Judicial elections, particularly elections to state supreme courts, have generated substantial commentary over the last decade. Observers have asserted that elections have become more hotly contested, nastier, more expensive, and more divisive. This paper focuses on the question of whether...

This paper examines the partisan patterns in state supreme court elections for the period 1981 through 2020. It shows that those elections have become more partisan across all election formats: partisan, semi-partisan, nonpartisan, and retention. The greatest change has been in nonpartisan...