(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Today, the far-right WI Supreme Court majority becomes a progressive one. 15 years in the making. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-08-01 Today is a hinge moment in the political history of Wisconsin: we go from a far-right state Supreme Court majority to a progressive one. At 5pm CT, Janet Protasiewicz—who won the April 4 election—will be sworn in. The path here is a testament to the power of grit. The last time Wisconsin had a progressive Supreme Court majority was in 2008. That spring, an absolutely vicious and racist campaign by conspiracy theorist Michael Gableman defeated incumbent Justice Louis Butler—the first Black Justice in Wisconsin history. Gableman’s defeat of Butler was the first time since 1976 that an incumbent Supreme Court justice had lost reelection. Butler—like all Wisconsin incumbents who’ve lost since the 19th Century—hadn’t been elected; he’d been appointed to the Court to fill a vacancy, in 2004. Gableman’s race-baiting campaign changed Wisconsin politics. “2008 marks the beginning of the conversion of Wisconsin judicial politics to just an extension of partisan politics by other means,” as a UW professor said later. Since 2009, we’ve had a right-wing Court. We almost tipped the majority in the spring of 2011, just after Act 10 and the GOP gerrymander of our state—but fell short by 7,004 votes after a dramatic discovery of uncounted GOP-heavy ballots in Waukesha County. The GOP majority held firm throughout the Walker era, and—over and over—backed up Scott Walker and the far-right extremism of the state GOP. They upheld restrictions on voting, attacks on unions, and even Walkerite corruption after a lengthy investigation. It seemed almost hopeless. In 2016, after Trump won the presidential race here, no progressive candidate even signed up to run against right-wing Justice Annette Ziegler—which meant her spring 2017 reelection was unopposed. The GOP’s lock in Wisconsin seemed nearly complete. But at that very moment, the seeds of change were being sown. My predecessor chair, Martha Laning, was working to launch the now-renowned WisDems year-round organizing program. By the spring of 2018, hope was rising quickly—and resulted in a breakthrough. In 2018, Michael Gablemen—the conspiracist elected in 2008—decided not to run for reelection. That left an open seat. Judge Rebecca Dallet, a progressive dynamo, launched her campaign. Progressives rallied. On April 3, Dallet won—in an 11-point landslide. After Dallet’s win, the GOP still held a 4-3 majority. And the next year, Wisconsin’s storied Chief Justice, Shirley Abrahamson—the first woman on the Court, a legal legend, and a progressive—retired after 43 years, leaving an open seat for the 2019 election. That race was a heartbreaker. The more progressive candidate, Lisa Neubauer, was ahead for most of the race—but then a GOP dark money group flooded the state with cash in the final stretch and pulled out a 0.4%-margin victory in the final days. Wisconsin’s court was now, once again, 5-2 conservative. I was knocking on doors for Lisa Neubauer while running for state party chair, and was elected just after that defeat. Like every Democrat in the state, I vowed to do all I could to avoid ever repeating that loss. In 2020, the pandemic struck. Dan Kelly, a far-right Walker appointee to the Court, was up for his first election to hold his seat that April. In other states, elected officials were taking action to avoid turning elections into super-spreader events. In Wisconsin, the GOP-dominated state legislature refused Governor Evers’s proposal to avoid in-person voting by sending absentee ballots out to voters. As the election neared, poll workers—concerned about COVID—dropped out en masse, and polling places closed. The GOP thwarted safety measure after safety measure—including, ultimately, a party-line state Supreme Court ruling the day before the election. The election went forward, COVID be damned. But we’d been preparing, running a massive campaign to get voters to request and return absentee ballots. Federal courts created a six-day grace period for absentee ballots to arrive after Election Day. We waited with bated breath. When the ballots were finally opened, we could hardly believe the results. Here’s my thread from that night: x THREAD: Democracy won in Wisconsin tonight. The GOP thought they had this election fully stolen. Trump leaned in personally. But voters, who don't like being suppressed, rose up. Organizers worked magic. Here's the story. (Also: donate! https://t.co/oRwfVzkXr3) — Ben Wikler (@benwikler) April 14, 2020 It had all worked—setting the stage for that fall. It was a dress rehearsal for November. Watch this short film about the fight: The combined efforts of the Jill Karofsky campaign, the WisDems, and an extraordinary array of partners delivered a landslide, defeating Dan Kelly by a staggering 162,439 votes. This thread describes the extraordinary coalition that came together to make that happen: x Right now, Team @PodSaveAmerica is premiering an amazing short film: Dress Rehearsal, about organizing in Wisconsin's Supreme Court race this April 7. Watch! And as it airs—a thread about the broader story of amazing people & groups that created the win. https://t.co/5LExpXHvwp — Ben Wikler (@benwikler) August 21, 2020 There were no Supreme Court races in 2021 and 2022. But going into 2023, we now had a 4-3 conservative court, meaning that a victory would flip the court’s majority—because a GOP Justice was retiring, leaving the seat open. Dan Kelly entered the race again, along with another MAGA extremist. There were also two progressives in the primary, so the WisDems was neutral until the February 21 primary results were announced. That kicked off a 42-day race between Kelly and Milwaukee Judge Janet Protasiewicz. Thousands of volunteers, partners, campaign staffers, and everyone on the WisDems team worked around the clock. Surrogates flew in. Judge Janet put the fight for reproductive freedom and democracy front and center in the race—and won in a landslide. Like all victories in a deep-purple state like Wisconsin, that victory was the work of a vast array of people working towards a common goal. This post can give you a glimpse of the coalition. The win on April 4, 2023 officially flipped the court. Judge Janet Protasiewicz became Justice-elect Protasiewicz with an 11-point victory over two-time loser Dan Kelly. But Janet wouldn’t be sworn in until August 1. … and now here we are, getting ready to swear in our 4th progressive Justice. That’s how we come to this moment. This new court has been 15 years in the making. Every door knocked, call made, grassroots donation, and vote cast led to this exact moment. I can’t thank you all enough for being part of the fight. And once a new, pro-law, pro-Constitution, pro-justice, pro-freedom majority is in place, the real work begins. Onward! 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