Liberal appeals judge wins seat on Wisconsin Supreme Court

MADISON, Wis. (CN)  — Appeals Judge Chris Taylor came out on top Tuesday in the race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, extending the liberal majority on the bench.

The Associated Press called the race just 30 minutes after polls closed at 8 p.m. Central Time across the state. With 60% of votes counted, Taylor had secured just over 60% of the vote.

Taylor thanked her family and the young people she says powered her campaign during a victory speech in Madison, Wisconsin.

“Tonight, the people of Wisconsin stood up for our rights and freedoms, our democracy, our elections and a strong state supreme court that will protect the independence of our beloved state. Once again Wisconsin showed the entire nation that we believe the people should be at the center of government," she said.

The liberal-leaning candidate’s win continued the trend of the last two Wisconsin Supreme Court elections, where liberal candidates saw landslide victories in the swing state. Liberals now hold a 5-2 majority on the state’s highest court, out of reach from conservatives until at least 2030.

But this race looked starkly different from the all-out battle Wisconsin saw in the 2025 election for Chief Justice Ann Walsh Bradley’s seat between Justice Susan Crawford and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel.

Spending in that race shattered records with a shocking $100 million price tag fueled by Schimel’s biggest donor, Elon Musk, while this race struggled to break $10 million. According to reports made by the candidates to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission’s campaign finance dashboard, Taylor received just over $6.2 million in contributions and spent nearly every dollar.

Conversely, Lazar raised around $1.2 million. Both candidates received most of their funding from donations of $100 or less, according to campaign finance watchdog Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Independent spending, currently at around $1 million, had already exceeded $25 million this time last year, exemplifying the dry well of donor support for the 2026 race where the majority is not at stake, and outside forces have not swooped in like years past to put a finger on the scale.

Lazar conceded to Taylor soon after the race was called and expressed pride in her campaign.

“I have been honest, I have been transparent, I have been above board, I have led with integrity. I want you to know that is how we need to run races in the state of Wisconsin," Lazar said.

The seat opened up after conservative-leaning Justice Rebecca Bradley announced her retirement in August 2025. Bradley has expressed concerns both in her retirement announcement and in frequent dissenting opinions that the court’s new liberal majority is enacting an agenda rather than following the law.

Taylor will take her seat in August to begin her 10-year term.

While recent polling and spending figures had Taylor holding a strong lead for weeks before election day, Wisconsinites did not see the big money forces and nonstop advertising they had gotten used to in 2025 and 2023.

Hannah Roberts, a graduate student studying occupational therapy, told Courthouse News that she hardly saw any advertising for Tuesday’s election, besides messaging from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

“I honestly forgot this was coming up, I’ve been staying out of the news,” Roberts said as she left her polling place inside a fire station. “I like not having big names buying people out, but I do wish there was more talking about the candidates.”

Roberts’ concerns echo those of many across the state, one year after Elon Musk inserted himself into the 2025 race and literally handed checks to two voters at a rally for Schimel.

Those elections ended in landslides for liberal-leaning candidates after hard and expensive battles fought on the airwaves. Without an opportunity for Republicans to flip the ideological majority on the bench, the stakes weren’t high enough to energize the state GOP.

The Wisconsin Election Commission will have data on how many registered voters cast ballots and for whom in the coming days, but preliminary numbers showed more than 1.2 million ballots counted on election night.

Taylor, 58, is a former member of the Wisconsin Assembly and policy planner for Planned Parenthood. More recently, she served on the Dane County Circuit Court before moving on to the District IV state appeals court.

The Californian with just six years of judicial experience oriented her campaign around state Democrats’ biggest winning issues, like abortion and criticism of the Trump administration, despite denying being registered with the party.

During a debate with Lazar last week, Taylor said she would stand up for Wisconsinites to protect their rights, democracy and elections. The sentiment was not unlike what voters might expect to hear from a legislator, which Lazar pointed out at every opportunity.

The pair sparred over the course of the hour long debate on April 2 over abortion, redistricting and the SAVE Act, which both candidates said they do not fully support.

None of the voters who spoke to Courthouse News on Election Day caught the debate or had even heard it happened. Many said they chose the candidate that aligned with their personal ideology.

Diana Kuehl said she voted for Taylor but made sure to point out that she doesn’t agree with Taylor’s position on abortion while noting that she hopes it won’t matter.

“As judges, hopefully they will be impartial,” Kuehl said. “But how you interpret things Is influenced by your experience, so you’ve got to be able to represent yourself because Lazar’s ‘strictly by the book’ approach doesn’t really mean anything.”

Dems eye ’trifecta '

Lazar, 61, is a conservative-leaning candidate running as an independent. Her campaign was laser-focused on judicial philosophy and restraint, rather than issues voters are most familiar with.

“What’s at stake in this race? Justice, integrity and independence. I am running to stop the erosion of faith in our State Supreme Court,” Lazar said during last week’s debate.

Hailing from Brookfield, Wisconsin, Lazar has sat on the District II state appellate court for seven years. Before then, she bounced for 32 years between Milwaukee, Madison and Waukesha as a private practice attorney, an assistant attorney general for the Wisconsin Department of Justice and a circuit court judge.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin did not inject nearly as much energy or money into Lazar’s campaign as they did for Schimel, who still lost the Supreme Court race by 10 points last year.

Lazar reported receiving around $160,000 from the state party, while the Democratic Party of Wisconsin amped up the Taylor campaign to the tune of over $800,000.

Lazar credited this to her running as an independent, but experts told Courthouse News in March it’s more likely due to a combination of donor fatigue and building up the coffers for the tough midterm elections ahead.

Every seat in the Wisconsin Assembly and half of the Senate will be up for grabs in November. Democrats need only pick up 10 and four vacancies, respectively, to flip the majority for the first time since 2008.

Top Republicans have announced retirements one after another, including Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, state Senators Steven Nass and Van Wanggaard, and more.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin communications director Philip Shulman told Courthouse News the party is looking beyond April 7 at the possibility of a trifecta, or liberal control of all three branches of government.

A Marquette Law School poll published in March showed Taylor leading registered voters by 6%, but more than half of voters were still undecided just weeks before election day. Among likely voters, Taylor’s lead in the poll grew to 8%.

The poll also reported more Republicans than Democrats remained undecided, with independent voters leaning toward Taylor or not planning to vote at all.

Wisconsin will likely see another less-than dramatic election next spring, when voters go to the polls to replace conservative Justice Annette Zeigler.

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