MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin politics for $1,000.
Can you name the three female candidates who won by double digits in a state that has produced razor-thin elections?
Who is Jill Karofsky, Tammy Baldwin and Janet Protasiewicz.
Karofsky won a state Supreme Court race in 2020, beating Dan Kelly by 10.5%.
Senator Baldwin won in 2018 over Leah Vukmir by nearly 11 points, and Justice- elect Protasiewicz's margin of victory was 11%.
"I'm still blown away by the fact that Dan Kelly, the conservative candidate, ended up with more votes, losing, than the last time there was a winning conservative candidate," said Chuck Todd, moderator of Meet the Press. "I believe he got 200,000 more votes than the last time there was a Supreme Court race where the conservative won."
TMJ4's Charles Benson talked Friday with Todd about the blowout win by Justice-elect Protasiewicz.
Former Justice Dan Kelly did get 818,286 votes in his defeat to Protasiewicz. That is a lot more than conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn's 606,414 votes in 2019, when he narrowly beat Lisa Neubauer.
The April 4th Spring Election was a record turnout across the state with 1.83 million voters - the most in a non-presidential primary year.
Kelly's vote total was 200,000 less than his opponent's vote total. Todd believes the abortion issue and turnout among younger voters played a key role in Protasiewicz's double-digit victory.
The vote totals out of Dane County was even more impressive. It's the state's second most populated county behind Milwaukee - but it produced more votes for Justice-elect Protasiewicz than Milwaukee, 240,000 vs. 233,000.
It also gave the liberal-leaning judge nearly 20% of her vote total, a staggering 1/5th coming from just one county out of 72.
"It's duplicative," said Todd.
The same thing happened in 2022 for the governor's midterm election in Michigan, where an abortion referendum was on the ballot. The Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, easily won reelection despite a strong showing by the Republican candidate.
Protasiewicz made reproduction rights a key issue in her campaign and won the first-ever endorsement from the pro-choice organization Emily's List for a state Supreme Court race.
"The reproductive issue is more acute for anybody under the age of 40. So, if they didn't come out, then you'd be like, wow, that's a really apathetic group," said Todd. "Of course, they will turn out. It's how politics work. If you're debating about something that impacts somebody's life directly, they're going to vote. It's always been the pattern and, in this case, it's younger voters."
Chuck Todd is on Meet the Press Sunday mornings on TMJ4 at 8 a.m.
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