Wisconsin Becomes The Latest Reminder Candidate Quality Matters

Almost overlooked in the rush of stories this week was the devastating political news out of Wisconsin. Progressives were able to flip control of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court with the election of extreme leftist jurist Janet Protasiewicz. This election means a progressive state court will review a rash of issues passed by a Republican legislature. In her campaign, Protasiewicz said she would throw out anything passed by Republicans. How did this happen, especially as Wisconsin voters were giving Republicans a supermajority in the State Senate? There are two major reasons – candidate quality and issues.

The quality of candidates for office still matter. We saw this in 2022 and we saw it again in the Wisconsin Supreme Court Election. The Republican backed candidate, former State Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly lost his re-election bid in 2020 by roughly the same margin he lost on April 4th (and the 2020 race was before the Dobbs decision). He was seen as a poor candidate in that race, who came across too harsh in forums and on television. He had not improved in 2022 and was the not the preferred candidate of many leading conservatives. Most conservatives preferred Judge Jennifer Dorow who had presided over the Waukesha Christmas Parade attack trial. But her campaign was hit with last minute attacks that were financed by George Soros backed groups (surprise, surprise) and Democrats urged voters to support Kelly to propel him into the runoff. During the runoff campaign, Kelly did everything he could to repel voters. From often refusing to shake hands with voters to rejecting all advice to coming across mean-spirited and nasty in campaign forums (and that is just what his backers said). Kelly was a bad candidate and when bad candidates get nominated, we get bad results. And of course, aided by the mainstream media and over $23 million in advertising, Protasiewicz was painted as the model jurist.

The other handicap that affected the results is that progressives had issues they were promoting in the race. Protasiewicz spelled out that a vote for her was a vote for abortion and overturning the state's 1849 abortion ban. She promised overturn the legislative approved congressional district maps. Even though judicial candidates are not supposed to hint or announce how they will rule on cases, Protasiewicz did. She gave voters a reason to vote for her. Kelly on the other hand ran a campaign of attacking Protasiewicz nonstop. Yet gave voters no reason to vote for him. He refused to discuss any issues. Voters will always vote for something over nothing. We saw this in 2022 and it played out yet again. As long as conservatives nominate bad candidates and refuse to embrace issues, the results will be the same. If we do not heed these lessons, 2024 will be an unmitigated disaster and every progressive dream will come true.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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