Pennsylvania voters approved the retention of three state Supreme Court justices, NBC News projects, preserving Democrats’ 5-2 majority on the battleground state’s high court.
Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht all survived an up-or-down vote to keep their seats on the bench. Dougherty and Wecht each won another 10-year term, while Donohue will serve until 2027, when she’ll reach the mandatory retirement age of 75 for justices.
Pennsylvania judges and justices must stand for retention every 10 years, when voters can vote “yes” or “no” to keep them on the bench. Very few Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices have lost their jobs this way, as retention elections are typically low-profile affairs. But with Democrats’ majority at stake in one of the country’s premier swing states ahead of the 2026 and 2028 elections, this year’s races drew outsize money and attention on both sides.
Democrats and their allies spent aggressively in the final stretch of the race, pouring more than $13 million into TV ads since October 1st, compared to the $2.8 million spent on the Republican side.
In one TV ad, the trio of judges appeared together to tell voters “we protected access to abortion. And your right to vote. Even when the powerful came after it.”
Prominent Democrats backed the incumbent justices, who appeared on the ballot without any party designation. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who faces re-election next year and is viewed as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, appeared in an ad on the justices’ behalf. And former President Barack Obama posted on social media urging Pennsylvanians to vote “yes” on retention.
President Donald Trump also weighed in at the last minute, urging Pennsylvanians to “Vote ‘NO, NO, NO’ on Liberal Justices Donohue, Dougherty, and Wecht” in a Truth Social post on Sunday night.
Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court has decided several big cases in recent years, particularly related to elections. The Democratic-controlled court struck down a GOP-drawn congressional map in 2018 and upheld a mail voting law four years later. Last year, Democratic justices overturned a precedent upholding Medicaid’s ban on covering abortions.
If all three justices had lost, Pennsylvania’s high court would have been deadlocked 2-2 through the end of 2027, threatening the high court’s ability to decide major cases and set legal precedents, which require agreement from four justices.
“It would be disastrous,” Wecht warned of such an outcome in an interview with NBC News ahead of the election. “Precedent is the whole reason for our court. We’re not just deciding Smith versus Jones, we’re deciding a question of law that applies for now and in the future throughout Pennsylvania for everybody.”
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