjoy,” Kelly previously told the DCNF. “I think that would be a crying shame.”
The conservative majority, which was left vulnerable by Justice Patience Roggensack’s retirement, has flipped to liberal control, determining how the court might rule in cases involving abortion, crime, legislative maps and other contentious topics.
