Rebecca Dallet, the candidate favored by liberals, handily defeated conservative contender Michael Screnock in Tuesday’s election for the open seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court.
“The candidate with the most experience in our courts and standing up for the fairness of our courts won,” Dallet said, according to the Associated Press. “I think people are tired of what’s been going on in our state in terms of the money coming in to buy these elections and people spoke out tonight.”
Dallet, a Milwaukee County Circuit judge, secured the 10-year appointment over Screnock, a Sauk County Circuit judge, by more than 10 percentage points, per the AP.
Her win narrows conservative control of the court to a 4-3 alignment, and has been heralded by Democrats as a sign of more electoral successes to come.
The race, which is technically supposed to be nonpartisan, is the first statewide contest since President Trump won the state by less than 1 percentage point in 2016.
While Dallet’s win follows Democrat Patty Schachtner seizing Senate District 10 in a special election in January, the weak predictive power of Wisconsin Supreme Court races for other campaigns is not detrimental news for Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who is up for re-election in 2018.
Dallet, 48, worked as a prosecutor for 11 years before becoming a judge in 2008.
She is set to join the court in August and will be the sixth of seven women on the bench.
