Democrats' Colossal Triumph in Wisconsin Redraws the Electoral Map

• Janet Protasiewicz won the race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday, giving the court a new 4-3 liberal majority.
• This could lead to challenges to current maps for the U.S. House of Representatives, which favor Republicans.
• Sara Geenen also won election to the state's Court of Appeals, ousting a Republican-appointed judge.

A Democratic victory in the race to fill a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court could have major ramifications for the state and for the whole country after Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz triumphed on Tuesday.

Protasiewicz is a liberal who was supported by Democrats in the race, which was technically nonpartisan. She defeated Republican-backed Daniel Kelly, a former member of the state's supreme court.

That victory could have a profound effect on state as well as national politics. Protasiewicz's addition to the court will now give it an effective 4-3 liberal majority. This could open the way to challenges to electoral maps for the U.S. House of Representatives, which currently favor Republicans.

Six of Wisconsin's eight members of Congress are Republicans. However, the new liberal majority on the state supreme court could see a renewed legal challenge to current maps, which were put in place after a previous ruling by the court.

At least two House Republicans, Representatives Bryan Steil and Derrick Van Orden, are believed to be at risk of losing their seats if their districts are redrawn. Representative Mike Gallagher could also find himself facing a more competitive map, though his district is more GOP-leaning.

Protasiewicz wasn't the only liberal success story of the night. Sara Geenen won election to the state's Court of Appeals, defeating incumbent William Brash. He has served on the court since his appointment in 2015 by then-Republican Governor Scott Walker.

"Of course Protasiewicz win is huge, but state lower courts matter too, and union-side labor lawyer Sara Geenen has just ousted a Walker-appointed judge on Wisconsin Court of Appeals," tweeted Chris Kang. He is chief counsel at We Demand Justice, a group that seeks to increase the size of the U.S. Supreme Court to "restore balance."

"To show how far Dems have come on the courts, Brash ran *unopposed* in 2017," Kang wrote. "Another huge WI win."

Hard to Overestimate the Effects

Protasiewicz's election also has implications for abortion rights in Wisconsin. The court is expected to make a decision soon on whether to uphold the state's 1849 ban on abortion.

The new liberal majority could also prove crucial in dealing with any potential challenges to the 2024 presidential election results in Wisconsin. In 2020, a majority of the justices refused to hear then-President Donald Trump's challenge to the election, but three conservative justices on the seven-member court wanted to take up the case.

"Encouraging news for Democrats in Wisconsin means two big things in terms of policy: the state's restrictive abortion laws may be on the chopping block, along with Republican-gerrymandered districts," Thomas Gift told Newsweek. He is founding director of University College London's Centre on U.S. Politics (CUSP).

"The latter change could have huge, long-term reverberations across Wisconsin, where Democrats have, for good reason, routinely alleged that the state's electoral maps are rigged," Gift said.

"For a state that's perennially viewed as a major battleground territory, and where Republican dominance has led to the installment of a number of transformative conservative-backed policies dating back to former Gov. Scott Walker's win in 2010, it's hard to overestimate the effects this election will have for the Badger State," Gift added.

Moving on From Trump?

The elections in Wisconsin took place on the same day that former President Trump was arraigned in New York. He was formally charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, but pled not guilty and denied all wrongdoing.

The results in Wisconsin could indicate that Americans are already moving away from the now-indicted former president, according to Mark Shanahan, an associate professor in politics at the University of Surrey in the U.K. He is co-editor of The Trump Presidency: From Campaign Trail to World Stage.

"While the national focus yesterday was all on Trump and his court appearance, the voters of Wisconsin were making a quiet statement that the country is slowly moving on from Trumpism," Shanahan told Newsweek.

"Protasiewicz's victory in the Supreme Court race running on a liberal platform lays down a marker in a state that will be crucial in the 2024 presidential race," he added.

Shanahan said that "while there isn't a direct comparison between a judicial election and a presidential contest, this was run largely on party lines, and may well foretell the battle to come next year."

"But, more crucially, in tipping the court's partisan lean from conservative to liberal, Protasiewicz may become the key figure in any potential redistricting, plus, very pertinently, any likely challenges to the 2024 results," Shanahan added.

"Last night's result will resonate across the Upper Midwest: a good night for Democrats, and another hurdle in the GOP's narrow path to 2024 victory," Shanahan said.

Newsweek has emailed the Protasiewicz campaign for comment.