Morning Distribution for Monday, February 27, 2023

A [FiveThirtyEight]( email [Morning Distribution]( Monday, February 27, 2023 Your daily briefing from FiveThirtyEight --------------------------------------------------------------- The Morning Story [Judge Janet Protasiewicz and her husband Randy Nass]( [Democrats Did Well In Elections In February]( By [Nathaniel Rakich]( It may be an odd year, but there are still elections happening — and the first notable election of 2023 took place last Tuesday, with contests in Virginia, Wisconsin and a couple of other states. The results left Democrats and liberals cheering; their preferred candidates not only won, but by larger-than-expected margins. However, Democrats shouldn’t get too giddy about what that performance means for future elections. Arguably the marquee race of the day was the officially nonpartisan top-two primary for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Liberal-aligned Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz [finished first]( with 46 percent of the vote; conservative-aligned former state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly finished second with 24 percent of the vote. Protasiewicz and Kelly will now face off in an April 4 general election that will decide control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court (not counting this open seat, there are currently [three conservative justices and three liberal justices]( on the court). Kelly was the opponent liberals wanted in this race: The liberal outside group A Better Wisconsin Together spent nearly [$2.2 million]( opposing Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Dorow, another conservative candidate considered to have more general-election appeal. (Kelly, by contrast, has some [controversial views]( and lost a previous state Supreme Court election by more than 10 percentage points.) And many liberals are also feeling good about their chances in April given the vote totals from the primary. Together, Kelly and Dorow pulled 46 percent of the vote on Tuesday, while Protasiewicz and another liberal-aligned candidate combined for 54 percent. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play]( [Politics Podcast: Some Republicans Are Souring On Aid To Ukraine]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ABC News]( [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 47 West 66th Street, New York, NY 10023.