Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

When we show up, we win.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

You are here: Home / Political Fundraising / Targeted Political Fundraising 2025-26 / Republicans Run an Unusually Aggressive Campaign to Take Control of the PA Supreme Court

Republicans Run an Unusually Aggressive Campaign to Take Control of the PA Supreme Court

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Control of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is at stake in November.  This November.  

November 2025.

The United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit (LIVE AUDIO)

As the last several years have taught us, state courts have a huge impact on key issues that have personal and national impact.

I received this note today from Laura, founder and CEO of The Civics Center.

I hope you are doing well. I want to thank you for all you and  Balloon Juice are doing to support our work and reach your goal.

I saw this piece on the PA Supreme Court race, and thought it might be of interest to your community.

Our overall goal is to deploy between $250K and $500K in PA starting in July and through the school year. It comes down to $125K-$250K per semester. So when you reach your goal, you will have made up 1/5 of our minimum goal for the summer/fall. Plus the match, and it’s >2/5. That’s a huge impact for the race.

We’re hoping you can reach the goal before June 30, which is the end of the fiscal year for us.

I’ll keep looking for articles to send you. I know the PA Supreme Court elections are not getting much attention now, but it’s going to be a huge race, and our ability to make an impact genuinely depends on us raising these funds. In other words, what you are doing really matters.

Pa. GOP seeks to gain control of state’s highest court, where final decisions are made on voting and abortion  (PBS)

Republicans are looking to overturn the Democrats’ majority on the state Supreme Court in an unusually aggressive campaign.

State judicial elections typically garner little attention, but Pennsylvania’s 2025 state Supreme Court races are shaping up to be the next major political battleground. Three justices — Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht — are seeking to retain their seats on the state’s highest court, but Republican activists are looking to nix them from the court.

If even two of the Democrats were to be unseated, Republicans would then gain a majority on the state’s highest court.

Scott Presler, a Republican voter registration activist known for his grassroots efforts during the 2024 presidential election, is campaigning to get voters who have galvanized behind President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement to vote against retaining the three Democratic justices, citing their past rulings on pandemic “lockdowns” and voting laws.

He accuses Democrats on the court of helping Joe Biden win in 2020.

“They allowed and engineered the stolen election here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” he told a group recently in Erie. “If you want justice, if you want accountability, if you want to reshape Pennsylvania, you vote no to these people.”

The state Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that counties are allowed to accept mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day and which are received up to three days later, shooting down Republican-led challenges to have the ballots not count toward that year’s election. The decision was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2021 in a 4-4 split decision, without newly appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

We “could have a 5-to-2 Republican majority on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court going into the 2028 presidential election,” Presler told the Delaware Valley Journal.

That has Kadida Kenner, a voting rights activist and CEO of the New Pennsylvania Project, concerned about the impact on how the court makes those decisions. She says that a “MAGA majority” on the court would lead to voter suppression, as well as restrictions on reproductive rights.

“It’s really important to ensure that our congressional districts and those maps are not gerrymandered politically or racially,” she said. “And it’ll be the state courts to determine whether or not people have access to abortion in the Commonwealth.”

Our donations are double-matched until we get to $20k, but the thermometer will only show $19k at that point because one of our BJ Angels sent in a check.

Then we’re on our own for the final $5,000, with no external matches.

We have $375 left on the Angel Match from PatrickG.

In order to be angel-matched, please tell us about your donation in the comments or by email to me.

The PatrickG Angel match is complete!

Reader Interactions

29Comments

  2. 2.

    trollhattan

    Your intermittent reminder that California is the nation’s largest agricultural state. How are things on the food safety front?

    Eight of nine California agricultural field offices threatened with closure will remain open, the U.S. Department of Agriculture told Sen. Adam Schiff in a letter.

    The field offices are crucial to the state’s agriculture industry, aiding farmers as they sell and market their crops and helping with disaster aid. The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency had said it would end the leases of field offices in Bakersfield, Blythe, Los Angeles, Madera, Mount Shasta, Oxnard, Salinas, Woodland and Yreka. Schiff, D-Calif., said Monday that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins “has informed me of their work with the General Services Administration to ensure that many of these USDA offices will remain open. “

    The Mount Shasta office and newly added Brea office have not been removed from the list of terminations. “We have confirmed that GSA (federal General Services Administration) has rescinded the termination notices for Bakersfield, Blythe, Los Angeles, and Salinas, and we will continue to work with GSA to ensure that the remaining termination notices are rescinded,” Rollins said in a letter to Schiff.

    As for Mount Shasta, she said that “while GSA sent a termination notice to the lessor of the Forest Service lease in Mount Shasta, USDA is still in discussions with GSA concerning the viability of continuing that lease or if the services provided out of that office can be performed in a more suitable location.” The agriculture department, Rollins wrote, “supports optimizing building capacity and consolidating underutilized offices to reduce inefficiencies, while continuing to prioritize frontline services for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities.”

    Among the agencies served by the department’s California offices are the Farm Service Agency, Forest Service, Agricultural Marketing Service and others. Schiff and other Democratic lawmakers wrote to Rollins and the General Services Administration’s acting administrator last month, urging them to keep the offices open.

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article307706720.html#storylink=cpy

    Most NOAA Weather offices in the Central Valley no longer have 24-hour staffing, because weather only happens during the day.

  3. 3.

    H.E.Wolf

    Yes to what rikyrah said.

    And thank you to PatrickG for the angel match.

    PS: The Scales of Justice image is gorgeous.

  9. 9.

    Rational Exuberance

    Just donated $100 plus a $5 tip — thank you VERY much to everyone involved!

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    In Illinois, there is a 2 week period allowed for Mail Ballots to be returned, as long as they are post-marked by Election Day.

    Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) posted at 11:59 AM on Sun, Jun 01, 2025:
    Trump and the GOP are trying to eliminate post-Election Day grace periods for mail-in ballots, a practice currently in place in 16 states and D.C. This effort could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters.

    https://t.co/CXuJ3JYg4g
    (https://x.com/DemocracyDocket/status/1929221398582403223?t=89fVdmNaHzcs1BBw7itp3A&s=03)

  19. 19.

    WaterGirl

    The PatrickG Angel match is complete!

    For now, anything going into the thermometer with be double-matched with the external matches The Civics Center fund for us!

    So $100 in the thermometer turns into $300 for The Civics Center.  $50 becomes $150, etc.  

    As long as the thermometer hasn’t reached $19k yet, there is no limit for donations that will receive the external double-matching.

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    Yes, big thank you to everyone who is contributing!

    We have just under $2,000 of donations left that will be double-external-matched.

  28. 28.

    Another Scott

    +$100+

    Thanks WG and PatrickG and everyone.  We’re the little engine that can, and we’re making a difference.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  29. 29.

    KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))

    We finally got our tax refund on Friday, so I threw in $50.

    As soon as I send most of it to my husband for the savings account I won’t feel so flush, but I’m really enjoying that big number in the checking account every time I look! (and yes, I can afford to donate)

Comments are closed.