GOP Effort To Rig Wisconsin Election Fails As Democrat Wins State Supreme Court Seat

Wisconsin Republicans forced voters in their state to turn out in person last week in the middle of a deadly pandemic, hoping to keep turnout low so they could hold onto a state Supreme Court seat.

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On Monday night, the results came in, and the GOP stunt appears to have failed massively.

According to Nate Cohn of The New York Times, Democrats in Wisconsin have over-performed everywhere in the state, which pushed liberal challenger Jill Karofsky ahead of conservative incumbent Daniel Kelly in the Supreme Court race.

According to MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin, the AP projects that Karofsky will win the statewide contest, a huge loss for Republicans and a massive victory for Wisconsin Democrats.

As of this writing, Karofsky leads Kelly by about six percentage points.

Trouble in Wisconsin for Trump?

Of the three Midwestern swing states that Donald Trump won in 2016 – Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan – Wisconsin is the one in which he polls strongest, though he’s still trailing former Vice President Joe Biden by about three points.

The fact that Democrats were able to overcome GOP suppression efforts and the coronavirus outbreak and pick off a Supreme Court seat is a good sign for them ahead of this fall’s presidential election.

After all, if Republicans in Wisconsin can’t even win a low-turnout statewide contest in the middle of a deadly pandemic, then it could be a bad sign for the president heading into the November election when a much higher percentage of the electorate will be casting a ballot.

As Trump himself has admitted, Republicans are less likely to win when more Americans turn out to vote.

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Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.