KEY POINTS

• Jennifer Dorow will face off with three other candidates in the race for Supreme Court. 
• Democrats have not held the majority since 2008. 
• Patience Roggensack is set to retire in Summer, leaving a set open for the taking.
• If liberals successfully secure that open seat, the majority will shift in their favor. 
• Democrats will prioritize this race as it is their chance to flip control of the court heading into the 2024 presidential election in the battleground state.

Jennifer Dorow, from Hartland, is the fourth candidate to join the race for the seat that will be left open when Justice Patience Roggensack retires this summer after her second 10-year term. The seat will determine the court’s ideological balance, as conservatives currently possess a 4-3 majority. However, if a liberal is elected in April to replace Roggensack, a conservative, that majority could shift. 

Dorow will join fellow conservative Dan Kelly in the race and two other candidates, Democrat Dane County Everett Mitchell and ultra-progressive Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz.

The top two candidates who receive the most votes in the February 21 primary will advance to the April 4 election in the spring. If a liberal wins the April 4 election, it will shift the balance in favor of democrats, the first time they would hold the majority since 2008. Liberals are prioritizing this race as it is their chance to flip control of the court heading into the 2024 presidential election in the battleground state.

Chair of the Democratic Party of WI Ben Wikler commented on Dorow announcing her candidacy, calling Dorow “yet another extremist Scott Walker appointee, a brand of politics Wisconsinites have rejected time and again.” Again, democrats have failed to secure a majority in the Supreme Court for about 15 years.

Walker appointed Dorow in 2011, and she was elected unopposed to full six-year terms in 2012 and 2018. Walker appointed Dan Kelly to the state Supreme Court, but he lost his 2020 bid for a full 10-year term. 

Protasiewicz campaign manager Alejandro Verdin said Dorow and Kelly are “radically out of touch with the concerns of Wisconsinites.” Protasiewicz has an extensive record of far-left, soft-on-crime patterns and is known as a progressive justice judge. Reports reveal that a staggering 85% of registered WI voters are somewhat or very concerned about crime in the badger state. We also know that in Milwaukee, where Protasiewicz serves as a county judge, 90% of registered voters said they are worried about crime in their area.

Dan Kelly has released multiple endorsements that back his experience, including a statement by Justice Rebecca Bradley, who said that there is nobody she trusts “more to uphold the constitution and the rule of law than judicial conservative Daniel Kelly.”
Dorow has gained national attention from her recent job overseeing Darrell Brooks’ trial, the man who plowed an SUV through the Waukesha Christmas Parade, killing six and injuring dozens more. Dorow told WTMJ-TV that she has “been overwhelmed with the outpouring of support and encouragement to consider a run for the Supreme Court.”