Once upon a time, calling to pack the Supreme Court with more justices for partisan gain was viewed as such a radical idea that few politicians would even consider it. Today, it has become mainstream in the Democrat Party.
Throughout the past year, Democrats far and wide have resuscitated plans to increase the number of justices on the high court as a means of garnering decisions favorable to their party. From potential 2028 presidential contenders to congressional leadership, these officials have made clear their intention to pack the court should they reclaim Congress and the White House in the next few elections.
With Americans currently heading to the polls for this year’s midterms, The Federalist has assembled a guide assessing where every major Democrat Senate candidate stands on the issue. While some candidates have already openly entertained court-packing, others have chosen to hide their position from voters.
Mary Peltola, Alaska
Alaska Democrat Senate candidate Mary Peltola was on board with packing the Supreme Court years ago. During her 2022 U.S. House campaign, she told the Anchorage Daily News that she would support a bill in Congress to “expand the size of the Supreme Court” but declined to provide a reason.
Peltola did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment on whether she still stands by that position.
The Alaska Democrat has repeatedly attacked the Supreme Court over its 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade and the made-up “constitutional right” to abortion. “Those who try to take away our rights always underestimate our strength,” Peltola said following the decision’s release.
Peltola is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan this cycle. The Last Frontier State uses a ranked-choice voting system, which has caused election chaos and confusion in many of the places it’s been tried.
Angie Nixon, Florida
Florida Democrat candidate Angie Nixon has indicated she will help her party’s targeting of the Supreme Court if elected to the Senate this fall. Under her campaign website’s “priorities” section, she voices support for “Term limits and ethics reform for the Supreme Court, including binding ethics rules for all federal judges.” Democrats’ disingenuous “ethics” obsession stems from left-wing propaganda firms like ProPublica, which have spent the past several years running dishonest hit jobs against the court’s conservative justices.
Nixon also backs overturning the high court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which held that “corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited” under the First Amendment. She furthermore criticized the court’s Aug. 24 interim docket ruling on President Trump’s mail-in voting executive order. A majority of justices later ruled that the administration couldn’t implement the order for the 2026 midterms.
Nixon did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment on whether she supports increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court.
The DSA-linked Nixon is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, whom Nixon recently said should be thrown in jail. The Florida Democrat later doubled down on her call to weaponize the justice system against her political opponent.
Jon Ossoff, Georgia
When challenging then-GOP Sen. David Perdue for one of Georgia’s Senate seats in 2020, Democrat Jon Ossoff cast himself as skeptical of his party’s calls to pack the Supreme Court. According to Politico, the Peach State leftist “said Democrats shouldn’t expand the court ‘just because a justice may be confirmed with whom we disagree on policy.'”
But now that Democrats are on the cusp of potentially winning the Senate this fall, Ossoff has seemingly changed his tune.
During a recent debate against his Republican challenger Mike Collins, Ossoff was asked point blank whether he would support “adding justices to the Supreme Court’s bench to change the court’s ideological balance” if Democrats take control of Congress and the White House. The Democrat candidate didn’t “rule out” backing such a proposal and then regurgitated the media’s bogus “ethics” smears against the court’s conservative justices.
“I don’t rule out any judicial reform, but I think we have to take the long view whenever we consider anything like that,” Ossoff said. “I think our focus should be a binding code of ethics for Supreme Court justices because the American public is rightly offended when they see Supreme Court justices accepting lavish gifts from people who have business before the court or from people who have a record of ideological or partisan advocacy.”
Much like Nixon, Ossoff has taken aim at the Supreme Court’s Citizen United ruling. During a recent campaign rally, he called it the “most destructive Supreme Court decision in modern American history.”
He also criticized the high court earlier this year for its Louisiana v. Callais decision nuking race-based redistricting. The senator claimed the ruling is the culmination of an “ongoing, multi-year attack on the signature policy achievements of the Civil Rights Movement” and part of a “blatant and cynical” campaign designed to “reduce Black representation in the United States Congress.”
Josh Turek, Iowa
Iowa Democrat Senate candidate Josh Turek has also signed onto his party’s “ethics” smear campaign against the Supreme Court. On his campaign site, the so-called “moderate” voices support for imposing term limits and “enforc[ing] ethics standards” against SCOTUS justices.
Turek’s position on Democrat plans to pack the high court, however, is much less clear. The Iowa Democrat did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment on whether he supports adding more justices to the Supreme Court.
Turek has criticized several of the Supreme Court’s constitutional decisions. This includes Citizens United and Callais, which Turek vilified as “an attack on voting rights” and claimed “sets a dangerous precedent for politicians to abuse redistricting powers to rig the game in their favor.”
Turek is facing Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson to succeed outgoing GOP Sen. Joni Ernst.
Adam Hamilton, Kansas
Despite running in a red state, Kansas Democrat Senate candidate Adam Hamilton has tied himself to his party’s attacks on the Supreme Court. This includes backing term and age limits for Supreme Court justices. He also “grateful[ly]” accepted a recent endorsement from End Citizens United, a Democrat-aligned political action committee that endorses candidates who pledge to help overturn the decision of the same name.
Hamilton, who is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment on whether he supports adding justices to the Supreme Court.
Troy Jackson, Maine
Unlike some of his fellow Democrat Senate candidates, Maine’s Troy Jackson hasn’t been shy about his openness to packing the Supreme Court with left-wing ideologues. During a recent debate against incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins, Jackson regurgitated Democrats’ “ethics” smears against the conservative justices before espousing his willingness to entertain court-packing.
“So yeah, I think first and foremost we have to have real ethics reform that’s accountable that you can hold people to,” Jackson said. “I think that we should have term limits, and I’m not against putting more people on the [Supreme Court] because this court obviously is not working. It’s working at the behest of Donald Trump and the billionaire class. I mean, that’s who’s actually funding people like Thomas and Alito. … We have to do something meaningful to get people’s confidence back.”
Jackson previously accused “many of” the justices of having “no ethics” and “lying to Congress” about overturning Roe v. Wade at a campaign stop last month. He also signaled his openness to packing what he called a “rogue court.”
Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan
When he’s not making cringe gas station videos, promoting far-left policies, or throwing hissy fits when asked about his family’s alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is busy promoting his own version of “Supreme Court reform.”
On his campaign website, the radical leftist endorses “ending the [Supreme Court’s] life-time appointments, imposing limited terms, and allowing the same number of appointments for each presidential term.” In endorsing these policies, he accused the high court of being a “major impediment to democracy” and “limit[ing] voting rights, civil rights, and reproductive rights while expanding Trump’s power.”
El-Sayed, who is facing Republican Mike Rogers this fall, seemingly signaled his support for increasing the number of justices on the court last year. Speaking to a group of supporters, the Michigan Democrat described his plan to give each president a certain number of justices each term, which he admitted would expand the court’s numbers.
“What I’d like to see happen, and this is just spit balling here … every president should get three appointments. You can either use your appointment to give somebody who’s on the court a second 10-year term and limit everybody’s terms to 10 years, or you can include somebody else. Would that expand the court? Sure. But there’s nothing in the Constitution that says there has to be nine justices,” El-Sayed said. “And it would offer equal opportunities for expansion based on electoral outcomes.”
El-Sayed affirmed his support for court-packing in his Wednesday debate against Rogers. When asked whether he favors “expanding” the high court, the Democrat candidate replied, “Yes, but fairly.”
El-Sayed has also repeatedly attacked the Supreme Court for issuing decisions he doesn’t like. This includes accusing the court of “gutt[ing] the Voting Rights Act” in Callais and intentionally releasing a decision nuking a Colorado ban on so-called “conversion therapy” for minors on “Trans Day of Visibility.”
“For MAGA-backed justices on the the [sic] Supreme Court to release this on Trans Day of Visibility is a deliberate slap in the face,” El-Sayed wrote in his March X post about a ruling joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota
Minnesota Democrat Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan has left little to the imagination about where she stands on court-packing. The leftist lady from the North emphatically backed the radical proposal during a recent debate against her Republican opponent Michelle Tafoya.
“I believe that we should add additional seats to the Supreme Court,” Flanagan said. “I believe that we absolutely should look at staggered terms … We need to make sure that we are pushing for more stringent ethics rules around the Supreme Court.”
The incident wasn’t the first in which Flanagan has called for packing the high court with more justices. The Minnesota lieutenant governor espoused support for a Supreme Court “overhaul” — including efforts to “expand it” — during an interview last month.
Chris Papppas, New Hampshire
Unlike his fellow Democrat Senate contenders, New Hampshire’s Chris Pappas has voiced opposition to expanding the Supreme Court.
The Democrat congressman said in an interview earlier this month that he backs term or age limits for justices but not increasing their numbers on the court because doing so “would be a never ending tug-of-war between both political parties.” He appeared to signal, however, that he would use his role as a senator to block President Trump’s judicial appointments, who he called “unqualified” and claimed “are only selected based on their loyalty to Donald Trump, not their fidelity to the law and the Constitution.”
Despite his professed opposition to court-packing, Pappas is one of 205 House Democrats to vote down a constitutional amendment proposal last month that sought to keep the Supreme Court at nine justices. The Democrat congressman is running against Republican John Sununu to succeed outgoing Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
Roy Cooper, North Carolina
North Carolina Democrat Senate candidate Roy Cooper is no stranger to attacking the Supreme Court for issuing decisions that don’t suit his left-wing fancy.
In addition to claiming that the Dobbs ruling “threatened women’s reproductive freedom across the country,” the former governor criticized the high court’s decision nuking federal limits on political party-candidate spending coordination earlier this year. Speaking with MS NOW, he called it the “worst campaign finance decision since Citizens United.”
On the subject of adding justices to the Supreme Court, however, Cooper seemingly has little to say. The North Carolina Democrat did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment on whether he supports packing the Supreme Court.
Cooper and several of his fellow Democrat Senate candidates recently suffered a defeat at the Supreme Court, which ended a lower court blockade on new federal rules granting political parties and fundraising committees access to low-cost ad rates. The North Carolina Democrat and Co. alleged in their lawsuit challenging the new guidance that it could advantage Republicans over Democrats.
Cooper is facing Republican Michael Whatley to succeed outgoing GOP Sen. Thom Tillis.
Sherrod Brown, Ohio
When he was a senator during Joe Biden’s presidency, Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown was asked by conservative and left-wing media if he’d support his party’s growing calls to pack the Supreme Court. At the time, he avoided giving an answer.
When pressed by National Review in 2021 on whether he’d back adding more justices if the high court overturned Roe, for example, Brown said, “I’m not going to answer, ‘What if, what if, what if?'” He subsequently added, “The conservative media like yours want to make it into a bigger issue and most of us are doing other things.”
Now, five years later, Brown is still not giving an answer. The Ohio Democrat did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment on whether he supports increasing the number of Supreme Court justices.
In addition to criticizing the Dobbs ruling, Brown notably attacked the high court’s recent decision to side with the Trump administration in its bid to end Temporary Protected Status for foreign nationals residing in the United States. This list of TPS registrants includes large swaths of Haitian migrants, whose presence in Ohio became a major feature of the 2024 election.
Brown recently went viral for effectively pledging to block “Trump judges” should Democrats win the Senate this fall. The Ohio Democrat is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Jon Husted this cycle.
James Talarico, Texas
Texas Senate Democrat candidate James Talarico has staked out a lot of insane positions in his day. And one of them is his openness to packing the Supreme Court.
“Talafreako” told Fox News last month that if he’s elected this fall, “You’re going to expect that I will vote for overhaul to the Supreme Court. That will include binding codes of conduct for our justices. It’ll include term limits, and I am open to a discussion about expanding the number of justices.”
The comments are similar to remarks the Texas Democrat gave in a Texas Tribune Q&A in February. He did not disclose his willingness to entertain court-packing at that time, however.
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) September 9, 2026Fox News’ Brooke Taylor: “If you win this, should our voters expect you to vote for or against adding Supreme Court Justices more than 9?”
Texas Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate James Talarico: “The Supreme Court needs to be overhauled… I WILL vote for overhauls to the Supreme… pic.twitter.com/BpdSJ5yqwe
Talarico is facing Texas Attorney General and Republican Ken Paxton this fall to succeed outgoing GOP Sen. John Cornyn. The senior senator was defeated by Paxton in this year’s primary elections.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics and RealClearHealth. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood