(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . MAGA extremist Dan Kelly will advance to the general for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-22 MAGA extremist Dan Kelly will advance to the April 4 general election for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Defeating him is the democracy movement’s most important goal this year. Read why and chip in to help us defeat him. Here’s my statement for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin about Dan Kelly’s primary victory. He must be defeated. The current Wisconsin Supreme Court has a 4-3 conservative majority. An ultra-MAGA justice is retiring. Dan Kelly wants to replace her. But if we beat Kelly, we flip the court majority—opening the door to ending our abortion ban and securing democracy. If we don’t flip this seat, the Wisconsin Supreme Court will keep seizing every available opportunity to act as an extension of the GOP-run state legislature. Including, potentially, interfering with the 2024 presidential election. Last night, voters advanced two candidates to the general. The right-winger is Dan Kelly. His name might ring a bell. He was appointed to the state Supreme Court by Scott Walker in 2016, ran for reelection in 2020, was endorsed by Trump—and lost. x You might remember Dan Kelly—because we beat him in April 2020. Now, this Walker-appointed, Trump-endorsed former state Supreme Court justice is making another appearance. He’s a radical who pre-decides cases based on what his donors and friends want. pic.twitter.com/lafPV2PQVp — Ben Wikler (@benwikler) December 31, 2022 We beat Dan Kelly once. On April 4, 2023, we’ll do it again. But it won’t be easy. Last week, per Corri Hess, Kelly bragged that he would get $20 million in independent expenditures supporting his campaign from special interest groups with “specific concerns” who support his supposed philosophy of “constitutional conservatism.” Who would be spending that money? We already know: Richard and Liz Uihlein, some of the biggest Republican donors in the country and key funders of Stop the Steal, and Leonard Leo, the architect of the Federalist Society whose work led to Roe’s overturning. Dan Kelly’s been a lifelong lackey for the authoritarian extreme right. When Scott Walker was elected Governor in 2010 and set about imposing ultra-gerrymandered legislative maps in Wisconsin, he turned to Dan Kelly to defend them in court. In 2014, Dan Kelly compared Social Security to slavery. And compared affirmative action to slavery. Either of those things should have been disqualifying. But, Scott Walker appointed him to the Supreme Court in 2016. This race will have staggering stakes on a ton of different fronts. But the number one issue is a basic question of freedom: whether Wisconsinites’ bodily autonomy will be protected, or whether an abortion ban passed before the Civil War should now be in force. All of these organizations radically oppose the freedom to access abortion. Pro-Life Wisconsin wants to ban abortion in all circumstances, with absolutely zero exceptions—and ban contraception. These endorsements are a reflection of how we could expect Kelly to rule in cases regarding reproductive freedom. Governor Evers and Attorney General Kaul have sued to strike down Wisconsin’s near-total abortion ban. When the case reaches the state Supreme Court, Kelly could uphold the ban. With the rest of the court split evenly, he’d cast the deciding vote. Another urgent issue in this race: gerrymandering. Wisconsin’s legislative maps are rigged against Wisconsinites. Who chose those maps? The state Supreme Court’s 4-3 conservative majority. With Kelly on the bench, there’d be little hope to un-rig them. Given Kelly’s history defending some of the most brutally rigged maps in American political history, it’s almost a given that he’d keep pushing to keep Wisconsin rigged. And under the current maps, the GOP is on the verge of total, unchecked power. The mega-billionaires backing Dan Kelly know all of this. It’s exactly why they’re funding attack ads to help him. But grassroots dollars can defeat billionaires. It’s exactly how we won in November, and how we’re going to #flipthecourt in April. If you’re ready to fuel this fight, chip in any amount to join us. In 2024, the presidency could once again be challenged in our state’s highest court, and if Dan Kelly wins the seat we can’t count on having the people’s vote count. We’ve seen what a majority conservative court does to Wisconsinites. We know Dan Kelly would be a disastrously right-wing and dangerously unprepared Supreme Court Justice. We have to ensure he loses on April 4. It’s time to #flipthecourt. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/22/2154313/-MAGA-extremist-Dan-Kelly-will-advance-to-the-general-for-a-seat-on-the-Wisconsin-Supreme-Court Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/