Dem
51
GOP
49
Officially, Wisconsin's Supreme Court is nonpartisan. Who knows why states bother with that affectation anymore, because everyone knows what party the justices identify with. The current septet is 4-3 for the Republicans, but conservative Justice Patience Roggensack—who sounds like a character in a Faulkner novel—is retiring. So, whichever party seats her replacement will have a majority, and just as the court gets ready to rule on Wisconsin's near-total abortion ban, which dates back to 1849.
Yesterday was the primary election; here are the results:
| Candidate | Vote Pct. |
| Janet Protasiewicz | 46.4% |
| Daniel Kelly | 24.2% |
| Jennifer Dorow | 21.8% |
| Everett Mitchell | 7.5% |
Again, these folks are officially nonpartisan, but everyone knows. So, we colored the chart in to reflect their loyalties. Protasiewicz and Kelly will advance to the general election.
We do not pretend to be experts on judicial elections in Wisconsin. However, as you can see, Protasiewicz is less than 4 points short of the promised land. If turnout is similar in the general, and she absorbs the Mitchell vote, she's home free. Kelly has a rather larger hill to climb, and he does so with some pretty significant liabilities. He's already lost one statewide judicial election, to start (it was in 2020). He's also a Trumper and an election denier. His campaign website somehow doesn't find space to mention what his views on abortion rights are, but he's right-winger on everything else (guns, wokeness, big government, etc.), and he's being backed by a six-figure ad spend from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, so it's easy enough to figure out where he stands. Protasiewicz is unambiguously pro-choice, so voters who see this as a referendum on abortion rights should know exactly how to cast their ballots. The general is on April 4. (Z)