Pennsylvania Supreme Court race: GOP primary repeats dilemma of 2022
Rachel Schilke
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Tuesday is the primary election for Pennsylvania Supreme Court candidates, and GOP voters could decide the future of the Republican Party in the Keystone State by choosing between a centrist and a right-wing candidate.
Four candidates, two Republicans, and two Democrats, are running to fill the open seat vacated by the late Chief Justice Max Bear, a Democrat who died in 2022. One candidate from each party will advance to the general election in November.
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While seemingly flying under the radar, this primary will set the tone for Pennsylvania, a key battleground state in 2024, and determine how popular the Republican Party’s right-wing is among voters and whether it has enough momentum to defeat Democrats in the fall.
GOP voters will choose between Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Carluccio and Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough on Tuesday.
McCullough made a name for herself in Pennsylvania after halting the certification of the 2020 presidential election results to allow a lawsuit filed by allies of former President Donald Trump to play out. It sought to disqualify all mail-in ballots.
The state Supreme Court swiftly overturned her ruling, and President Joe Biden went on to win the state by 80,555 votes.
McCullough is backed by a committee linked to state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who lost his 2022 bid for governor to Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) and is a 2020 election denier.
The committee donated $10,000 to the campaign for McCullough, who previously lost a 2021 bid for the Supreme Court. She describes herself as a “strict constitutionalist judge” who is the only appellate judge candidate. She has touted her rulings against COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and mail-in voting.
“I am the only candidate who has handled and upheld the constitutional rights of the people in critical matters concerning election integrity, limiting the governor’s COVID mandates, upholding the Second Amendment (four times in the last year alone), congressional redistricting, constitutional challenges to state laws, taxes, environmental issues, and more,” McCullough said in an April interview with the Legal Intelligencer.
She said the state is in a “constitutional crisis.
“The people can see from my record that I abide by my oath to uphold the Constitution and do not legislate from the bench. I am fair and impartial and uphold the rule of law,” McCullough said. “It is critical that we elect a justice who will uphold the Constitution and fairly apply the rule of law.”
Carluccio is backed by the state Republican Party and the Republican State Leadership Committee’s Judicial Fairness Initiative. A recent ad released by the committee praised her as a judge with “unmatched experience” and “unquestioned integrity.”
She said in a statement to CNN that, if elected, she would leave “personal and political opinions at the door and look at each case without bias and only determine the constitutionality of what’s before me.”
Carluccio did say that she was concerned over the “conflicting, and sometimes unclear” regulations surrounding mail-in voting, but she has never questioned the outcome of any election.
“Our election laws must be applied consistently across all counties, regardless of the election year,” Carluccio said in her statement. “And, when part of our electorate has concerns about the integrity of our elections, rather than dismiss their concerns, the response should be bold transparency in the administration of our elections.”
Democrats currently hold the majority on Pennsylvania’s seven-member high court, but a Republican win would narrow that margin and could lead to a slow but steady power shift in the future.
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Other states have faced similar crucial elections. In Wisconsin, Democratic candidate Janet Protasiewicz defeated Republican candidate Dan Kelly on April 4. Protasiewicz’s win wrestled control away from conservatives who held the majority on the high court for 15 years.
This growing trend is likely to seep into the 2024 election as well, as Republicans attempt to keep their House majority and flip the Senate. Democrats are preparing to replay their 2022 playbook of talking up extreme GOP candidates they view as easier to defeat in a general election.