MILWAUKEE — Liberal-learning ideology will now grow to 5-2 on the Wisconsin Supreme Court with the latest election now in the rearview mirror. Tuesday night’s contest wrapped up quickly compared to recent years and saw a significantly larger margin of victory, too —almost double that of the last three races.
2025 vs. 2026
Justice-elect Chris Taylor flipped 19 counties that voted for Republican Brad Schimel last year to “blue,” even though the race is technically nonpartisan. Taylor’s 20-point victory came with roughly 150,000 fewer votes than Schimel received in 2025, when he lost to Susan Crawford.
Spending was also significantly lower this year compared to the record-breaking total of more than $100 million spent on last year’s race. Taylor and outside political groups supporting her spent about $8 million.
What do the results mean for November?
Time will tell, but Democrats hope the numbers are a “canary in the coal mine” indicator for Republican performance this fall. Many of the counties Taylor flipped are rural places where Rep. Tom Tiffany, the presumed Republican nominee for governor, should do well.
However, those who turned out on Tuesday are a different group of voters from those in November.
Republicans tend not to be as excited about spring elections, and there was not an issue-based constitutional amendment on the ballot this year to help drive turnout, as was the case in previous years.
Supportive strongholds
For Democrats, the traditional political strongholds proved to be reliable on election day.
Taylor was up by 4.3% in Dane County and 2.3% in Milwaukee County, compared to Crawford last year.
Republicans tend to rely on the so-called “WOW” counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington just outside of Milwaukee.
Maria Lazar won two out of three. While she missed Ozaukee, she picked up her home county of Waukesha by eight points and Washington by more than 20 points.
Those all were places that President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2024. Furthermore, Taylor improved upon Crawford’s support in all three counties by at least 4% or better. On top of that, the Republican candidate in the technically non-partisan Waukesha mayoral race lost on Tuesday.
Fewer commercials, fewer yard signs
Tuesday wasn’t your typical Supreme Court race, at least not compared to recent years.
Spending was way down, and Wisconsinites got to see just how much money matters — not just from a “horse race-winner-loser” perspective, but getting people out to vote in general.
On top of that, three out of four registered voters believed the ideological control of the court was up for grabs when that wasn’t the case, yet the winner of the race had fewer votes than the loser of last year’s contest, which did decide political control of the state’s high court. With far lower stakes this year, there was simply less cash to put the race in your face.