In a victory with national ramifications, Wisconsin voters have chosen AFSCME-backed Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz to fill the open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, shifting the balance of power on the court in favor of working people.
By an 11-point margin, Protasiewicz on Tuesday defeated the Scott Walker-appointed, right-wing former state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, a 2020 election denier.
“Janet Protasiewicz served Milwaukee County with distinction. She knows what it is to serve the public. She knows what it is to protect the vulnerable while respecting both the letter and heart of the law. We are thrilled to see justice return to Wisconsin’s courts,” said AFSCME Council 32 President Paul Spink, who’s also an AFSCME vice president.
Members of AFSCME Council 32 voted in January to endorse Protasiewicz in the primaries, which she handily won. Protasiewicz supports collective bargaining laws and considers Walker’s Act 10, which stripped public workers of their bargaining rights, unconstitutional. She also supports abortion rights and has said that the state’s legislative maps, which have been heavily gerrymandered in favor of anti-worker politicians, are rigged.
Over the past decade, the state Supreme Court had been complicit with special interest politicians in crushing the rights and freedoms of workers. In 2014, for example, it upheld Act 10 in its entirety.
Protasiewicz’s victory opens the door for a possible restoration of collective bargaining and other rights for public service workers in the state. AFSCME plans to begin organizing immediately around her win.
The shift in the balance of power on the court may also have future national ramifications. In December 2020, the court turned back a challenge to then-candidate Joe Biden’s victory in Wisconsin, but did so by a narrow 4-3 vote. The new makeup means any future attacks against our democracy will face even tougher resistance from the state’s highest court.
The Milwaukee circuit court judge and veteran prosecutor ran a campaign promising to restore integrity to the state Supreme Court and get politics out of the courtroom. The race for the open court seat was the most expensive judicial election in Wisconsin history, attracting millions of dollars from around the country.