Wisconsin Republicans suffered a major blow on Tuesday evening, with voters choosing the liberal candidate in the state Supreme Court race for the fourth consecutive time — handing a landslide 20-point win to the candidate backed by Democrats that flipped some longtime Republican strongholds and even the literal town where the GOP was founded, and locking in a 5-2 high court that, assuming no early resignations, will solidify liberal control until at least 2030.
One of the big effects of the election of Judge Chris Taylor to fill the seat of outgoing far-right Justice Rebecca Bradley, wrote Mother Jones voting rights correspondent Ari Berman, is that any efforts by MAGA activists to overturn the vote in Wisconsin going forward will hit a brick wall.
"In 2020, when conservatives on the Wisconsin court held a 4-3 majority, Donald Trump and his allies attempted to convince the justices to overturn the state’s presidential election results. They nearly succeeded. Just one of the conservatives, Justice Brian Hagedorn, sided with the liberals in narrowly upholding Joe Biden’s win," wrote Berman. With Taylor being elected, "that will make it nearly impossible for Republicans to use the state courts to hijack elections."
In Taylor's debate with GOP-aligned opponent Maria Lazar, she made clear she is “very concerned that we might have efforts to suppress the vote” and added, “this is why we need a strong Supreme Court that’s going to hold the federal government accountable” — leaving little doubt how election-rigging schemes would fare in a court where she is presiding.
This comes after years of the 4-3 liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court delivering a number of wins for Democrats, including voiding the state's 19th-century abortion ban and forcing a redraw of Wisconsin's heavily gerrymandered legislative districts.
Beyond the implications for election, law, Berman concluded, the race is a canary in a coal mine for Trump-aligned candidates.
"When [Elon] Musk’s attempt to buy the court backfired last year and progressive judge Susan Crawford won by 10 points, it sent a signal that democracy could defeat oligarchy," he wrote. "Taylor won by twice that margin. If Crawford’s victory was a landslide by Wisconsin standards, Taylor’s was a tsunami. Taylor won at least 24 counties that Trump carried in 2024. Democrats also prevailed in the mayor’s race in Waukesha, the county seat of a longtime GOP stronghold in suburban Milwaukee."
Ultimately, he said, a blowout like this should leave Republicans fearful that "a blue wave is forming" for the fall.
