Billionaire Megadonors Push State Courts Rightward

Elon Musk, Richard Uihlein, and Jeff Yass are among the billionaire Republican megadonors who aimed extensive resources at this year’s state court races. 

The multimillion dollar efforts to cement conservative supermajorities — which succeeded in Ohio, Arizona, and Texas — or flip majorities — which failed in Michigan — underscores why state court races are attracting new, heavy spenders in races that have ballooned in costs in recent years. Last year, Wisconsin broke the record for the most expensive state judicial campaign in U.S. history, according to Open Secrets, with over $45 million spent, while Pennsylvania set its own state record by spending more than $19.5 million on only one open seat.

State-level battles over voting access, abortion rights, and a host of other progressive priorities have taken on renewed importance given the recent erosion of federal protections — and with further erosion expected during a second Trump term.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, eliminating constitutional protections for abortion, significant power has been ceded to the states, where state judges now play an outsized role in interpreting and implementing any potential pro- or anti-abortion laws and ballot measures. That has resulted in significant campaign spending by reproductive health and civil rights groups such as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union, both of which started spending on state court races in 2022.

“After Roe v. Wade was overturned, we had to turn to state courts and state constitutions as the critical backstop to protecting access to abortion,” Brigitte Amiri, deputy director at the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, told the Associated Press.

“Across the U.S., wealthy right-wing operatives and national groups continue to spend huge sums to capture state supreme courts and turn their regressive agendas into binding law,” said Evan Vorpahl, director of state courts and democracy project at True North Research.

State judges, especially in the post-Dobbs era, “wield extraordinary power over the lives of millions of Americans.”

Still, progressive judicial candidates were able to win critical seats across the county.

Here’s a state-by-state breakdown of this year’s key state court races where conservative megadonors and groups played a key role.

Arizona

In 2016 former Republican Governor Doug Ducey expanded the Arizona Supreme Court to seven members from five in what was largely seen as a power-grab to cement a conservative majority on the court. This year two justices appointed by Ducey were up for reelection, and although no justices in Arizona have ever lost a retention vote, billionaire donors stepped in to successfully ensure their victory and guarantee that the conservative majority would hold. 

Earlier this year, both justices who were up for retention election — Clint Bolick and Kathryn Hackett King — voted in favor of upholding the state’s 1864 ban on abortion, prompting state abortion rights groups to come out in opposition to these justices. Progressive groups had hoped that, should they lose, replacements would be appointed by Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs. 

The Vote Bolick PAC, which is legally prohibited from coordinating with the campaign, accepted donations from the National Rifle Association, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, and GEO Group, according to state campaign finance disclosures. 

Bolick has deep ties to Leonard Leo, the engineer of Trump’s three conservative Supreme Court appointments and a longtime strategist and power broker in state court races. He also worked for the Goldwater Institute, an Arizona-based libertarian organization funded by the Koch brothers, and has said that ethics-embroiled conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is one of his mentors. Hackett King was reportedly involved in burying an ethics finding that her participation in a Catholic Mass had been unethical.

Uihlein’s Fair Courts America spent over $500,000 on these races, according to the PAC’s most recent disclosure. 

The Judicial Independence Defense PAC — started by Randy Kendrick, who is married to Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick — raised $530,000 to support the two conservative justices, according to its most recent disclosure. Kendrick herself gave $125,000, while Yass donated $200,000, according to state campaign finance filings.

In comparison, one PAC hoping to oust the two conservative justices raised a total of approximately $17,000.

A state ballot measure that would have effectively ended term limits for supreme court justices, essentially making them lifetime appointees instead of requiring retirement at age 70, failed by a wide margin.

Michigan

In Michigan, Democrats continue to hold a 4–3 majority on the state supreme court, despite attempts to flip their recently gained ideological advantage.

The Judicial Fairness Initiative, a project of the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), spent over $500,000 supporting the Republican candidates Patrick O’Grady and Andrew Fink. One of RSLC’s biggest funders is Leo’s Judicial Crisis Network. 

The DeVos family contributed over $30,000 to Andrew Fink’s campaign between September and October. Trump’s former Education Department Secretary Betsy DeVos has backed his plan to disband the department during his second term.

Still, the liberal candidates, both of whom won, received far more financial backing, with the super PAC Liberty for All raising $7.9 million before the election, in part from liberal billionaire Michael Bloomberg.

Montana

Montana is a state where the ideological make-up of the highest court is less clear-cut. Prior to the election, the majority had preempted attacks on voting rights, expanded gun rights, and curbed the legislature’s attempted new restrictions on abortion. The court has been obstructing the Republican agenda and has been called “our last backstop” in terms of protecting progressive priorities, according to reporting by Bolts Magazine.

The RSLC pledged $300,000 in a digital media campaign to support Corey Swanson for chief justice and Dan Wilson for associate justice after two current liberal-leaning justices decided to retire instead of seeking reelection. Uihlein’s Fair Courts America gave $400,000 to support the candidacies of both conservatives. 

In their ads, RSLC claimed that liberals have weaponized the court. Swanson won his seat, but Wilson lost to Katherine Bidegaray, who ran on a platform to “keep politics out of our courtrooms.”

The ACLU committed $1.3 million to educational efforts in these races but didn’t directly support or oppose any candidates.

Ohio

In Ohio, the payoff was big: Republicans expanded their majority on the state supreme court from 4–3 to a 6–1 supermajority. 

The RSLC pledged $600,000 in TV advertising to support the election of Joseph Deters, Dan Hawkins, and Megan Shanahan, all of whom won their races. The ads attacked incumbent liberal justices Michael Donnelly and Melody Stewart, as well as another candidate, as being soft on crime after a 2022 bail reform law passed. Deters, who was appointed last year after a moderate Republican retired, gained national media attention earlier this year for penning a majority opinion that “boneless” chicken wings can have bones.

Ohioans for a Healthy Economy Action Fund, which has received $500,000 from Uihlein’s Fair Courts America, also poured money into the race. The group has ties to the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, along with donors such as Yass and Vivek Ramaswamy, the anti-woke firebrand Trump has picked to partner with Musk to radically slash federal spending. 

Texas

Even in Texas — where Republican judges have won every statewide race for the past 30 years — millions were spent on the state’s supreme court race, where all three seats up for election went to the Republican candidates.

Musk was a new notable donor there, providing a deluge of money that helped flip 23 appeals court seats held by Democrats, including in blue cities like Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, and the border city of Edinburg.

Musk gave $2 million to the Judicial Fairness PAC, which spent $18 million on judicial races with support from other Texan billionaires, including hotel magnates, financiers, and oil barons.

Both the Judicial Fairness PAC and one of its major funders, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, have “extensive ties to the oil industry and their funders include other major corporations, Harlan Crow, Miriam Adelson, Uihlein, RSLC, and more,” according to Truth North Research.

As in other states, the PAC peddled the narrative that Democrats are “soft on crime.”

“It is clear that we’ve entered a new era for spending in state court races following Dobbs decision, and now more than ever, big money is playing a huge role in swaying these critical state races,” Vorphal said.

“This is the new normal.”

Additional Resources

Bolts Magazine: “Your State-by-State Guide to Every State Supreme Court” 

Brennan Center for Justice: State Court Report

True North Research: “Who Is Targeting State Courts to Limit Our Freedoms?”