The Truth Show BLOG

MILWAUKEE — In overturning a national right to abortion last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court gave conservatives a policy they’d been seeking for nearly half a century. In the process, the justices also angered millions of Americans who have made their views known in key elections.

The latest sign of that dynamic came in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election Tuesday when a Milwaukee County judge won by 11 points to give liberals the majority after 15 years of conservative control.

The candidate and the Democrats supporting her focused relentlessly on abortion rights in a state that saw the availability of abortion disappear after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The Wisconsin court is now expected in the next year or two to overturn the state’s 19th-century ban on most abortions.

Democrats plan to continue to rally voters around abortion rights, starting this fall with legislative races in Virginia, where the Republican governor has pushed for a 15-week abortion ban. Abortion could also loom large in some of the dozens of state Supreme Court races that will be held around the country next year. It’s sure to play an outsize role in the 2024 presidential election, as well as House and Senate races, because Congress could consider a nationwide abortion ban.

“I think the moment when Republicans in the presidential primary debate are asked whether they’ll support a national abortion ban, and they raise their hands is the moment that they will lose the next presidential election,” said Ben Wikler, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, said the Wisconsin results showed that conservatives need to do a better job with messaging when it comes to abortion.

“This is not an issue that’s going away for our party in a post-Dobbs world, and we can’t put our head in the sand and think it’s going to head into 2024,” she said Wednesday on Fox News.

In Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race, Janet Protasiewicz’s victory on Tuesday has implications for far more than abortion rights because Democrats could bring challenges to voting rules, union limits, and election maps that have given Republicans nearly two-thirds majorities in the state legislature.

Protasiewicz’s win is just the latest evidence of how abortion rights are galvanizing voters.

Less than six weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court issued the ruling, voters in Kansas rejected an amendment to the state constitution that would have eliminated abortion protections. In November’s midterm elections, the decision helped Democrats withstand headwinds that normally doom the president’s party during a first term. Democrats kept the U.S. Senate and won key races for governor; while they lost the U.S. House, they prevented Republicans from gaining more than a tiny margin of control.

In Michigan, voters in November resoundingly supported an amendment to the state constitution to guarantee access to abortion. While they were at the polls, they reelected Democrats to statewide positions — sometimes by double-digit margins — and gave them control of the state legislature. One of the Democrats’ first acts was to vote to repeal the state’s abortion ban with a law that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed on Wednesday.

In Wisconsin last year, Gov. Tony Evers (D) and Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) rode to reelection by focusing on abortion rights and reminding voters regularly that they had sued to overturn the state’s abortion ban.

Their challenge to the ban will be heard before a trial judge in Madison next month. Whatever the ruling, the case is sure to be appealed to the state Supreme Court. During the campaign, Protasiewicz said she couldn’t say how she would vote in the case but repeatedly stressed her support for abortion rights. In one speech, given in March at a conference of county officials, Protasiewicz said she values “a woman’s freedom to make her own health-care decisions with her doctor, family, and faith.”

Her opponent, former state Supreme Court justice Daniel Kelly, criticized Protasiewicz for emphasizing her political views, saying it was inappropriate for candidates to telegraph how they would rule on pending cases. Years before he became a justice, Kelly made his own opinions clear in blog posts that said abortions take away lives and argued that Democrats support access to the procedure to “preserve sexual libertinism.”

Protasiewicz drubbed Kelly by double digits, according to unofficial returns. Turnout was high, with nearly 40 percent of eligible voters casting ballots. Incomparable elections, typically less than 30 percent of the electorate shows up.

At Protasiewicz’s victory party, the three liberals who were already on the court swayed to Lizzo before joining the incoming justice onstage to celebrate. In interviews, they said the Dobbs decision helped Protasiewicz connect with voters — a welcome opportunity when so many voters don’t know the ins and outs of what the court does.

“It’s very difficult to get people to understand how the Supreme Court impacts their everyday life because we get cases sometimes, and the dispute happened months, years, decades before it ever comes to us,” liberal Justice Jill Karofsky said. “Dobbs absolutely showed people how a Supreme Court can impact people’s everyday life.”

The liberals will have control of the court until at least 2025 when liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley is up for reelection. Bradley, who has been on the court since 1995 and plans to seek a fourth 10-year term, attributed liberals’ ability to take over the court this week partly to Dobbs and other decisions handed down in recent years by conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I think that people are hungry for change right now,” Bradley said. “And then you have the United States Supreme Court. Some of the decisions that the U.S. Supreme Court has rendered, I think, have really caused a loss of public trust and confidence, and I think that people like Janet Protasiewicz had a message that resonated with people. It’s hopefully a step towards restoring public trust and confidence.”

Again avoiding the topic of abortion Tuesday night, Kelly told supporters he respected the will of voters but considered Protasiewicz, an unworthy opponent who had smeared him. He warned of dark times for Wisconsin, closing his speech with: “I wish Wisconsin the best of luck because I think it’s going to need it.”

Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, a conservative, said Wednesday that she expected the justices to turn their attention to the work of the court now that the election is over.

“The court’s going to survive political changes, as it always has,” she said in an interview. “Campaigns are campaigns, but we come together, and we decide cases. We welcome our new justices as they are elected, and we proceed on with the business of the court.”

Ziegler endorsed Kelly late in the campaign after initially backing a conservative who didn’t make it through the February primary. She declined Wednesday to talk about the role abortion played in the race.

In Virginia, abortion is proving to be an energizing issue once again as this fall’s legislative races get underway, said Susan Swecker, the chairwoman of the state Democratic Party.