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Wisconsin judicial race spotlights state GOP’s struggles

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by Caroline Vakil - 04/04/26 5:00 PM ET

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by Caroline Vakil - 04/04/26 5:00 PM ET

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Wisconsin Republicans are bracing for a lopsided state Supreme Court race next week, as liberals are all but expected to expand their majority. It underscores how the state GOP has struggled to compete in critical elections over nearly the last decade.

Democratic-backed judicial candidate Chris Taylor leads the conservative favorite, Maria Lazar, in recent polling, and Taylor’s campaign has outraised her opponent by a roughly 5-to-1 margin in the race that will determine whether the Wisconsin Supreme Court remains a 4-3 liberal majority or expands to 5-2 edge.

The unusually sleepy nature of Tuesday’s judicial race comes as Wisconsin Republicans have struggled to match the Badger State’s Democrats in state party apparatus and fundraising abilities in recent years.

“The [conservative] campaign apparatus is really degraded over the course of the last 10 years or so, particularly in the … fundraising side of things,” said Republican strategist Ben Voelkel, a former longtime aide to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who once ran for lieutenant governor.

“The state party really does not have the same kind of money, oomph, that it has had in the past, certainly not what Democrats have going now.”

Wisconsin voters will be heading to the polls Tuesday to weigh in on an open seat for the state Supreme Court, created when conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley announced she would retire after her current term. The liberal faction enjoys a one-seat edge on the high court; Taylor’s expected win would expand that to two.

The judicial election has produced less fanfare and attention than past races, in part because the contest won’t impact who controls the majority. If liberals win the seat, it only makes the path to winning back the majority that much harder for conservatives.

Lazar, a state court appellate judge who served as assistant attorney general under two GOP Wisconsin attorneys general, has positioned herself as “independent” and “impartial” in the race and has nodded some toward issues that resonate with the GOP base.

Taylor, also a state court appellate judge who previously served as Democratic state representative, has been more comfortable signaling her thoughts on certain issues, particularly on abortion — a hot topic in this year’s race.

“I would have voted to not implement the 1849 criminal abortion ban. It was superseded by a whole suite of laws that directly conflicted with it, so I think it was the right decision,” Taylor said during a Thursday debate when asked whether she would have sided with liberals or conservatives on the state’s former abortion law.

Lazar and Taylor have painted each other as either extreme or an activist.

“On the one hand, you have a judge, an experienced judge who’s been on the bench for more than 12 years, protecting the rights of everyone” in Wisconsin, Lazar said during the debate.

“And on the other hand, you have a radical, extreme legislator who is known as the most liberal of the 99 in that Assembly, who now as a judicial activist, wants to put her views, her values and her agenda in the court above the law,” she added.

Some Republicans have expressed frustration that Lazar hasn’t more intentionally emphasized key issues that matter to the conservative base, as state Supreme Court races have turned largely nonpartisan-in-name-only.

“If you’re a Republican voter, what reason has Maria Lazar’s campaign given you to, like, show up and go to a poll on Tuesday?” asked a Wisconsin Republican operative who’s run statewide races.

Taylor’s campaign has “done a very effective job of inserting issues that matter to progressive voters, chief among them abortion, and making the case that that is on the line Tuesday, without necessarily calling themselves a Democrat or a liberal,” the operative added.

Nathan Conrad, a spokesperson for the Lazar campaign, countered to The Hill that Lazar did that during her Thursday debate.

“I would say that for anyone who says that they should have tuned into last night’s debate, and you would have seen a very pointed discussion on the views and judicial philosophy of Judge Lazar,” he said.

That’s also not to mention the sheer fundraising advantage Democrats hold in the race. Taylor’s campaign has outraised Lazar’s, with the liberal candidate receiving nearly $6.2 million to the conservative candidate’s $1.2 million.

And the gap between how much the state parties have contributed to the candidates is stark: Between Jan. 1 and March 23, the state Democratic Party alone gave or spent on be