It took 15 years, but Wisconsin now has a liberal Supreme Court because progressives never wavered

After 15 long years of conservative dominance, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court once again has a liberal majority—a majority that’s poised to revisit the state’s abortion ban, its restrictive voting laws, its gerrymandered election maps, and much, much more. And the Daily Kos community played a key role in making this happen, because you never took your eye off the ball.

Unlike many other folks, you understand the importance of playing the long game. You get that change doesn’t happen with a single election—that it’s the work of a lifetime. You also understand the importance of state supreme courts, which too many progressives pay too little attention to. But not you.

Like many of you, I began tuning in to races for Wisconsin’s highest court early in 2011, following the Republican takeover of the state the previous fall. Scott Walker’s full-frontal assault on labor unions thrust that spring’s election for the Supreme Court into the spotlight, since the justices were likely to one day rule on the GOP’s Act 10, the bill had eliminated the right of most public-sector workers to engage in collective bargaining.