Winning the Wisconsin Supreme Court
Down with Dan Kelly
This month, Wisconsin voters rejected the conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court nominee and two-time loser Dan Kelly in favor of liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz. Kelly’s loss reflects the clear will of the people of Wisconsin, who understood the danger of having an anti-abortion rights, anti-fair maps judge on a 4–3 Supreme Court.
American Bridge has been involved in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race for months, from the early days of the primary through to this general election. Needless to say, we’re thrilled that Dan Kelly lost and the balance of the Supreme Court now swings liberal.
Here’s a look at how we helped flip Wisconsin’s Supreme Court:
The primary
In the primary, two major conservative candidates announced bids for the position: Dan Kelly and Jennifer Dorow, a judge recently elevated to fame through her role in the Waukesha parade murder trial. We helped to ensure Dorow did not advance through to the primary, while still damaging Kelly, by doing what we do best — opposition research.
As attention increased on this race, Wisconsin voters were exposed to a steady drumbeat of Dorow negatives, including her anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-worker stances. We worked extensively with local and national reporters to provide proof points on her deeply unpopular beliefs and amplified these same points on social media.
We successfully framed Dorow as dangerous and self-serving, highlighting her usage of the brutal murder of six Waukesha community members to launch her political career. Our researchers also discovered Dorow’s attempt to open a gun range that sells alcohol, her right-wing Christian law school attendance, and concerning comments about Jeffery Dahmer.
Our team ran an aggressive campaign, steering the narrative around Jennifer Dorow’s campaign from day one.
The general election
We delivered negative headline after headline during the general election, focusing on Dan Kelly’s extremism once he became the conservative nominee. American Bridge scoured old blog posts from the candidate, resulting in several stories about Kelly’s unpopular positions, such as his opposition to Social Security. We also reviewed Kelly’s record as a lawyer, uncovering details about his record in court defending government attempts to establish clergy-led marriage programs with public funds.
Our rapid response operation kicked into high gear when Kelly straight up lied during a debate, claiming he hadn’t taken money from the Wisconsin GOP. Our team immediately pushed out evidence of the lies online.
Knowing that abortion rights would motivate Democratic and independent voters, we heavily highlighted Kelly’s anti-abortion stance.
During the final GOTV push, American Bridge co-chair Cecile Richards spoke about the importance of this election at a press conference with the Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, Ben Wikler.
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election is a perfect case study of American Bridge’s proven strategy: Start early, research relentlessly, and communicate aggressively in the media and online. We constructed a negative frame for Jennifer Dorow to keep her out of the general election, kept the hits coming on Dan Kelly throughout, and leveraged every tool to amplify the stakes.
American Bridge is proud to play a meaningful role in striking down Wisconsin’s conservative court, and we look forward to securing more Democratic victories in the Badger State.
