Democrats will highlight Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation in Senate campaign ads
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People across the country, many of whom have too rarely themselves reflected at the highest levels of the government and the courts, are rejoicing over the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson as a Supreme Court justice. It is absolutely the time for that, a glorious time to honor this exceptionally qualified, exceptionally gracious and thoughtful Black woman, even as our rejoicing is shaped by the knowledge of how much harder it was for her to get to this point than it should have been.
But we also need to get to the next Black woman Supreme Court justice or the next former public defender Supreme Court justice or a labor lawyer Supreme Court justice or an openly LGBT Supreme Court justice or any of dozens of other groups that have not had representation on a court that has been dominated by white men and corporate interests. And we don’t get there if Democrats don’t lay the groundwork to win wherever possible, so it’s good news that they’re preparing to capitalize on making history.
RELATED STORY: Call her Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
“Democrats are launching a print, digital and television paid media campaign to highlight Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic confirmation to the Supreme Court,” The Hill reports. But NBC News reports that the current concrete plans are extremely limited: a very small buy running homepage takeover ads on Black media websites including The Atlanta Voice in Georgia, The Jacksonville Free Press in Florida, The Triangle Tribune in North Carolina, The Philadelphia Tribune in Pennsylvania, and the Milwaukee Courier in Wisconsin.
”Senate Republicans tried to stop her. We must defend the Democratic Senate,” the ad says.
Very true. That calls for the more substantial buy implied by The Hill than the very small one reported by NBC News.
There is widespread recognition among Democrats that part of what stood out about Jackson’s confirmation, and will motivate voters, is the racist abuse she endured from Republican senators like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley.
“What has escalated even the normal political capital is the nasty and rude way the Republicans questioned her,” the Rev. Al Sharpton told The Hill.
Democratic strategist Karen Finney said, “Those images are seared in our minds of the disrespect she faced. Those are soul wounds for so many of us.”
Republicans have ridden the politics of grievance into more power than their popular support merits, pouring money into communicating that bitterness and rage, using it to mobilize their base at exactly the right times. As much as Democrats need to not “let anybody in the Senate steal my joy,” as Sen. Cory Booker put it during Jackson’s confirmation hearing, they also need to get in touch with the righteousness of the anger at seeing such an exemplary judge and human being barraged with such racist abuse. It’s worth planning to push that message—and the message of Republican extremism more generally.
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The rejoicing for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson continues
That Supreme Court confirmation hearing was so racist. We can’t ignore it or normalize it