Category: State
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2020 state supreme court election results
Thirty-five states held state supreme court elections in 2020. In total, 78 of the nation’s 344 state supreme court seats were up for election. At 23%, this was the greatest number of seats up for election in recent years. Of these seats, at the start of 2020: 59 were held by nonpartisan justices 12 were…
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Retention elections and judicial partisanship
State supreme court justices facing retention elections won re-election more often than their counterparts in states using other systems of judicial selection, according to Ballotpedia’s recently-published study on state supreme courts. Between 2008 and 2019, 155 justices have faced retention elections. Incumbent justices won 152 (98%) of these elections. Since 2008, there have been 196…
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Robert Carter fills vacancy on Illinois Supreme Court
Robert L. Carter became a justice of the Illinois Supreme Court on December 8, 2020. Carter was nominated to the court on November 10 to replace former Justice Thomas Kilbride, who lost the seat after failing to meet the 60% vote threshold required by Illinois law for judges to remain on the bench. Kilbride received…
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Ward resigns from Alabama state Senate
Alabama State Sen. Cam Ward (R) resigned Dec. 7 to become the director of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. Ward was appointed to his new position by Gov. Kay Ivey (R) on Nov. 17. “It’s got to be the hardest job in state government,” Ward said in a phone interview. “They have a…
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Wendlandt sworn in as Massachusetts supreme court justice
On December 4, 2020, Dalila Wendlandt was sworn in as a new justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s court of last resort. Wendlandt was nominated by Governor Charlie Baker (R) on November 3, 2020, and was the governor’s sixth nominee to the seven-member court. Wendlandt succeeded Barbara Lenk, who retired on December…
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2020’s state supreme court elections resulted in changes on two of country’s least homogenous courts
The partisan makeup of two of the country’s most politically divided state supreme courts changed as a result of the 2020 elections, according to a Ballotpedia ranking of states by supreme court partisanship. As part of the Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship study, Ballotpedia assigned each state supreme court justice a partisan confidence score based on…
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Virginia House of Delegates District 2 special election set for Jan. 5, 2021
A new state legislative special election has been added to our list. The special election is for the District 2 seat in the Virginia House of Delegates on January 5, 2021. There is no primary, and the filing deadline is on December 14, 2020.
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John Nygren resigns from Wisconsin State Assembly
Rep. John Nygren (R) resigned from the Wisconsin State Assembly on Dec. 2 to pursue work in the private sector. He represented District 89 from 2007 to 2020. During the 2019-2020 legislative session, Nygren served on Employment Relations Committee, Joint Legislative Audit Committee, Joint Finance Committee, Joint Legislative Council Committee, Audit Committee, Employment Relations Committee,…
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Alabama State Senate District 14 special election set for July 13, 2021
A new state legislative special election has been added to our list. The special election is for the District 14 seat in the Alabama State Senate on July 13, 2021. The primary is on March 30, and the primary runoff is on April 27 if no candidate receives an outright majority of the primary vote.…
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Signature deadline for 2021 Initiatives to the Legislature in Washington is Dec. 31
The signature deadline for 2021 Washington Initiatives to the Legislature (ITL) is December 31, 2020. Initiative to the Legislature is the name of indirect initiated state statutes in the state of Washington. For an ITL to be taken up by the Washington State Legislature and potentially put on the ballot in 2021, proponents must submit…