Democrats keep Pennsylvania Supreme Court control after 3 justices win retention races

All three justices on the ballot in Pennsylvania will keep their jobs after winning races on Tuesday in an election that had threatened to change the state Supreme Court’s liberal composition.

Democrats will continue to hold a 5-2 majority on the state’s highest court, a result of voters overwhelmingly choosing to retain Democratic Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht. The Associated Press called the races at about 10 p.m. local time.

"Tonight, folks across our Commonwealth sent a resounding message by voting to retain all three Supreme Court Justices who will continue to defend the rule of law, safeguard our elections, and protect our constitutional rights," Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement.

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The race attracted an unusual amount of attention as state and national groups poured what the Associated Press estimated to be more than $15 million into it, exceeding spending in past retention elections and underscoring the stakes of changing the court majority.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices serve 10-year terms and can be retained for consecutive terms until they reach the age of 75, at which point they must retire. Donohue, who is 72, will be unable to serve out another full term.

Republicans’ fight with the judiciary has intensified this year as judges have routinely thwarted President Donald Trump’s agenda. Their defeat in Pennsylvania, a battleground state that has seen high-stakes election litigation in recent years, comes after they suffered a bitter loss in an expensive Supreme Court race in another swing state, Wisconsin, in April.

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Trump weighed in on the race this week, calling for the three justices' ousters. Trump said they "ruled for Sleepy Joe Biden over and over, and interfered in the 2020 Election" and that it was "time for Justice."

The odds had been stacked against the GOP in Pennsylvania, as only one justice, Russell Nigro, had ever been voted out through a retention race. Nigro was defeated in 2005 amid public outrage over legislative and Supreme Court justice pay raises.

Republicans dedicated their spending and resources to attempting to persuade voters that ousting the justices would be a well-deserved referendum on the Supreme Court’s controversial decisions surrounding COVID-19 lockdowns and election rules, while Democrats argued that a loss would threaten women's access to abortion and reproductive health services.

The state’s highest court rejected Republicans’ attempt to toss out 2.5 million mail-in ballots in the 2020 election but delivered a mixture of smaller wins and losses to the GOP in the 2024 election over mail-in and provisional ballot lawsuits.

In 2020, the state Supreme Court also upheld Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s order temporarily shutting down non-essential businesses in the state because of COVID-19.