Democrats maintain control of state Supreme Court, key to stopping election interference

Pennsylvanians voted to maintain the state Supreme Court’s partisan balance of five Democrats and two Republicans by retaining three Democratic justices on Tuesday.

The justices — Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht — won their first elections to the court in 2015. On Tuesday, each of them faced a retention election, where voters decided whether to keep each of them on the court. Republicans, backed by millions in spending from groups affiliated with local billionaire Jeffrey Yass, had hoped to unseat the three in a bid to take control of the state’s high court before the 2028 presidential election.

Under Democratic control, the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of voting and abortion rights, overturned a GOP congressional gerrymander and rejected President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. By retaining their majority on the court through the 2028 presidential election, Democrats will be able to fend off any machinations to interfere with the 2026 or 2028 elections.

It is no surprise that Pennsylvanians decided to retain all three justices. Only one judge has lost a retention election since they were adopted by the state in 1968. In fact, no judge won a retention by less than 20 points in those nearly 60 years.

Images by Paul Weaver/SOPA via Getty Images

What made this election somewhat different was the immense resources invested in removing the three Democrats from the court. Yass’s Republican State Leadership Committee and Commonwealth Partners spent heavily to remove the judges from the court. Meanwhile, Democrats and allies like the American Civil Liberties Union and reproductive rights groups spent similar amounts to keep them on the stand. When all the campaign revelations are tallied, it may have been the most expensive judicial retention election in history.

“For the vast majority of Pennsylvania history, these are very apolitical issues,” Eugene DePasquale, chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, said before the election. “But a MAGA billionaire has decided to pour millions and millions of dollars into this election, basically trying to take corporate control of the court and throwing it into chaos.”

The Republicans’ path to regaining control of the state Supreme Court required removing all three justices in this retention election. That would have created a 2-2 partisan split on the court until new judicial elections could be held in 2027. Republican candidates would then need to win two of three of those elections to gain a majority in time for the 2028 presidential election.

But Democrats maintained their majority and will be able to counter any legal threats to the election for the rest of the decade.