Associated Press Spotlights Significance of State Supreme Court Races | Eastern North Carolina Now

News Release:

    Hey There,

    Critical state Supreme Courts seats are on the ballot in Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, and Ohio in 2022, and political observers are starting to recognize the monumental impact these races will have this election cycle. The Democrats' success in redistricting cases over the last few months is a product of the tens of millions of dollars they've spent in recent years stacking key state Supreme Courts with their allies who are determined to draw maps from the bench in favor of liberals. The Republican State Leadership Committee is ramping up its efforts to fight back.

    As the Associated Press reports,

• Voters in 32 states this year will cast ballots on state supreme court seats, which have become a magnet for spending by national interest groups.
• About $97 million was spent on state supreme court elections during the 2019-20 election cycle, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's law school. Conservative groups and super PACs historically have outspent liberal-leaning organizations in state court races.
• Michigan's court seats are among the top priorities for the Republican State Leadership Committee, which plans to spend more than $5 million this year on state court races, a record for the group, said spokesman Andrew Romeo.
• The group's other priorities include the races in North Carolina as well as those in Illinois and Ohio - primarily to better position Republicans in the fights over drawing state legislative and congressional boundaries.
• "People used to think redistricting was a 10-year fight," Romeo said. "Now it's going to be a battle every election cycle because there's critical supreme court races every election cycle that have the ability to impact redistricting."

    The RSLC's Judicial Fairness Initiative (JFI) earlier this year announced is pledging to spend record resources in 2022 to fight back against Eric Holder's "Sue Until It's Blue Strategy." This investment will be crucial for Republicans to combat Democrat advances in crucial state Supreme Court races this year in the battlegrounds highlighted by the Associated Press.


   Contact: Mason Di Palma
   Deputy Communications Director
   Republican State Leadership Committee