Local TV news outlets in Wisconsin have failed to ask Judge Daniel Kelly about his extreme anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ positions as well as his association with election denial groups ahead of the state's upcoming Supreme Court primary election.
On February 21, Wisconsinites will choose two judges to move on to the April general election to fill an open seat that’s expected to determine the ideological balance of the state’s Supreme Court. The campaign is also expected to be the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history.
The policy implications of the election could be enormous. The court is expected to hear a challenge to an 1849 law that prohibits abortion in nearly every case and conservatives argue supersedes all subsequent abortion laws in the state since Roe v. Wade was overturned last spring. An ideological shift in the court’s makeup could also impact the future of gerrymandering, voting rights, and election rules in Wisconsin.
Judge Kelly's track record of extremism
Kelly is one of two conservative candidates vying for a spot on the state’s April 4 ballot. In interviews, Kelly has touted himself as a “constitutional conservative” without a partisan agenda who promises to be the “most boring” justice on the state Supreme Court. But his political activity and supporters demonstrate otherwise.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Kelly opposed abortion rights, gay rights, and workers’ rights during his previous term on the state Supreme Court, where he was appointed in 2016 by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker:
Kelly has also has compared affirmative action to slavery, and once said that same-sex marriage would “rob the institution of marriage of any discernible meaning.”
During his failed campaign in 2020, Kelly earned the endorsement of former President Donald Trump — who previously promised to appoint only anti-abortion judges — and his current campaign is endorsed by state anti-abortion groups and financially backed by the anti-abortion Women Speak Out PAC. Kelly has also promoted endorsements from anti-abortion groups in campaign ads on Facebook.
Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, Kelly participated in a series of so-called “election integrity” panels sponsored by the Wisconsin GOP and the Republican National Committee. The roundtables promised to offer information to voters about “the party’s efforts to ensure 2022 is the year of fair, open, and honest elections in Wisconsin” as part of the conservative movement’s repeated efforts to baselessly cast doubt on election security in the U.S. Now, Kelly’s campaign for the state Supreme Court is being largely funded by Fair Courts America — a political action committee linked to Illinois billionaire Richard Uihlein, a notorious funder of the “Stop the Steal” movement who has bankrolled election-denying candidates across the country.
Several local TV news outlets have failed to ask Kelly about his extreme record on abortion and other issues
While reporting on the upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court election, local TV news outlets WMTV, WISN, WJFW, and WISC failed to adequately report on Kelly.
- On February 14, WMTV aired a condensed version of its interview with Kelly in which anchor Leigh Mills asked Kelly just two questions: one about differences between himself and other judges and the other asking whether the “Supreme Court has been drawn into the political fray” as a “new reality.” In his answers, Kelly spoke of his “absolute commitment” to “constitutional conservatism” and impartiality. (In a full-length interview published on the WMTV website, Mills further asked Kelly about his position on the state’s 1849 abortion law and his views on former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman’s participation in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.)
If Kelly advances to the general election in April, local journalists would be wise to follow Smith’s lead and press Kelly on his extreme track record.
