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Pennsylvanians will have an opportunity in November to change the composition of their Supreme Court as part of a battleground 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 its controversial decisions surrounding COVID-19 lockdowns and election rules have generated enthusiasm among their base that threatens to upend Democratic control.
The three Democratic justices, Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht, all of whom won their races in a sweeping victory in 2015, are on that ballot for the Nov. 4 election.
The election is known as a retention race in which voters can vote yes or no to allowing each of the justices to retain their seats. With Republicans taking a microscope to the judiciary branch in the second Trump administration and suffering a blow in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election in April, the election is gaining national attention and an unusually high infusion of cash. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found the race to be the state’s most expensive retention election yet as outside groups and candidates have raised and spent more than $8 million.
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Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices serve 10-year terms and can be retained for multiple consecutive terms. They have no term limits but must retire when they reach the age of 75. Donohue turns 73 years old this year.
Should any of the justices lose their races, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro could fill their 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 runs the political action committee Early Vote Action, told Fox News Digital his team of more than two dozen full-time staff are focused on “bucking the status quo” in the Keystone State and voting the Democrats out. Presler’s voter registration efforts in the closely watched state garnered media attention and a million-dollar donation from tech billionaire Elon Musk ahead of the 2024 election.
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“We spent the last year registering voters, getting people to do what’s called ‘committing to vote.’ I wanted to make sure that everybody that voted last year is going to come out this year,” Presler said, adding that his team is hyper-focused on following up with registered voters.
Still, political backlash would have to be fierce enough to overcome the exceedingly low odds of a justice losing a retention race. Russell Nigro is the only Supreme Court justice to ever be voted out through a retention race. He was defeated in 2005 amid public outrage over legislative and Supreme Court justice pay raises.
A Franklin and Marshall College poll found last week that all three Democrats had 10% leads or greater in their races among likely voters. But the poll also found that about half of registered voters did not yet know how they would vote, meaning campaigning remains crucial to reaching some of those voters in the coming weeks.
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Presler said his group is targeting Bucks County on Tuesday and sending out 100,000 text messages as part of a campaign that recognizes the late Charlie Kirk’s birthday. Kirk would have turned 32 on Oct. 14.
“We have some stickers that say I voted in honor of Charlie and have a really classy photo of Charlie with his hands together in prayer,” Presler said.
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