This Election’s Surprising Bright Spot for Progressives Is a Very Big Deal

The 2024 election marked a painful setback for Democratic hopes of rebalancing the federal judiciary: When Donald Trump reenters the White House in January, he will have a pliant Republican Senate majority eager to confirm his hard-right judges. But federal courts don’t tell the whole story: Across the country, voters also elected liberal justices to their state Supreme Courts, which function as a key backstop for civil rights and democracy as federal courts lurch rightward. And a progressive jurist is now leading the tally heading into a recount in an extraordinarily close race for the North Carolina Supreme Court, with a victory there promising to end the left’s painful losing streak on that bench and serve as a capstone for the one piece of the 2024 election where progressives actually flourished. Bidegaray’s victory marked a bright spot for Democrats, and preserves a liberal majority on the Montana Supreme Court that will fight legislative assaults on women, LGBTQ+ people, the environment, and other Republican targets. The most shocking judicial race in the country, though, played out in Mississippi, where attorney David P. Sullivan challenged ultra-conservative state Supreme Court Justice Dawn Beam—and won.