Abortion is driving state Supreme Court campaigns across the country as voters in 32 states prepare to vote on who’s fit for the bench.
The issue has fueled efforts to oust justices in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, and Texas. In other states, groups are pouring money into races where they see a chance to impact the ideological makeup of courts that became key arbiters of abortion restrictions after the US Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.
This year’s state Supreme Court elections, combined with ballot questions in 10 states, will decide reproductive rights access for years to come at the state level.
State Supreme Court races offer “pretty good return on investment in terms of campaigning,” said Michael Nelson, co-author of the book “Judging Inequality,” about the influence of state supreme courts.
“They have tons of power, and there aren’t that many seats that you need to control the court,” he said.
Last year, Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court after the most expensive judicial contest in US history, with more than $50 million in spending. Abortion was a key differentiator in that contest, which gave that court a liberal majority.
Nearly a quarter of the nation’s 344 state Supreme Court seats are up for election on Nov. 5. So far, none of those contests appears to be on track for Wisconsin-sized spending; in populous Ohio, for instance, the campaigns’ totals are in single-digit millions.In Arizona, abortion-rights advocates are pushing voters to deny new six-year terms for two justices who upheld a near-total abortion ban from 1864, Clint Bolick and Kathryn King.
On another part of that state’s ballot, voters are being asked to retroactively end retention elections for all Supreme Court justices—a proposal that, if successful, would invalidate this year’s vote.
“We want to make sure folks understand that their role in the process was not to endorse a specific policy, but simply to look at the law, look at the facts, and make a decision,” said Daniel Scarpinato, spokesman for the Judicial Independence Defense PAC.
Bolick and King were appointed to the bench by former Gov. Doug Ducey (R); Scarpinato was Ducey’s chief of staff.That PAC has raised more than $441,000 to support retention, with donations from billionaire Jeff Yass, Walmart heir Robson Walton, and Randy Kendrick, whose husband owns the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The leading anti-retention coalition—Protect Abortion Rights, No Retention Bolick and King—said it began fundraising after Arizona’s most recent reporting period and its contributions aren’t yet reflected in disclosure reports. Its chairperson, DJ Quinlan, said the committee plans to emphasize the abortion decision.
“We believe that a very, very large majority of Arizonans were horrified by this extreme ban being put back in place, and knowing who is behind that is really important,” Quinlan said.
Justices have occasionally lost retention votes, but “you’ve got to spend a lot of money to get enough people to vote no,” said Nelson, who heads the Initiative on Legal Institutions and Democracy at Pennsylvania State University.
Retention elections are often less about particular judges than a chance to signal on issues that may mobilize voters more broadly, he said.
In Florida, where no state Supreme Court Justice has ever lost a retention election, Democrats voted to include the names of two justices in statewide election messaging that focuses on abortion rights, state Chair Nikki Fried said.
Justices Renatha Francis and Meredith Sasso, both appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), ruled against a state privacy right to abortion and dissented when the court allowed an abortion rights amendment on the ballot.
Philosophical Split
Races in Michigan and Ohio have the potential to change the partisan makeup of those states’ high courts.
Planned Parenthood Votes, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, and the Republican State Leadership Committee all listed both states among their top targets.
Liberals outnumber conservatives 4-3 on the Michigan Supreme Court, with elections for two seats this year. Though the races are on the ballot as nonpartisan, state Democrats and Republicans nominated their candidates at August conventions.
Justice Kyra Harris Bolden, appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), faces the Republican nominee, Branch County Circuit Court Judge Patrick William O’Grady, to serve out the remaining four years of an eight-year term. Another Democratic nominee, University of Michigan Law Professor Kimberly Ann Thomas, is up against state Rep. Andrew Fink (R) for a full term on a seat currently held by a conservative.
Michigan voters in 2022 passed a reproductive rights constitutional amendment, and abortion advocates say the court could be crucial in ensuring those rights remain.
In Ohio, voters will pick three seats on the high court controlled 4-3 by Republicans. A 2021 law there added party affiliations to that part of the ballot, ending a tradition of nonpartisan judicial elections.
Control of the court could have major implications for how a new reproductive rights constitutional amendment gets interpreted—a point made in an ad promising Democratic candidates would “judge the reproductive freedom amendment fairly.”
There, Democratic Justice Michael P. Donnelly seeks a second six-year term against Republican Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Megan E. Shanahan. Justice Melody J. Stewart (D) is running for a second term against Gov. Mike DeWine appointee Justice Joseph T. Deters (R). The third race is for the remainder of Deters’ term.
Michael Bloomberg, majority owner of Bloomberg Government’s parent company, donated $1 million to the group Ohioans for Judicial Integrity, which is backing the Democratic Party contenders.
“This really is a new battleground for us, and one that I think we will continue to prioritize moving forward,” said Katie Rodihan, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Votes.
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