atheist agnostics, long-haired, weirdos, short-haired widows, vandal,

Gula.

I'm the government, hug the government, love the government, hug the government, love the government,

the government, hug the politics, guys, a place for bipartisan, rational, and civil debate on American politics and policy.

I'm Michael Baranowski, Professor of Political Science at Northern Kentucky University.

I am joined once again by two, not one, but count them two co-hosts, Jay and Ryan. Guys, welcome

back. Good to be here. Happy to be here too. Thanks for having me. So because we had three people,

and I think that really adds something to the discussion, we didn't get to as much as we might have otherwise done. And so we have a lot of things we want to talk about on this midweek show. And we'll start with something we don't generally get into, a state election. And last week, voters in Wisconsin went to the polls to elect a replacement for a seat

on the state Supreme Court that will be open with the retirement of conservative justice,

Patience Rogansack, which, God, that's a great name. I love it so much. She retires at the end of

July. Now, like I said, I don't know if we've ever looked

specifically at a state Supreme Court election on the show, but this is a particularly

important election. I mean, so much so that over $45 million was spent on it, which it ended

with pretty decisive, I would say, 11-point win for Milwaukee

County Judge Janet Pradeshevitz, the liberal candidate over conservative and former

state Supreme Court, Justice Dan Kelly, which flips the state's high court from conservative

to liberal for three. Now, this means a number of things.

Number one, it means that challenges to the state's abortion ban will have almost certainly

a more sympathetic audience at the Supreme Court than they would have otherwise.

And Wisconsin had a ban that's been in place since 1849, and it was triggered into effect

like a lot of state bans

after the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision.

...