Note: This chart estimates spending on high court races, including contested and retention elections, in the 17 states in which spending was documented. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court election took place in 2021, all other elections occurred in 2022. Candidate fundraising figures were provided by OpenSecrets and reflect available data as of July 2023. Candidate fundraising includes contributions and self-financing by candidates, including loans. It excludes loan repayments of $10,000 or more and fundraising by judges who did not run for election in 2021–22. Sources for independent expenditures by political parties and interest groups include primarily state campaign finance disclosures, as well as broadcast television spending estimates from Kantar Media/CMAG, public statements by spending groups, and federal disclosures where spending in those disclosures could be clearly associated with a state supreme court election. The 2021 figures in this chart are lower than the totals reported in the historical chart, because in that chart totals were adjusted for inflation to 2022 dollars to allow for historical comparison. The 2021 figures in this chart have not been converted to 2022 dollars.
Source: State campaign finance disclosures, broadcast television spending estimates provided by Kantar Media/CMAG, federal campaign finance and tax disclosures, and public statements.