Stat(s) Of The Week: Judicial Elections

On Tuesday, in the most expensive judicial race on record, Susan Crawford defeated the Trump-endorsed candidate, Brad Schimel, for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, preserving the court’s liberal majority — despite (because of?) the personal campaigning and massive influx of money by Elon Musk.

That got us wondering how common it is for voters to decide who gets to sit on their state’s highest court. It turns out that a lot of states use some kind of judicial election.

Wisconsin is one of 21 states that hold popular elections for the state supreme court. Eleven other states elect judges only to trial or intermediate appellate courts.

In 16 states where supreme court judges are selected for initial terms through other methods — e.g., legislative election, gubernatorial appointment, and assisted appointment (a nominating committee submits a list of names to the governor) — those judges are subject to retention elections. In this case, voters don’t choose among multiple candidates; they decide only whether or not the incumbent judge should be elected to another term.  

To find out which states select judges by popular vote, check out the interactive map on the Brennan Center for Justice’s website.

Judicial Selection: An Interactive Map [Brennan Center for Justice]

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