The idea of injecting more politics into filling state supreme court seats through partisan elections has taken hold in some Republican circles, and momentum could pick up after the party’s success this week in North Carolina and Ohio.
In increasingly red Ohio—which in 2021 changed to partisan elections for supreme and appeals court races—Republicans beat their Democratic counterparts in each of the three races by about 10 points, upping the party’s majority on the court from 4-3 to 6-1. The lone Democrat left on the court is up for re-election in 2026 and last year filed a federal lawsuit ...