Wisconsin Supreme Court: Taylor wins, county results provide insight

MILWAUKEE - Chris Taylor defeated Maria Lazar in Tuesday's Wisconsin Supreme Court race, and county-by-county results provide some insight as to how she won.

In a state used to razor-close margins and presidential races decided by less than a percentage point, Taylor won 60% of the statewide vote – picking up many of Wisconsin's toss-up areas in the process.

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Waukesha County

Local perspective:

Waukesha County has been crucial for Republicans, and in past elections, voters have gone for the conservative candidate. When conservative Brian Hagedorn won a seat on the state Supreme Court in 2019, he won 68% of Waukesha County.

As conservative candidates began to lose statewide, their numbers kept dropping in Waukesha County – 61% in 2020, 58% in 2023 and 58% in 2025. Maria Lazar fared worse, winning 54% of her home county.

Ozaukee County

Local perspective:

Taylor flipped Ozaukee County. President Donald Trump won the county by more than 10 points in 2024, and Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates had won the last four races there. Taylor beat Lazar with 52% of the vote.

Racine County

Local perspective:

Racine County picked Trump, and it favored conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates in 2019, 2020 and 2023. But in 2025 and 2026, the county favored liberal-backed Susan Crawford and now Taylor, respectively.

Kenosha County

Local perspective:

Taylor also won beat Lazar in Kenosha County. Hagedorn, the conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate, won there in 2019, but the liberal-backed candidates won the county in 2020, 2023 and 2025.

Control of the court

Big picture view:

When Taylor is sworn in this August, the Wisconsin Supreme Court will have a 5-2 liberal majority. Conservatives would have to win races in 2028, 2029 and 2030 to flip the court back.

"This will encourage those who want to try to move the law in a particular direction," said Chad Oldfather, a Marquette University law professor. "I think some cases that are in the pipeline right now that have been fired in the last year: there’s a lawsuit seeking to establish some environmental rights under the state constitution to a greater degree than has previously been recognized."

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Last year, Wisconsin set a national record with more than $100 million spent on the state Supreme Court race between Crawford and Brad Schimel. This year, total spending was less than $10 million – and Taylor raised five times as much money as Lazar. 

Turnout was also down Tuesday night compared to last spring's election, when majority control of the court was on the line. Around 1.5 million Wisconsinites voted this year, roughly 863,000 fewer than last year.

The races are officially non-partisan. 

"The Supreme Court races for as long as I’ve been here, which is two decades now, seem to have been proxy battles really in the larger political wars in the state," said Oldfather. "It seems to have arrived at a place, where you couldn’t really put together a viable campaign because of the money that is required typically without affiliating yourself with one side or the other."

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