The DNC is jumping into the 2025 Pa. Supreme Court fight to protect Democrats in November election

What questions do you have about the 2025 elections? What major issues do you want candidates to address? Let us know.

With less than two months to go before Election Day, the Democratic National Committee announced it is significantly ramping up efforts in the fight to retain three Democratic Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices.

“Our investment is reflective of the fact that MAGA extremists understand the importance of our courts,” Pennsylvania state Representative and DNC Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta told WHYY News. “They want to make the Pennsylvania courts a reflection of what we’re seeing at the federal courts, where you have judges and justices that are ignoring the constitution, ignoring the law, and who see themselves as needing to be in line with a certain politician.”

On Nov. 4, voters across Pennsylvania will see the names of the three justices — Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht — on their ballots with a simple question: should each be retained for another term?

Seeing an opportunity, conservative activists have been engaged in an unprecedented effort to oust the three justices up for retention. Scott Presler, a Republican voter registration activist known for his grassroots efforts during the 2024 presidential election, is campaigning to get voters who have galvanized behind President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement to vote against retaining the three Democratic justices, citing their past rulings on pandemic “lockdowns” and voting laws.

“They allowed Gov. Wolf to shut down Pennsylvania during COVID,” Presler told a group in Harrisburg in June. “Dougherty, Donahue, Wecht did that. They also allowed mail-in ballots to come three days after Election Day. If you want justice and you want accountability, then you vote ‘no’ to these people.”

Why retention elections matter

This funding surge underscores how much emphasis Democrats are placing on the November judicial retention elections. While such races have historically flown under the radar, this year both parties are treating them like battleground elections, as they could shape key rulings on abortion rights, voting access and redistricting.

The DNC announced it was starting off with a “six-figure” investment in the race. When asked for more details, DNC officials would not give a specific dollar amount, but Kenyatta pointed to “seven-figure” spending on races in New Jersey and Virginia as “a real reflection” of what it intends to do in Pennsylvania. DNC spokesperson Abhi Rahman said it will go in more than it did in 2023’s financially record-breaking state supreme court race in Wisconsin.

If two of the Democrats were to be unseated, Republicans would gain a majority on the state’s highest court.

Unlike typical judicial races, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court justices stand for retention votes after their initial 10-year terms, facing a simple “yes” or “no” from voters. Historically, retention races have been sleepy, low-turnout affairs.

All three justices facing voters this fall were elected in 2015 and are part of the court’s current 5-2 Democratic majority. Their retention would help maintain that majority on a court that has the final say on many significant and controversial legal questions, including over abortion. The 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — which overturned Roe v. Wade —put the legality of abortion in the hands of the states.

The court has played a decisive role in recent high-stakes battles, including rejecting GOP-led attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and blocking gerrymandered legislative maps. Future decisions could shape Pennsylvania’s electoral landscape and social policy for years.

The money race

The effort to unseat the judges is supported by Commonwealth Partners, a political operation mostly funded by Jeff Yass, Pennsylvania’s richest man, of Bala Cynwyd. Yassgave more than $2 million to Republican judicial candidates in 2023. The national Republican State Leadership Committee is also contributing tens of thousands of dollars.

“We are confident that with the support that the DNC is committing to this race and with the energy and enthusiasm that we’re seeing from Democrats across the state, we are going to protect these races against billionaire and corrupt influence as we’ve been doing across the country,” Kenyatta said.

The DNC spending doesn’t include another six-figure effort by the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. The American Civil Liberties Union, which argued the mail ballot case before the state Supreme Court, declared its intention to spend half a million dollars. Pennsylvanians for Judicial Fairness is also spending an unspecified amount.

If any of the three justices fail to be retained, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro would name a temporary replacement. However, that nomination would be subject to approval by the state senate, which is currently controlled by the Republicans, who could possibly leave the seat open for months. Ultimately, the vacancy would be filled by voters in a subsequent election, opening the door for a partisan flip.

Justices are prohibited from campaigning or discussing cases in public, but the three justices made an unprecedented speaking tour of the state to make the case that they do not rule along partisan ideology, likely a testament to the sense of unease over the possible results of the election.

The DNC said its contributions would go toward helping the state party ramp up door-to-door and direct voter contact operations, add resources for paid mailers and paid digital outreach and fund volunteer recruitment and mobilization efforts.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher in these judicial retention races, especially in the run-up to critical races across the Commonwealth in 2026 and winning back the White House in 2028,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said. “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is on the frontlines of decisions related to voting rights, redistricting, abortion protections and more. The DNC is all hands on deck to win elections everywhere — none more important than in Pennsylvania in November.”