HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — All three of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices who sought reelection Tuesday will get another term, ensuring Democratic jurists keep their majority on the presidential battleground state’s highest court — one at the center of pivotal fights over voting rights, redistricting and elections.
The result shapes the makeup of the seven-member court through the next presidential election in 2008. The three justices had been elected
as Democrats, and voters were deciding whether to extend the court’s Democratic majority. Rejecting all three could have plunged the court into a partisan deadlock if the state’s politically divided government were to be unable to agree on temporary appointees to fill in.
Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht won new terms.
All three were running in what is called a retention election, in which voters are asked to vote “yes” or “no” on whether to give current justices another term. They were not identified by party on the ballot. Terms are 10 years, though age limits can shorten that time on the bench.
Reelecting them extends the Democratic majority — currently 5-2 — on a court that has been at the center of pivotal fights over voting rights, redistricting and elections.
The court could again be called on to settle partisan battles over election laws ahead of next year’s midterm contests to decide the governor’s office and the U.S. House majority. Democrats need to gain just three seats in the 2026 elections to take control of the House.
Traditionally, a retention campaign is an under-the-radar election. But in an era of increasingly polarized judicial elections, Republicans mounted a late-emerging campaign to defeat the justices. Democrats marshaled a reelection campaign with their allies, and received help from Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Defeating all three could have left the bench in a partisan 2-2 stalemate for two years, including through next year’s elections.
In recent years, the court has made major decisions around voting and elections, necessitated in part by a politically divided and often stalemated state government.
The justices in 2018 threw out a GOP-drawn map of Pennsylvania’s congressional districts as unconstitutionally gerrymandered and, four years later, again picked new boundaries after a stalemate in government.
The court turned away GOP challenges to Pennsylvania’s expansive vote-by-mail law, which became a focal point of Republican efforts to overturn President Donald Trump’s loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Republican justices dissented.
The justices also rendered verdicts in cases involving abortion rights and public school funding.
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Follow Marc Levy on X at https://x.com/timelywriter.
