Future Majority’s strategy center is constantly monitoring what’s happening on the ground in key states. Here are three things to know that happened this week outside the beltway:
- In Wisconsin, Democrats expected Appeals Court Judge Lisa Neubauer to easily win a seat on the state Supreme Court against Republican Appeals Court Judge Brian Hagedorn on April 2. Hagedorn was hammered earlier this year for extreme and anti-gay comments and was abandoned by some of the GOP establishment, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Wisconsin Realtors Association. As of Thursday, however, Neubauer was down 5,800 votes to Hagedorn, who claimed victory. Hagedorn portrayed Neubauer as a socialist and was helped by a $1 million independent expenditure by the Republican State Leadership Committee, which ran ads calling Neubauer “Liberal Lisa”, with Trump praising Hagedorn and suggesting radical out of state interests were trying to take down Hagedorn like they tried to take down Brett Kavanaugh. Hagedorn was helped by a 20% increase in Republican voter turnout. Political observers are crediting Hagedorn’s strong showing to an awake Trump base.
- In Illinois, Chicago elected Lori Lightfoot mayor on April 2, marking the city’s first African American woman and first openly-gay mayor.
- In Pennsylvania, Democrat Pam Iovino defeated Republican D. Raja in the April 2 special election to win the 37th state senate district 52-48. Donald Trump won the Pittsburgh-area seat by 6 points in 2016. This was the second Pittsburgh-area state senate seat to switch to Democratic control since 2018.
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