TO: Interested Parties 
FROM: Andrew Wynne, VP Judicial Fairness Initiative, Republican State Leadership Committee
DATE: February 15, 2022
RE: Democrats’ Past Spending on State Court Races Paying off in Redistricting Fight, Stopping Them Next Time Starts in 2022

THE DEMOCRATS’ EFFECTIVE REDISTRICTING CONTINGENCY PLAN

National Democrats, led by Eric Holder and President Obama, spent more than half a billion last election cycle trying to flip state legislatures so they could control the redistricting processes currently playing out in a number of key states. When the dust settled in November of 2020 it appeared their efforts were a colossal failure, as Republicans held all 59 of our state legislative chambers and flipped two more in New Hampshire. We are now finding out, however, that the Democrats’ contingency plan to gerrymander themselves into power ahead of 2022 has been incredibly effective.

In states like North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, Democrats are yanking control of the redistricting process out of the hands of elected legislators and handing it over to their liberal allies on state Supreme Courts. These liberal, activist judges continue to reinterpret state constitutional language to overturn legislatively drawn maps and issue rulings that favor Democrats. And this is all occurring as Democrat-led states like Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Oregon have passed the most egregious gerrymanders in the country without any legal challenges from Holder and the rest of the national liberals who falsely claim to support fair maps.

HOW DEMOCRATS ARE DOING IT

What has enabled Democrats to have such success this year gerrymandering via state Supreme Courts? They are reaping the benefits of a multi-year campaign dating back to 2015 in which they have spent nearly $58 million on key state Supreme Court races across the country to install liberal judges who rule in their favor in redistricting cases. 

Democrats first implemented this strategy when they spent heavily on the three Supreme Court seats that were up for reelection in Pennsylvania in 2015. Their investment resulted in a change in the balance of power on the Court that paved the way for Democrats to later overturn the state’s congressional map in 2018. They replicated this strategy successfully in North Carolina to get the state’s maps redrawn ahead of the 2020 election. As Eric Holder put it in an interview in 2020, “What we have done at the NDRC is file lawsuits in state courts using the state constitutions and redrawn the lines that way.” 

The reason Democrats are currently gerrymandering themselves more power in North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania is because of the mammoth amounts of money they have spent buying seats on the Supreme Courts in those states in recent years. Since 2015, Democrats have spent a total of $32.7 million on state Supreme Court races in these three states alone. 

  • North Carolina - $12.7M

  • Ohio - $3.1M

  • Pennsylvania - $16.9M

Democrats also invested a total of $5.1 million in Michigan during the same timespan to capture control of its Supreme Court. And while the post-2020 redistricting process in Michigan was taken out of the hands of the Republican-led legislature and given to a commission, the investments liberals made in state court races provided a security blanket in case the Democrat-leaning commission did not draw them satisfactory maps. 

JUDICIAL FAIRNESS INITIATIVE HELPED PRODUCE EXCEPTION TO THE RULE

Despite Democrats spending $9.7 million from 2015-2020 in order to gain control of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, the Badger State is the one place their ‘sue until its blue’ strategy has failed this redistricting cycle. In a 4-3 ruling, the Court’s conservative majority ruled last November that it is not the role of the judiciary to consider partisan makeups of districts to make them “more fair.” 

Why did the Court have a 4-3 majority that was able stand up for the rule of law and make that decision? 

After the losses we suffered in Pennsylvania and North Carolina in the middle of the last decade led to disastrous consequences when it came to redistricting, the Republican State Leadership Committee’s Judicial Fairness Initiative (JFI) focused on the mission to engage in critical state judicial races across the country in order to beat Democrats at their own game. JFI was the largest outside spending organization in the 2019 Wisconsin Supreme Court race pitting Judge Brian Hagedorn against Judge Lisa Neubauer. JFI spent $1.3 million in the last week of the Spring Election, knowing that if conservatives lost in both 2019 and 2020, liberals would hold a majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court until at least 2025. Hagedorn won by fewer than 6,000 of the 1.2 million votes cast. A different outcome in that election would have likely produced a different result in Wisconsin’s latest redistricting case.

GOING FORWARD 

Democrats know that the socialist agenda their party is currently embracing is toxic with the American people and the only way that they will be able to gain power in the future is by more gerrymandering through state Supreme Courts. Their ‘sue until its blue’ strategy has been incredibly effective this cycle in almost every state where they have tried it. Our only notable victory in the effort to stop them came because of JFI and our targeted engagement in support of Hagedorn in Wisconsin in 2019. 

Recent redistricting developments make clear that the only way we can end court-driven liberal gerrymandering is by winning key state court races in the next decade. And these races are only getting more expensive. Spending since 2015-2016 in each of the following states has increased by:

  • Michigan – 5219%

  • North Carolina – 293%

  • Ohio – 95%

  • West Virginia – 208%

  • Wisconsin – 389%

Therefore, Republicans risk an even worse fate in the 2030 redistricting process if we fail to increase the resources we are currently spending in state court races to keep pace with the Democrats. 

IT STARTS THIS YEAR

With the massive failures Joe Biden and Democrat-controlled Washington are producing on a daily basis, it’s quite possible that 2022 will provide the best political environment for Republicans for the remainder of the decade. That is why JFI is looking to capitalize now, and is committing to spending more on state court races this year than any year prior. We will only be able to achieve this goal with your continued engagement and support. 

***

 

DEMOCRAT/LABOR UNION/TRIAL LAWYER SUPREME COURT SPENDING 2015-PRESENT

Illinois

  • 2020 – Kilbride

    • Kilbride spent $3,977,528.

 

Louisiana

  • 2019 – Liljeberg

    • Trial Lawyer funded Citizens Fighting Crime PAC spent $558,214

 

Michigan

  • 2016 – Szymanski, Thomas

    • Szymanski spent $27,404

    • Thomas spent $41,249

  • 2018 – Cavanagh, Bagenstos

    • Cavanagh spent $566,455

    • Bagenstos spent $850,734

  • 2020 – McCormack, Welch, Progress Michigan Political Action Fund

    • McCormack spent $1,294,022

    • Welch spent $1,592,446

    • Progress Michigan Political Action Fund spent $765,770 in independent expenditures

Michigan Total = $5,138,080

 

North Carolina

  • 2016 –Morgan, NC Families First

    • Morgan spent $272,950

    • NC Families First spent $1,735,272 in independent expenditures

  • 2018 –Earls, NC Families First

    • Earls spent $1,574,594

    • NC Families First spent $1,243,355 in independent expenditures

  • 2020 – Beasley, Davis, Inman, A Better NC,

    • Beasley spent $2,066,280

    • Davis spent $1,298,899

    • Inman spent $1,120,596

    • A Better NC spent $3,401,188 in independent expenditures

North Carolina Total = $12,713,134

 

Ohio

  • 2016 – O’Donnell, Rice

    • O’Donnell spent $384,439

    • Rice spent $449,489

  • 2018 – Stewart, Donnelly

    • Stewart spent $263,220

    • Donnelly spent $425,703

  • 2020 – Brunner, O’Donnell

    • Brunner spent $915,335

    • O’Donnell spent $710,193

Ohio total = $3,148,379

 

Pennsylvania

  • 2015 – Wecht, Dougherty, Donohue, Pennsylvanians for Judicial Reform

    • Wecht spent $3,379,361

    • Dougherty spent $4,563,683

    • Donohue spent $1,947,495

    • Pennsylvanians for Judicial Reform spent $3,385,109

  • 2017 – Woodruff

    • Woodruff spent $368,927

  • 2021 – McLaughlin

    • McLaughlin spent $3,282,790

Pennsylvania total = $16,927,365

 

West Virginia

  • 2016 – Wooton, Benjamin, McGraw, Just Courts WV

    • Benjamin spent $534,048

    • McGraw spent $128,314

    • Wooton spent $545,724

    • Just Courts WV spent $496,365

  • 2018 – Tabit, Just Courts WV

    • Tabit spent $319,414

    • Just Courts WV spent $105,580 in independent expenditures

  • 2020 –Wooton, Neely, Tabit, ReSet WV

    • Wooton spent $627,981

    • Neely spent $1,925,628

    • Tabit spent $511,330

    • ReSet WV spent $491,329

West Virginia Total = $5,685,713

 

Wisconsin

  • 2016 – Kloppenburg, Greater Wisconsin Committee

    • Kloppenburg spent $795,956

    • Greater Wisconsin spent $107,322 in independent expenditures

  • 2018 – Dallet, Greater Wisconsin Committee

    • Dallet spent $1,161,217

    • Greater Wisconsin spent $274,952 in independent expenditures

  • 2019 – Neubauer, Greater Wisconsin

    • Neubauer spent $1,902,117

    • Greater Wisconsin spent $1,055,735 in independent expenditures

  • 2020 – Karofsky, A Better Wisconsin Together

    • Karofsky spent $2,541,356

    • A Better Wisconsin together spent $1,877,467 in independent expenditures

Wisconsin Total = $9,716,122

Sources

 

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