Chris Taylor Wins Wisconsin Supreme Court by 20 Points, Cementing 5-2 Liberal Majority

Judge Chris Taylor decisively won the Wisconsin Supreme Court election on April 7, defeating conservative candidate Maria Lazar by a margin of 20 percentage points — 60% to 40% — to expand the liberal bloc on the state's highest court to a 5-2 majority. Taylor, 51, collected 905,157 votes to Lazar's 600,044, running up huge margins in Milwaukee and Dane counties while also becoming the first Democratic-aligned candidate since 2015 to win a majority of Wisconsin's counties. The victory was called before 9 p.m. on election night, a signal of how thoroughly Taylor dominated the race.

The result marks the fourth consecutive Supreme Court victory for Democratic-backed candidates in Wisconsin, extending a winning streak that began in 2023 amid the backlash to the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Taylor made abortion rights and voting rights the cornerstones of her campaign, noting her previous work as an attorney for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. She has served as a state Court of Appeals judge since 2020, following a decade as a Democratic member of the state Assembly representing Madison. Her defeat of Lazar, a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge, was by a wider margin than most analysts had forecast.

The practical consequences of the 5-2 majority are immediate and substantial. With liberals able to lose one vote and still command a majority, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is positioned to reshape state law on issues ranging from redistricting to election administration to abortion access, with conservatives unable to engineer a majority until at least 2030. Progressive advocacy groups had poured millions of dollars into the race, viewing it as a firewall against Republican-controlled legislation and a vehicle for challenging gerrymandered congressional maps drawn after the 2020 census.

For national Democrats, the result offered encouraging data about the party's competitive position heading into the 2026 midterm elections. Wisconsin is one of the most closely contested states in presidential elections, having been won by Donald Trump in 2024 by a narrow margin, and Democrats' sustained overperformance in state Supreme Court races — which tend to draw smaller, more motivated electorates — suggests underlying enthusiasm that party strategists hope will translate to Senate and House contests later this year. The Democratic Party has now won six of the last seven contested judicial elections in states that voted for Trump in at least one of the past three presidential cycles.

Liberals will have yet another opportunity to consolidate their Wisconsin Supreme Court advantage in 2027, when conservative Justice Annette Ziegler — who has announced she will not seek a third term — leaves the bench. If Democrats can win that seat, they would hold a 6-1 majority, cementing their dominance of the court for the foreseeable future. Three other justices will also face re-election between 2028 and 2030. Taylor's victory means the current 5-2 liberal majority cannot be broken by conservatives in the next electoral cycle, giving progressive groups a reliable judicial backstop in a state that has become a perpetual battleground in American politics.