Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Liberal groups have spent millions in a handful of battleground state supreme court races ahead of Tuesday\u2019s elections, looking to lay the groundwork for Democrats to win control of more courts ahead of a crucial redistricting cycle.<\/p>\n
At the center of the fight are races for Republican-majority state supreme courts in North Carolina and Ohio, where this year\u2019s results could set the stage for Democrats to flip the makeup of the benches in 2028. National groups are also spending to defend the liberal majority on Michigan\u2019s court and on an open seat in Montana, where voters will also decide<\/a> whether judicial elections remain nonpartisan.<\/p>\n The investments are yet another reflection of how state supreme court elections have become national political battlegrounds. The high court justices have become arbiters of major disputes, from abortion rights to election integrity and redistricting. Those who win in the coming cycles will likely preside over challenges to congressional and legislative maps that are drawn in a handful of states after the midterm election \u2014 and then nationwide after the 2030 census<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nowhere are the contests more heated than in North Carolina.<\/p>\n Democrats\u2019 defense of a seat currently held by Anita Earls is \u201cstep No. 2\u201d to flip the North Carolina Supreme Court, said Anderson Clayton, the state\u2019s Democratic Party chair. \u201cIn 2028, we\u2019re looking at being able to take three Republican seats on that court.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrats lost four seats on the state supreme court in the 2020 and 2022 elections, and the Republican majority<\/a> cleared the way for a Republican-led gerrymandering<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n Clayton said her group has spent more than $1 million on the state supreme court race. Earls has also drawn support from national Democrats like Pete Buttigieg<\/a> and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we had won a state Supreme Court race then in 2020 in our state, Hakeem Jeffries would be speaker of the House right now,\u201d said Clayton, adding that her group is trying to build the foundation for congressional majorities \u201cin 2032 and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n The ACLU is among the groups making long-term investments in state supreme court races. It has poured $8 million into state supreme court races in North Carolina, Michigan and Montana this year, in addition to Georgia<\/a> and Wisconsin races earlier this year<\/a>, said Deirdre Schifeling, the group\u2019s chief political and advocacy officer, making it one of the top spenders in these contests.<\/p>\n The ACLU\u2019s multi-cycle strategy to build \u201cpro-civil rights, civil liberties majorities\u201d is also targeting Arizona, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio, Schifeling said. The group already set aside resources for supreme court races in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in 2027 and will begin fundraising for the 2028 races early next year.<\/p>\n More than $14 million has been spent on television ads in North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio and Montana, most of it benefiting Democratic and liberal-leaning candidates, according to estimates from the liberal-leaning Brennan Center for Justice<\/a>. Most of the liberal candidates have also outraised their conservative competitors.<\/p>\n By contrast, the electoral headwinds have forced Republicans to defend statewide offices and state legislatures they currently control, leaving fewer resources for the judicial races.<\/p>\n Republican-aligned groups like the Republican State Leadership Committee \u2014 the party\u2019s chief downballot campaign organization \u2014 have largely stayed on the sidelines this cycle after warning for months they were being swamped by Democrats<\/a>. The organization\u2019s judicial affiliate reported more than $5 million<\/a> in expenditures across 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cDemocrats understand what is at stake, and have dumped massive amounts of resources into these contests,\u201d said RSLC President Edith Jorge-Tu\u00f1\u00f3n in a statement. \u201cThe RSLC is fighting back with smart and targeted spending because the investments we make today will determine whether we are positioned to protect our majorities, compete in the next redistricting cycle, and secure Republican victories for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n The National Democratic Redistricting Committee \u2014 the party\u2019s main redistricting-focused group \u2014 declined to discuss this year\u2019s total spending in judicial races this year, but NDRC President John Bisognano said in a statement that \u201cthe upcoming 2026 and 2028 state supreme court elections are critical to the long-term fight to protect democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n And those involved in supreme court fights said they believed spending will only increase down the road, particularly from major industry players.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that the money flowing into those races from external interests tells the tale of what big money, big pharma, big data recognize about the next areas that they can seek to leverage and control to their benefit,\u201d said Tish Gotell Faulks, the state courts director at the liberal Alliance for Justice Action. \u201cThose interests are now turning to the state courts and seeking to capture those courts as well.\u201d<\/p>\n