Voters will elect a new Wisconsin Supreme Court justice on Tuesday, April 7. Incumbent Rebecca Bradley is not running for reelection. The candidates are Chris Taylor and Maria Lazar.
What does a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice do?
Justices rule on cases of statewide importance or cases that impact public policy or involve the interpretation of the state constitution. While the state Supreme Court is technically nonpartisan, it has been increasingly used to decide political fights on important issues like abortion, redistricting, collective bargaining, the environment, the governor’s powers, voting rights and more.
What’s the recent history of the court?
Wisconsin’s highest state court had a conservative majority from about 2008 to 2023. The balance of the court recently shifted to a 4-3 liberal majority, with the election of Janet Protasiewicz in 2023 and Susan Crawford in 2025
Conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley announced she wouldn’t run for another 10-year term in the 2026 Supreme Court election. That set the stage for conservatives to attempt to maintain the three-person conservative minority on the court or to lose even further ground to liberals, who have the chance of pushing their majority to 5-2.
While the race is officially nonpartisan, one candidate is supported by Republicans and one is supported by Democrats. We take a look at where the candidates say they stand on the issues. Information comes from the candidates websites or social media, candidate interviews with WUWM and other news organizations, other media coverage, and the nonpartisan guides.vote.
Learn more about why nonpartisan Wisconsin Supreme Court races feel so partisan by listening to Season 2 of Swing State of the Union.
Meet the candidates
Chris Taylor
Who’s backing her?
Taylor has lined up more than 160 judicial endorsements, including from liberal-leaning state Supreme Court Justices Rebecca Dallet, Janet Protasiewicz, Jill Karofsky and Susan Crawford. She is endorsed by Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and organizations like the Wisconsin AFL-CIO and United Steelworkers.
A list of endorsements is available on her campaign website.
Taylor’s job history
Taylor began her legal career as an associate in several Wisconsin law firms, starting in 1996. She then became policy/political director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin from 2003-2011.
She was elected to the Wisconsin Assembly, serving as a state legislator from 2011 to 2020.
In 2020, Gov. Tony Evers appointed her to the bench in the Dane County Circuit Court, and she was elected to that position the following year.
Taylor then ran for and was elected to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in 2023. She represents District 4, which includes Dane County and the city of Madison.
Judge Chris Taylor calls herself “a lifelong advocate for justice, fairness, and protecting the rights of all people.”
Education
Taylor earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, magna cum laude, in 1990 and her law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School, cum laude, in 1995.
Issues
Abortion: Taylor worked for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. “I value women and families and individuals having the right to make those personal, private health care decisions,” Taylor told the Wisconsin Independent last year. “My values say that those are not decisions for politicians. Those are decisions for individuals with their doctors, so they can get the health care that they need.”
When she was in the Wisconsin Assembly, she introduced a bill that would have established “that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to obtain a safe and legal abortion,” except “after viability unless her life or health is endangered.” It didn’t pass, because it didn’t have the support of the GOP majority in the Legislature.
Labor Organizing: Taylor backs workers’ rights. She has been endorsed by the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers, the Wisconsin Laborers District Council and several other unions. She has said, “every working family deserves to have their rights and freedoms protected.”
Redistricting: Taylor has supported Iowa-style non-partisan redistricting processes as a state legislator. In 2017, Taylor sponsored a bill that would have the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau create the state’s future Legislative district maps when new Census information comes out. The LRB would have been required to follow the usual districting criteria mandated by state and federal law.
Voting rules: As an appellate judge, Taylor ruled that missing information in a witness’s address doesn’t prevent that absentee ballot from being counted, if the witness has included enough information for a municipal clerk to contact him or her.
Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Maria Lazar
Who’s backing her?
Wisconsin GOP Congressmen Tom Tiffany, Bryan Steil, Derrick Van Orden, Scott Fitzgerald, Glenn Grothman, and Tony Wied.
Lazar’s job history
Lazar started her career in private practice, working for 20 years as a shareholder litigator in business, financial and real estate law. She became an assistant attorney general in the Wisconsin Department of Justice from 2010-2015. There, she was lead counsel in constitutional and civil litigation, including Act 10 collective bargaining and redistricting cases.
She then was elected to Waukesha County Circuit Court in 2015 and maintained her seat on that court for seven years. She presided over juvenile, criminal, civil and mental health dockets. In 2022, she ran for, and was elected to, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals District 2, which is headquartered in Waukesha and covers 12 counties in the southeastern corner of Wisconsin.
She says she is “an independent, impartial judge who follows the law and Constitution in every decision [she] make[s].”
Education
Lazar attended Mount Mary College and received a BA in History, magna cum laude in 1986. She received her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1989 and was on the dean’s list.
Issues
Abortion: Lazar has been endorsed by the Wisconsin Family Council this year. In her 2022 race for appellate judge, Lazar was endorsed by both Wisconsin Right to Life and Pro-Life Wisconsin. Lazar says that on abortion, “we, the people of Wisconsin, have to take into account and balance the interests and life of the struggling mother and the baby, especially after it has come too far along.” She has said that an abortion is “not something I would [personally] consider,” but also that her personal views do not matter.
She says the Dobbs decision from the U.S. Supreme Court throwing out Roe v. Wade was “very wise” because it left the power to states to make laws relating to abortion. Lazar has said that Wisconsinites might back a state law banning abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is about six weeks from conception. But her website acknowledges that under a recent state Supreme Court decision, abortion is legal up to 20 weeks post-fertilization in Wisconsin.
Labor Organizing: Lazar defended part of Act 10, Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s signature law that effectively ended collective bargaining for most Wisconsin public employees, in court as an assistant attorney general.
Redistricting: As an assistant attorney general, Lazar defended the 2011 electoral maps that led to years of large Republican majorities in both chambers of the Wisconsin Legislature. On her website, Lazar says “the job of a judge, and especially the Wisconsin Supreme Court, is not to draw new maps or advance political goals. The court's duty is to interpret the law, not make it.”
Voting rules: When she was at the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Lazar represented former Gov. Scott Walker and other defendants in legal challenges to Wisconsin's voter ID law, which is still on the books. As an appellate judge, Lazar ruled that disabled people are not allowed to receive absentee ballots by email. She also ruled in favor of a conservative activist who has challenged aspects of the 2020 election — finding that the confidential records of people placed under guardianship for incompetency should be made public, in order to see if ineligible voters have voted in Wisconsin elections.
