Wisconsin voters go to the polls Tuesday to choose a new state Supreme Court justice in a race that will keep or widen the court’s liberal majority. The winner will replace retiring Justice Rebecca Bradley in a contest that has become the state’s most consequential spring election.
State Appeals Court judge Chris Taylor, a former Democratic state representative, is backed by the court’s four sitting liberal justices. Maria Lazar, who served as assistant state attorney general under former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, is endorsed by conservative Justice Annette Ziegler. Ziegler said in March that she will not seek a third term in 2027, another sign that the court’s makeup could keep shifting even after this race is decided.
The stakes are larger than one open seat. Justices in Wisconsin are elected to 10-year terms, and the court has been closely divided since liberals gained a 4-3 majority in 2023 for the first time in 15 years. Janet Protasiewicz won a seat that had been held by a conservative, and Susan Crawford joined the court in 2025 and preserved that edge after a campaign in which Elon Musk and groups associated with him spent millions to help a conservative candidate.
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The recent elections also showed how quickly Wisconsin’s judicial races can mirror the state’s partisan map. In the 2024 presidential election, Kamala Harris won Milwaukee County with 68% of the vote and Dane County with 75%. Protasiewicz won 73% in Milwaukee County and 82% in Dane County in her successful Supreme Court race, while Crawford won 75% in Milwaukee County and carried the state by a double-digit margin. Both justices also won more than 10 swing counties that voted for Trump in 2024.
That matters because a Wisconsin Supreme Court aligned with either side can shape future disputes well beyond Tuesday. The next justice could have a voice in fights tied to the 2028 presidential election or redistricting in the early 2030s, when court rulings could influence the balance of political power in the state. Democrats tend to pile up votes in Milwaukee and Dane counties, while Republicans run strongest in rural areas and the suburban Milwaukee WOW counties, with Brown County, home to Green Bay, standing out as a swing county that Trump carried in all three of his White House campaigns.
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Tuesday also brings another test of Wisconsin’s political geography: Waukesha will hold its first open-seat mayoral race in 20 years. But the Supreme Court contest is the one that will decide whether liberals keep control of the state’s top court, or whether conservatives can begin to close the gap in a chamber that has spent the past two years under a 4-3 balance.
