MADISON - Dane County Circuit Judge Jill Karofsky won the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, narrowing the conservative majority after a tumultuous election conducted in the midst of a global pandemic, according to unofficial results released Monday.

Karofsky’s victory marked the first time in a dozen years that a Supreme Court challenger beat an incumbent — and just the second time in more than half a century. Her win over Justice Daniel Kelly will shift conservative control of the court from 5-2 to 4-3.

Appearing by video conference from her home with her son and daughter behind her, Karofsky thanked her family and supporters and decried the decision to hold the election during the coronavirus outbreak.

"Look, we shouldn’t have had the election on Tuesday," she said. "It was an untenable decision (on whether to vote), but the people of the state of Wisconsin rose up.

"Anyone who wasn’t brought to tears when they were looking at those people in Milwaukee voting on Tuesday, and voting in Green Bay on Tuesday, just doesn't have a heart."

In a statement, Kelly congratulated Karofsky and said he plans to work hard for the reminder of his term, which runs through July.

"It has been the highest honor of my career to serve the people of Wisconsin on their Supreme Court these past four years," he said in his statement. "Obviously I had hoped my service would continue for another decade, but tonight's results make clear that God has a different plan for my future."

The pandemic triggered a record surge of absentee balloting as voters looked for a way to stay at home to prevent themselves and others from getting ill. Many voters have complained they never received their absentee ballots, forcing them to choose between giving up the ability to vote and braving the polls on election day.

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The election was held last week, but results weren’t released until Monday because courts allowed clerks to count absentee ballots that arrived as late as Monday, provided they were postmarked by election day if they arrived after then.

Kelly was appointed to the high court in 2016 by then-Gov. Scott Walker to finish the term of Justice David Prosser, who stepped down early.

Republicans were so worried about Kelly’s chances that they considered moving the election so it didn’t fall on the same day as Wisconsin’s presidential primary, when Democratic turnout was expected to be high. They abandoned the plan to move the election amid public opposition.

By the time election day rolled around, the Democratic presidential primary had largely fizzled and the world was in the grip of the pandemic. The Supreme Court candidates abandoned their in-person campaigning and both sides urged people to vote by mail instead of going to the polls.

Those who showed up on election day were greeted by poll workers in face masks and had to stand 6 feet away from other voters. Voting was efficient in some communities, but voters in Milwaukee and Green Bay had to wait hours to cast ballots.

Karofsky rode the unexpected turns in the campaign to victory.

Karofsky is the first challenger to beat a sitting justice since 2008, when Michael Gableman defeated Justice Louis Butler. Before that, the last time a challenger unseated an incumbent was 1967.

A narrower conservative majority

Outside groups spent nearly $5 million on the race, a record for a Wisconsin Supreme Court contest, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a liberal group that tracks campaign spending. Spending by the outsiders was spent about evenly on behalf of the two candidates.

Kelly and Karofsky both directly got help from political parties in what is technically a nonpartisan race. Karofsky, who accepted about $1.3 million in help from the state Democratic Party, said Monday she would not sit on any cases involving the party.

Karofsky's success is a win for liberals, but conservatives still have control of the court. They will likely keep it for years.

The next race for Supreme Court is in 2023, when Chief Justice Patience Roggensack's term is up. Barring a member leaving the court early, the makeup of the court will stay the same until then.

If anyone steps down, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers will get to appoint a replacement.

Karofsky repeatedly attacked Kelly and the high court during the campaign, saying majority opinions made the court look like it is beholden to special interests. Kelly and the other conservatives on the court said the comments were not befitting of a judge.

Karofsky contended Monday she could get along with the other justices and looked forward to talking to them soon "over a cup of coffee or over a good Wisconsin beer so we can put our differences aside."

Contrasting views

The contrasts between Karofsky and Kelly couldn't have been more stark.

Kelly wrote a decision that found Madison could not bar guns on its buses, argued the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage undermined democracy, compared abortion to murder, and praised a decision that upheld Act 10, the 2011 law that scaled back collective bargaining for public workers.

Karofsky said she believes there are constitutional ways to put restrictions on guns, supports same-sex marriage, considers abortion to be a matter between a woman and her doctor, and backs collective bargaining.

Karofsky signed the recall petition against Walker, the Republican governor who put Act 10 in place and later placed Kelly on the high court.

President Donald Trump endorsed Kelly. Former Vice President Joe Biden endorsed Karofsky, as did U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders just before dropping out of the presidential race.

Before he joined the court, Kelly was in private practice at Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren and a small firm he set up. For about a year he served as vice president and general counsel for the Kern Family Foundation.

Kelly, 56, headed the Milwaukee chapter of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group that has advised Republicans on federal court nominations and helped Republican lawmakers defend legislative lines they drew in 2011 that benefited their party.

Karofsky, 53, served as the state’s first violence against women resource prosecutor and later oversaw crime victim services for the state Department of Justice. In that role, she helped change the law to make it easier for victims to get restitution and helped change court rules to better protect victims’ privacy, such as by having court documents refer to them by their initials instead of their names.

She was elected to the Dane County court in 2017.

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.