Conservative Judge Maria Lazar Enters Supreme Court Race
Lazar is so far the only conservative to announce for the 2026 race.
Wisconsin Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar is running for Wisconsin Supreme Court. Screenshot courtesy of Lazar Campaign
Conservative Judge Maria Lazar has launched a campaign for the state Supreme Court, telling voters her race will be different than the highly politicized elections that have become the norm in Wisconsin.
Lazar is running for the seat being vacated by conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley, who was first elected in 2016 and decided in August not to seek a second term.
Lazar, who has served on Wisconsin’s District 2 Court of Appeals since 2022, announced her candidacy in a four-minute video posted Wednesday morning. She used the message to attack District 4 Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor, who’s running for Supreme Court with the backing of Democrats.
The past two Wisconsin Supreme Court elections have shattered national records for spending in a judicial race. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin spent millions of dollars in both elections, and in the most recent race, the Republican Party of Wisconsin did the same.
Lazar described the situation in dire terms.
“We need to draw a line in the sand and stop the destruction of our courts, especially our state Supreme Court,” Lazar said. “We are bombarded by political ads for a judicial position. My candidacy will be different.”
Lazar was previously a judge on the Waukesha County Circuit Court, winning elections in 2015 and 2021.
She worked as an attorney for the Wisconsin Department of Justice from 2010 to 2015 under Republican Attorneys General J.B. Van Hollen and Brad Schimel. Prior to that, she was an attorney in private practice for more than 20 years.
During her tenure at the DOJ, she handled some high-profile cases, including the defense of Wisconsin’s Republican-drawn legislative maps in 2012. She also defended other Republican-authored laws from the early years of Gov. Scott Walker’s administration, including voter ID and restrictions on abortion.
Taylor, the candidate backed by liberals, also worked for private law firms early in her career before she became a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood. Taylor served in the state Assembly as a Democrat from 2011 to 2020, when she was appointed to the Dane County Circuit Court by Gov. Tony Evers. She was elected to the Court of Appeals in 2023.
In her announcement video, Lazar stressed she’d never been appointed to any judicial position, saying Taylor was initially appointed to a judgeship without any experience on the bench.
“I am not a member of a political party,” Lazar said. “My opponent spent years in the Legislature.”
Taylor’s campaign released a statement calling Lazar a right wing extremist, saying her record mirrored Justice Bradley’s.
“Just like Rebecca Bradley, Maria Lazar has spent her career rolling back people’s rights, attacking reproductive health care and voting rights, and doing the bidding of powerful special interests and her billionaire friends,” said Ashley Franz, Taylor’s campaign manager. “If elected, Maria Lazar would be the most extreme member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.”
Lazar and Taylor are the only candidates to have announced for the court. If any others jump in, the top two vote-getters in a February primary would advance to the officially nonpartisan April election.
Candidates backed by Democrats have dominated in recent Supreme Court races, winning the 2020, 2023 and 2025 elections by double-digit margins. That’s left liberals with a 4-3 majority on the court.
Unlike the last two elections, the ideological balance of the court is not up for grabs in this race, but it could have broad implications for conservatives over the long term. If Lazar, or another conservative wins next year, they’d keep liberals from expanding their majority but likely wouldn’t have a chance to recapture the court until 2028 at the earliest. If liberals win next year, they’d grow their majority to 5-2 and likely hold the court until at least 2030.
Conservative Judge Maria Lazar running for Wisconsin Supreme Court was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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