‘Republicans’ lone hope’: GOP looks to battleground race to recover from losses

Republicans have looked to a battleground Wisconsin race to recover from election losses in November.

Both the Republican and Democratic parties have dropped tens of millions into the Badger State's upcoming Supreme Court race, which is slated to be one of the "next big electoral tests," according to a Politico report published Friday.

"Republicans’ lone hope lies in energizing enough of their own voters," Alec Zimmerman, communications director for Sen. Ron Johnson during his 2022 campaign, told the outlet.

“There’s not some large group in the middle that’s swayable, but this is a really low-turnout election, and whoever gets their team to the polls better is going to win. I really think that that’s where their focus has to be,” Zimmerman said.

Although the elections are technically nonpartisan, the contest has become heated over the upcoming potential cases it's expected to handle.

Democrats have hoped that the court will hear a redistricting case ahead of the 2026 midterm election, following several cases that have changed the legal scope within the state, including a July liberal just decision to overturn Wisconsin's 176-year-old ban on abortion. The court ruled in April that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers "could lock in a 400-year school funding increase using his line-item veto power, a decision that also split along ideological lines."

Maria Lazar, a conservative candidate for the court and longtime appellate court judge, said in order to win the race, it's important not to focus on political parties or extremes.

“This is not a Republican versus a Democrat,” Lazar said. “This is a judicial race, and the reason why it’s going to be different is that I am, through and through and all the way, a judge, not a politician.”

Republican strategists have not had faith that Republicans will secure the win. Democrats have argued that they have secured their voting base to land a win.

“They’re high-propensity voters that are very much in tune with what’s going on in the state, highly educated, and very much motivated to come out and vote on both sides,” Alejandro Verdin, a Democratic strategist, told the outlet.