The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board warned that Democratic Party electoral victories in both Chicago and in Wisconsin this week represent a "five-alarm warning to Republicans about 2024."
The board wrote that these Midwest Democratic victories reveal that the GOP’s power in the area "will soon be imperiled" and that Wisconsin in particular will be moved "out of the swing-state column for the Presidency in 2024. President Biden narrowly won Wisconsin in 2020 after former President Trump won a surprise victory there in 2016; prior to that, Democrats had won every presidential election there since 1984.
"The results will energize the left within the Democratic Party, and the Badger State results are a five-alarm warning to Republicans about 2024," the board wrote.
The editorial described the two ominous elections that happened in the region this week as well as their implications for Republican power going forward.
WI'S PROTASIEWICZ, KELLY FACE OFF IN MOST EXPENSIVE SUPREME COURT RACE IN US HISTORY
The editorial first mentioned the victory for progressive Democrat Brandon Johnson, who won a run-off election for Chicago mayor against moderate Democrat Paul Vallas. Johnson will be the successor to former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, another liberal Democrat.
The editorial board warned that the run-off’s result means the "city’s decline as a laboratory for progressive governance will continue."
"Mr. Johnson, a union organizer and Cook County commissioner, believes in fighting crime with social programs, not more police… His victory will continue the demoralization of the undermanned Chicago police force," the board wrote.
It noted Johnson's use of identity politics helped him during his contest against Vallas, stating, "He also played the race card against Paul Vallas, a former Chicago schools CEO. In the final days of the race, Mr. Johnson dunned his opponent for ‘being dismissive of a black man who taught for four years in Chicago Public Schools.’"
It added, "Any criticism of his crime agenda was tagged as ‘yet another attack on a black man as an elected leader.’"
The editorial board also claimed that "the biggest reason for Mr. Johnson’s 51%-49% victory was the money and muscle of the Chicago Teachers Union." It explained, "He raised some $10.1 million through March 31, and 91% came from unions, more than half from the CTU."
"The union now has a reinforced stranglehold on the Windy City" the WSJ board said, adding, "The election shows how much public unions now control America’s biggest cities, and their priority is serving their own interests."
Moving on to Democrat Judge Janet Protasiewicz’s election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the board said the "result is another victory for the national left, which outspent the GOP and made it the most expensive judicial race in history."
"The surprise was the magnitude of progressive Janet Protasiewicz’s 55%-45% victory, which continued the GOP’s erosion in the Milwaukee suburbs and Fox River Valley. Democrats now hold a 4-3 majority on the state court," it wrote.
"Her major issue was abortion, especially the fate of an 1849 state statute that became law after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The law bans abortion in nearly all cases. Republicans who control the state Legislature helped her cause by failing to amend the law."
Mentioning how a GOP candidate "barely won in a longtime GOP stronghold" the northern Milwaukee suburbs, on Tuesday, the editorial claimed, "If Republicans can’t win in Mequon, their legislative majorities will soon be imperiled, and you can move Wisconsin out of the swing-state column for the Presidency in 2024."
The board also stressed that "Republicans had better get their abortion position straight, and more in line with where voters are or they will face another disappointment in 2024." It declared, "A total ban is a loser in swing states."
