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By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
November 22, 2024

Official results from November’s election show that three Indiana Supreme Court justices who encountered strong opposition to their retention not only kept their seats on the bench but were retained by the highest margins in recent judicial elections.

Chief Justice Loretta Rush and Associate Justice Mark Massa, both appointed in 2012, faced the third retention vote of their tenures on the Supreme Court, while Associate Justice Derek Molter, appointed in 2022, was on the ballot for the first time.

On the question of whether Rush should be retained, 71%, or 1.63 million Hoosiers, voted yes. Massa was retained with 69%, or 1.56 million, yes votes and Molter was retained with 70%, or 1.57 million, yes votes.

Also, Court of Appeals of Indiana Judges Rudolph Pyle III and Peter Foley were retained, receiving 71% and 72% of the yes votes, respectively.

A grassroots campaign advocated against retaining the three justices on the high court because of their ruling which allowed Indiana’s near-total abortion ban to take effect in August 2023.  The opposition tried to convince voters to remove the three justices and create three open seats for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McCormick to potentially fill.

McCormick received 41.1% of the vote for governor in the general election, losing to Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, who got 54.4% of the vote.

However, in the closing months of the 2024 election, the grassroots opposition movement stirred enough concern that members of the Indiana legal community organized the Committee to Preserve the Indiana Supreme Court political action committee. The committee raised money to create a Facebook page and launch a social media advertising campaign for retention of the justices.

Deborah Daniels, co-chair of the committee, said in an email that the committee has officially disbanded. She added, “I think it would certainly be safe to say that everyone on the committee was extremely gratified by the election results and the strong vote of confidence in our excellent justices reflected in those results.”

Although the opposition did not unseat any of the justices, the movement seems to have helped engage more voters in the retention vote. More than 2 million ballots were cast in the 2024 retention vote, compared to the just over 1 million cast in 2014 and the nearly 950,000 cast in 2018, the previous years that Rush and Massa were on the ballot.

Also, Rush and Massa were retained in the previous elections with slightly lower percentages than in 2024. Rush and Massa were retained with 69% and 67% of the yes votes, respectively, in 2014 and with 70% and 66% of the yes votes, respectively, in 2018.

Kaitie Rector, director of advocacy for MADVoters Indiana, a nonpartisan nonprofit that was opposed to retaining the three justices, said the attention the retention vote generated was a positive outcome and carried an important message for increasing voter turnout.

“Regardless of the outcome, we were really encouraged to see that so many Hoosiers took notice of this ballot question and cared enough – one way or the other – to really engage with it,” Rector said in an email. “We know that Indiana has a long way to go to improve its voter turnout, and one of the best ways to do that is improve voter engagement and education so that they feel excited and prepared to go to the polls. For our part, MADVoters will continue empowering Hoosiers to use their voice at the ballot box and beyond to advocate for themselves and their communities.”

Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.

The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.