Pennsylvania Supreme Court retention elections threaten Democratic majority

Pennsylvanians will have the opportunity in November to change the makeup of their Supreme Court in a field election in which three of the seven seats on the state’s highest court are at stake.

Democrats hold a 5-2 majority on the court, but Republicans say their controversial decisions on COVID-19 lockdowns and election rules have sparked enthusiasm among their base that threatens to upend Democratic control.

All three Democratic judges, Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht, who all won their races in a landslide in 2015, are on the ballot for the Nov. 4 election.

The election is known as a retention race in which voters can vote yes or no to allow each of the justices to retain their seats. With Republicans scrutinizing the judiciary in the second Trump administration and suffering a blow in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court elections in April, the elections are drawing national attention and an unusually large infusion of cash. THE Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found that the race was the state’s most expensive retention election to date, as outside groups and candidates raised and spent more than $8 million.

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Christine Donohue, now seeking re-election to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, speaks during her inauguration ceremony on January 8, 2016 in Pittsburgh. (Keith Srakocic/AP Photo)

Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices serve 10-year terms and can be retained for multiple consecutive terms. They have no term limit but must retire when they reach age 75. Donohue will be 73 this year.

If one of the justices loses his race, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro could fill his seats with temporary replacements until the next election in 2027. Shapiro’s choices would require confirmation in the state’s GOP-controlled Senate.

Activist Scott Presler, who heads the political action committee Early Vote Action, told Fox News Digital that his team of more than two dozen full-time staffers is focused on “business as usual” in the Keystone State and eliminating Democrats. Presler’s voter registration efforts in the closely watched state have attracted media attention and a $1 million donation from tech billionaire Elon Musk ahead of the 2024 election.

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A voter casts a ballot at the voting center at the Bucks County Administration Building in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, October 31, 2024. (ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)

“We spent the last year registering voters, getting people to do what we call ‘pledge to vote.’ I wanted to make sure that everyone who voted last year came out this year,” Presler said, adding that his team is hyper focused on tracking registered voters.

However, the political reaction would have to be sufficiently violent to overcome the extremely low chances of a judge losing the race for retention. Russell Nigro is the only Supreme Court justice to be voted out in a retention race. He was defeated in 2005 amid public outrage over salary increases for judges in Parliament and the Supreme Court.

A Franklin and Marshall College survey found last week that all three Democrats had leads of 10 percent or more in their races among likely voters. But the poll also found that about half of registered voters don’t yet know how they will vote, meaning the campaign remains crucial to reaching some of those voters in the coming weeks.

The Pennsylvania Judicial Center in Harrisburg, home to the state Supreme Court, is shown on February 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)

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Presler said his group targeted Bucks County on Tuesday and sent 100,000 text messages as part of a campaign celebrating the late Charlie Kirk’s birthday. Kirk would have turned 32 on October 14.

“We have stickers that say I voted in honor of Charlie and a very stylish photo of Charlie with his hands folded in prayer,” Presler said.