Democrats’ Chris Taylor wins by 20 points, pushing the Wisconsin Supreme Court to 5-2 liberal control and daring Republicans to catch up before 2030.
MADISON, Wis. — Chris Taylor didn’t just win. She ran the table.
Less than an hour after polls closed Tuesday night, the Democratic-backed Court of Appeals judge had already secured enough votes to put conservative Maria Lazar away for good winning by a margin so wide it rewrote the story of Wisconsin politics that Republicans were still trying to tell themselves. When the counting was done, Taylor had taken 60 percent of the vote, a 20-point landslide in a state Donald Trump carried just 16 months ago.
With the victory, the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority expanded from 4–3 to 5–2, a dominance that is now locked in through at least 2030. Wikipedia Four straight liberal wins. Four straight times Democrats have walked away from the Supreme Court ballot looking stronger than when they arrived.
“Once again, Wisconsin showed the entire nation that we believe that the people should be at the center of government and the priority of our judiciary, not the billionaires,” Taylor told supporters in Madison PBS Wisconsin a swipe at the outside money and political machinery that have turned Wisconsin’s court races into national spectacles in recent years.
Tuesday’s race, though, was notably quieter than its predecessors. The 2023 and 2025 elections were the most expensive judicial races in world history, with total spending in those races exceeding $45 million and $100 million, respectively. Wikipedia This year, with the court’s ideological balance never actually in play retiring Justice Rebecca Bradley was already a conservative, so the seat’s color was changing regardless the big-dollar donors mostly stayed home. Elon Musk, who personally showed up in Green Bay to stump for the conservative candidate last year and handed out million-dollar checks, didn’t bother this time. Neither did the volume of national punditry.
Didn’t matter. Taylor won bigger anyway.
Republican strategist Mark Graul acknowledged the spending gap played a role, noting “if there was a truly contested race, it would be concerning.” Fox 11 Online He and other GOP voices were quick to point out that Wisconsin voted for Trump in November 2024 suggesting the court results don’t necessarily predict how November’s midterms will go.
But Democrats aren’t buying the downplaying. They control the governor’s office. They now hold a 5-2 supermajority on the court with another conservative justice retiring in 2027, giving liberals a potential shot at 6-1 control. PBS Wisconsin And they’re playing this fall for the state Legislature, where Republicans have held power since 2011.
The Taylor win deepens the stakes for all of that. The court under its new liberal makeup has already reversed rulings on absentee ballot drop boxes and redistricting maps drawn to favor Republicans. It figures to be right in the middle of any legal fights surrounding the 2028 presidential election a fact that’s not lost on either side.
In Madison’s Capitol Square on Tuesday night, Taylor supporters cheered, drank beer, and talked about November. The road back for Wisconsin Republicans just got a little steeper.
