GOP Wins in Partisan High Court Races Has Party Mulling Tweaks

The idea of injecting more politics into filling state supreme court seats through partisan elections has taken hold in some Republican circles, and momentum could pick up after the party’s success this week in North Carolina and Ohio.

In increasingly red Ohio—which in 2021 changed to partisan elections for supreme and appeals court races—Republicans beat their Democratic counterparts in each of the three races by about 10 points, upping the party’s majority on the court from 4-3 to 6-1. The lone Democrat left on the court is up for re-election in 2026 and last year filed a federal lawsuit that says the law mandating party affiliations is unconstitutional.

And in North Carolina, which added partisan labels for the 2018 election, a Republican appeals court judge is narrowly beating a sitting Democratic justice the same year Donald Trump took the state. The race hasn’t yet been called.

“My fear now is that party label has demonstrated that in Ohio, it’s insurmountable,” said Ohio Supreme Court Justice Michael P. Donnelly (D), who lost to Cincinnati-area trial court Judge Megan E. Shanahan (R).

While opponents say the appearance of an impartial judiciary is now more important than ever, Republicans have justified what’s turned out to be a winning strategy in some places—which came amid stinging defeats on issues like abortion and voting rights—by saying it gives voters more information about races that can fly under the radar.

And in Republican-leaning states with partisan labels, “you have to appreciate that the outcomes in these elections were quite likely pre-determined by changes to the rules of the game that the legislatures in those states made a few years ago,” said Douglas Keith, senior counsel in the Brennan Center for Justice’s judiciary program.

Michigan is proof that partisan labels can make a difference.

Supreme Court candidates there are nominated by political parties but appear on the ballot with no affiliation; two Democratic nominees blew out their Republican counterparts by more than 20 points even as Trump carried the state in the presidential race.

Big Sky Country

Fourteen states hold nonpartisan state high court selections, while seven have partisan races, according to the Brennan Center.

In Montana, a solidly Republican state, there is some talk of whether its supreme court elections should have party labels on the ballot.

Four candidates fought for open Supreme Court seats in two nonpartisan races, with one backed by liberals and one by conservatives winning. Legislation was introduced in the last session to change future judicial elections to partisan, and a proposed bill for the session beginning next year has already been unveiled.

“Due to judicial ethics and canons, judges can’t really say much about judicial matters and other matters,” said Montana state Sen. Greg Hertz (R), who proposed one of several bills introduced in the state legislature on the topic.

Hertz said one potential wrinkle is whether use of partisan labels would be mandatory or optional.

“I’m not convinced that it would change all the problems we’re discussing, but it would at least give voters the ability to determine and give them a little bit more information about who they’re voting for,” he said of the bill.

There are several ways justices make their way on to their state’s respective high courts, and all have some degree of political activity baked into them. But even if a state doesn’t hold partisan elections, “there’s going to be some degree of something,” said William Raftery, an analyst with the National Center for State Courts. “Judges aren’t born a judge.”

Michael Bloomberg, majority owner of Bloomberg Law’s parent company, donated at least $1 million in 2024 each to groups backing Democratic state supreme court candidates in Michigan, North Carolina, and Ohio.