Dear Indivisibles,

It’s been two days since the Wisconsin Supreme Court primary, and now that most of the votes have been counted, we want to dive into the results and talk about what comes next for the general election in April.  

For starters, Tuesday was a huge night. Voter turnout was over 20%, beating the February primary record set in 2020 (a presidential election year!). Janet Protasiewicz came out on top, winning over 46% of the vote in a four-way race. Indivisibles played a huge role in delivering these results. You knocked on thousands of doors, sent nearly 150,000 texts, and now we’re one step closer to flipping the court for the first time in fifteen years. 

Who we’re up against

MAGA candidate Dan Kelly came in second place on Tuesday and will also advance to the general election. He’s a former state supreme court justice with a laundry list of extremist positions and offensive statements. He’s been a vocal opponent of marriage equality and has even compared affirmative action and social security to slavery.

Kelly has been endorsed by the most extreme anti-abortion groups in the state, including the Pro-Life Wisconsin PAC which wants to ban abortion with zero exceptions and also ban contraception. 

Kelly also poses a serious threat to voting rights and democracy. He defended the gerrymandered districts passed by the Republican legislature and would almost certainly uphold the rigged maps put in place by the current conservative court majority. After the 2020 election, he was paid by the Republican National Committee to advise on the MAGA fake elector scheme to overthrow the presidential election results.

With key cases coming before the Supreme Court on abortion rights and election integrity, it’s crucial we keep him as far away from the bench as possible. 

What happens next

The general election is on April 4, and while Judge Protasiewicz pulled off a huge overperformance on Tuesday, we’re not taking anything for granted. In the last 20 years, multiple Supreme Court candidates have won the primary and gone on to lose the general election. In one case, liberal candidates collectively won the primary by 21 points, and then a conservative candidate ended up winning the general by 2 points. That’s a 23-point swing that we cannot allow to repeat in this race.

MAGA Republicans in Wisconsin have relied on the state Supreme Court to uphold their extreme agenda, and they won't let go of their majority without a fight. Dan Kelly already has the backing of billionaire megadonors who are pouring millions of dollars into this race, putting it on track to become the most expensive judicial election in US history.  

Thanks to the support of our grassroots donors, we’re hitting the ground running and rolling out new programs to mobilize voters for the general election, including peer-to-peer texting, radio ads, thousands of postcards, and more. (You can find more details on our plans for the general election in the email below). 

And if you haven’t donated yet, please consider pitching in here. Plenty of groups have signed up to send postcards and help flip the court -- more groups than we have postcards for! Your contribution will help us match the energy of volunteers and ensure they have everything they need to get out the vote. 

There’s just six weeks before the general election, and we’ve already shown our grassroots organizing can have a huge impact in this race. Let’s keep this momentum going and flip the court in Wisconsin!

In solidarity,
Indivisible Team

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Indivisible Team
Date: Tue, Feb 21, 2023
Subject: ✅ Judge Janet Protasiewicz WINS! Now let’s flip the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Dear Indivisibles,

Great news: Judge Janet Protasiewicz just WON HER PRIMARY in Wisconsin and is headed to the general where she’ll have a chance to flip the Supreme Court in the “most important election in America in 2023.”^[1]

Indivisibles like you played a huge role in this victory, doing something almost no other group in the country did: We had thousands of conversations with Wisconsin voters about why they should vote for Judge Protasiewicz. Wisconsin Indivisibles knocked doors while volunteers across the country sent nearly 150,000 texts. 

All of it was funded by generous support from members of this movement who understand just what’s at stake in this election: the future of abortion rights in Wisconsin, voting rights in a key battleground state heading in 2024, the fate of gerrymandered maps that virtually guarantee perpetual Republican control of the legislature. And oh yeah -- in the event of a contested election next year, this court could determine the winner of the presidential election. 

Whether those decisions are made by a court with an activist, MAGA majority or a liberal, pro-democracy majority comes down to the result of the April election. It comes down to whether Janet Protasiewicz wins or loses. 

That’s why we’re not wasting a second in getting back to work. That’s why we’re asking you to chip in, right now, to help us flip the Wisconsin Supreme Court this April.

If you haven’t donated yet because you didn’t want to take a side between the liberal judges in the primary, we understand -- and we’re asking you to make your first donation today. If you’ve already chipped in to help secure this primary victory, we thank you. And we’re asking you to donate once more, if you can, to get our general election programs up and running. 

We take no pleasure in telling you that this race is expected to be the most expensive judicial contest in US history. Right-wing groups have already spent millions trying to lock out liberal candidates and secure a total victory in the primary. 

Thanks in part to our grassroots efforts, they failed. And it’ll be grassroots organizing that helps us overcome all that right-wing spending in April. 

Because this work is volunteer-driven, we don’t need to raise millions over the next few months. But we DO need your help to get these programs fully funded: 

📱 IndivisiTexting - For about $6,000, we can text 170,000 Wisconsin voters with messages persuading them to turn out for Janet Protasiewicz. And we’re trying something unique this election -- we’re targeting likely voters and asking them to have conversations with other members of their households. One text could equal 5 or more votes!

📬 Postcards - For $10,000 we can get about 11,000 postcards into the hands of Indivisible groups to send to voters in Wisconsin. 

📻 Radio Ad - In our last email, we asked you to vote on our next tactic, and Indivisibles resoundingly said that -- if we can raise $10,000 to fund it -- we should run radio ads aimed at turning out votes and recruiting new Indivisible volunteers across Wisconsin. 

💸 And finally, we want to provide direct financial support to Indivisible groups in Wisconsin. These groups are putting in long hours to secure victory in April and build local power that can help us win crucial races in 2024 (with implications for the House, Senate and Presidency). 

We’re celebrating tonight, but tomorrow we want to get to work starting up as many of these programs as we can. 

If you have the capacity to chip in (or chip in again) to help win the most important election of 2023, please make a donation here.

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We’re so grateful to everyone in this movement for making tonight possible. And with your help, we look forward to celebrating the even bigger victory when we flip the court this April. 

In solidarity,
Indivisible Team

^{[1] A Colossal Off-Year Election in Wisconsin, by Reid J. Epstein. New York Times, 1/16/23.}