Justice-Elect Chris Taylor Endorses Pedro Colón in 2027 Supreme Court Race
Nearly a year from next Wisconsin Supreme Court election, 2 candidates already running.
Judge Chris Taylor begins her acceptance speech Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at the Madison Concourse Hotel in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
A year ago, right after Chris Taylor announced she was running for Wisconsin’s highest court, she was immediately backed by three sitting liberal justices — and one, Susan Crawford, who was about to take the bench.
This year, just weeks after winning her own Wisconsin Supreme Court race, it’s Taylor who’s throwing her weight behind a candidate for next year’s contest.
On Wednesday, Taylor announced that she’s supporting Appeals Judge Pedro Colón, a former Democratic state lawmaker who just became the second candidate in the race.
“Pedro Colón is exactly the kind of justice Wisconsin needs on its Supreme Court,” Taylor said in a statement. “I have seen his work up close. I know his record. And I know he has the experience, the judgment, and the steady temperament the people of Wisconsin deserve on their highest court.”
Taylor’s endorsement is a solo one. No other sitting justice has weighed in just yet.
The other candidate to announce is also a liberal judge, who once held elected office as a Democrat. Clark County Circuit Judge Lyndsey Brunette announced her run earlier this month. She quickly racked up a few dozen endorsements from judges across Wisconsin.
Brunette more immediately matches a profile that other liberal justices on the court share. Like Justices Rebecca Dallet, Jill Karofsky and Janet Protasiewicz, she’s a former prosecutor who once served as Clark County district attorney.
Colón was a Democratic member of the Wisconsin Assembly from 1999 until 2010. That background is more similar to that of Taylor, who, in her endorsement, called him a “friend.” Taylor, too, was a Democrat in the Assembly for nearly a decade.
It’s the first time since 2023 that multiple liberal candidates are in the same race for Supreme Court. In 2024, all four sitting liberal justices endorsed Crawford shortly after she announced.
Taylor’s election cemented the court’s ideological majority to an ironclad 5-2 for liberals, meaning they’ll control the court until at least 2030.
Without the majority at stake, liberal voters could now have more say in what type of jurist they want on the ballot.
But the matter of a primary is not yet settled. If Colón and Brunette remain the only ones in the race, they’ll square off only in a general election next April. If another candidates jump in — whether liberal or conservative — they’ll spark a February primary, from which the top two vote-getters will advance.
Justice-elect Chris Taylor endorses Pedro Colón in 2027 Supreme Court race was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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