Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz and former Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly emerged Tuesday as the two winners of a record-setting primary fight to compete for a seat on the state’s highest court that will decide whether the most consequential state policies will be upended.
Protasiewicz, a liberal jurist whose campaign fundraising dwarfed her three primary opponents combined, received by far the most votes in the race — 46% of the total votes counted as of 10 p.m. In second place was Kelly, a judicial conservative who received 24% of the votes.
The outcome of Tuesday’s primary election pits Protasiewicz’s campaign of restoring abortion access in Wisconsin against Kelly’s message of such political campaigning in a judicial race being “a danger to our liberties.”
The issue of abortion is central to the race after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, putting back into effect a 19th Century-era state law that bans abortion in all cases unless the woman will die without one − a policy at odds with the majority of Wisconsin voters according to recent state polling.
After receiving more votes than her two conservative challengers received combined, Protasiewicz was direct with supporters about where she stood on a lawsuit likely heading to the court that seeks to repeal the state’s abortion ban.
“I’ll be running against someone who doesn’t think women get to make their own reproductive rights. I will guarantee you that my opponent, if elected, will uphold the 1849 near-total abortion ban. I can guarantee you that,” she told supporters gathered at The Cooperage event venue in Milwaukee.
In Waukesha County, Kelly told supporters he plans to talk to as many Wisconsinites as possible about the importance of the Constitution — “how it protects our liberties, and the brave and novel threat that Janet Protasiewicz is to the Supreme Court.”