Democrats hope to increase liberal control of battleground Wisconsin’s Supreme Court

Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates, Court of Appeals Judges Maria Lazar, left, and Chris Taylor participate in the Wisconsin Supreme Court debate hosted by WISN 12 News on Thursday April 2, 2026, at WISN-TV in Milwaukee, Wis. (Jovanny Hernandez/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP, Pool) 2026-04-07T04:08:42Z MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democrats hoped to increase liberal control of the state Supreme Court in Wisconsin on Tuesday in an election that has focused largely on abortion rights as cases affecting congressional redistricting , union rights and other hot button issues also await in the perennial battleground state.

This year’s Supreme Court election stands in stark contrast to the swing state’s previous two, where national spending records were set in battles over majority control.

Spending and national attention is down dramatically this year without control of the court at stake.

Democrats are looking to tighten their control of the court just months before a November election in which they seek to keep the governor’s office and flip the state Legislature, where Republicans have held the majority since 2011.

Democrats aspire to undo a host of Republican-enacted laws that made Wisconsin a focal point for the nation’s conservative movement in the 2010s.

In Tuesday’s Supreme Court race, Democratic-backed Chris Taylor , a former state lawmaker who also worked for Planned Parenthood, faces Republican-supported Maria Lazar .

Both Taylor and Lazar are state Appeals Court judges.

Liberals would increase their majority on the court to 5-2 from 4-3 with a Taylor win.

That would lock in the liberal majority until at least 2030.

Liberals took control of the state’s top court in 2023, ending 15 years under a conservative majority.

They held onto their majority with last year’s victory in a race that drew involvement from President Donald Trump and billionaires George Soros and Elon Musk, who personally handed out $1 million checks to voters in the state.

Read More Liberals argued that democracy was at stake in the 2025 election, noting that when the court was controlled by conservative justices in 2020 it came just one vote shy of siding with Trump in his attempt to invalidate enough votes to overturn his loss in that year’s presidential election.

Since liberals took control, the court has reversed several election-related rulings, including one that overturned a ban on absentee ballot drop boxes, and it is poised to once again be in the spotlight around the

原文链接: AP News