Wisconsin Supreme Court race was the most expensive state judicial election in U.S. history

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Liberals won control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court last Tuesday for the first time in 15 years. The most expensive state judicial election in U.S. history, the contest was dubbed the most high-stakes race of 2023. Abortion rights, gerrymandered election maps and voting issues were at stake in the state’s hotly contested Supreme Court seat.

Spending in the election surpassed $45 million, with contributions to candidate campaigns totaling $16.9 million, according to OpenSecrets’ analysis of the most recent campaign finance disclosures. Another $28.6 million went to independent expenditures and undisclosed issue ads, the campaign money tracking non-profit group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign estimated.

Wisconsin voters elected Milwaukee County circuit judge Janet Protasiewicz last Tuesday by a margin of 11 percentage points. She defeated former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly. Though Wisconsin judicial elections are officially nonpartisan, Protasiewicz has identified as liberal and Kelly as conservative.

Protasiewicz will succeed a retiring conservative justice. With a liberal majority, the court is expected to reverse the state’s 1849 abortion ban that went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last summer to overturn the federal right to abortion in Roe v. Wade. It also will decide on a lawsuit challenging the state’s Republican-drawn redistricting maps.

Protasiewicz’s campaign raised $14 million, with the Wisconsin Democratic Party being by far the biggest donor, contributing $8.9 million. Some of the top industries contributing to her campaign were lawyers and lobbyists, securities and investment, and education.

Kelly’s campaign raised $2.6 million, with roughly $779,000 of that coming from the Wisconsin Republican Party. Conservative megadonors and supply shipping magnate couple Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein were among Kelly’s top individual donors, together contributing $40,000. The Uihleins also gave $5.8 million to GOP-supporting super PACs in Wisconsin in 2022 and contributed in the past to the Wisconsin Club for Growth, a conservative nonprofit with a history of getting involved in Wisconsin Supreme Court races.

The remaining quarter million was raised by Dane County Judge Everett D. Mitchell. He was eliminated from the race following the Feb. 21 primaries, in which Protasiewicz and Kelly received 46% and 24% of the vote respectively.

Outside money flooded the race. As of April 6, special interest groups poured $22.8 million into advocating for or against the candidates, according to an analysis of Wisconsin campaign finance disclosures by Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Such spending usually goes to radio and television advertisements.

Groups backing Kelly accounted for $10.5 million of these independent expenditures, and those backing Protasiewicz accounted for $11.8 million, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Executive Director Matt Rothschild told OpenSecrets.

The two biggest outside groups boosting Kelly were Fair Courts America, a super PAC with financial ties to the Uihleins that spent $5.5 million on Kelly, and Women Speak Out PAC, a super PAC opposing abortion rights that spent $2.2 million on the race. The main groups advocating for Protasiewicz were A Better Wisconsin Together Political Fund, a progressive political fund, at $6.2 million, and Wisconsin Conservation Voters, a nonprofit advocating on environmental policies, at around $1 million.

Protasiewicz openly advocated for abortion rights throughout the race, launching a number of broadcast ads mentioning the issue. Unlike his opponent, Kelly downplayed his political views during the race, though he has provided legal counsel for a number of Republican clients in the past, was financially backed by state and national Republican parties and was endorsed by the state’s top three anti-abortion groups.

In his concession speech, Kelly dubbed Protasiewicz a “not worthy” opponent and a “serial liar.”

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign also estimated that around $5.8 million went into issue ads backing Kelly, though Rothschild said this was probably an underestimate since issue ads that do not expressly advocate for or against a candidates are not required to disclose their spending.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state’s biggest business lobbying group, spent an estimated $5.2 million on broadcast ads and the remaining $600,000 was spent by Wisconsin Alliance for Reform, according to the watchdog group’s issue ads estimate.

“There is an obscene amount of money in this election,” Rothschild told OpenSecrets. “It shattered all the old records. We are going to end up with $50 million when all is said and done here.”

Increased spending by special interest groups elevated the cost of state supreme court races in recent years, the Brennan Center for Justice found, jeopardizing the “appearance and reality of justice across the country.”

Rothschild said dark money from both sides of the political spectrum fueled spending in the Wisconsin contest.

“A lot of the money came from outside the state, which raises the question of whether we have self rule here in Wisconsin.” Rothschild said. “Our democracy shouldn’t be a tag of war between billionaires. In a real democracy we all have an equal tug on the rope — and we just don’t.”

OpenSecrets is a nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit research and reporting organization tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy.