Maria Lazars Bizarre Campaign Drops Mask of Moderation Just in Time for Halloween

MADISON, Wis. — Right-wing Judge Maria Lazar kicked off her bizarre campaign for the Wisconsin State Supreme Court with a roll-out video that attempted to cloak her extremism, going so far as to not utter the word ‘conservative.’

But Lazar’s bizarre attempt at moderation didn’t last long. After being criticized by fellow right-wingers, Lazar made multiple in-person appearances with right-wing extremist Michael Flynn and signaled her allegiance to their causes in media appearances.

According to A Better Wisconsin Together Deputy Director Mike Browne, Lazar’s right-wing predilections are well documented.

“Newly uncovered comments in the lead up to her announcing a run for the state high court and in recent media appearances further confirm what we already knew,” Browne added. “Lazar is a right-wing jurist who seeks to advance her cause from the bench.”

The following are details of how Maria Lazar’s campaign has dropped her mask of moderation in her bid to excite the right-wing:

• WISN talk radio host Dan O’Donnell complained that Lazar refused to use the word “conservative” during her four-minute campaign launch video and then warned that the right-wing, “want somebody who is not going to be milquetoast and give them a lecture on constitutional law.”

• O’Donnell further panned Lazar’s campaign rollout, lamenting that “What we’ve seen so far in Lazar’s announcement video, it pains me to say, doesn’t fill me with a ton of confidence. … What I just heard was Dan Kelly in a dress. … ”

• A host of the New Fashioned Conservative podcast put it even more bluntly: “This is the most stark, obvious ‘L’ that I can possibly foresee. … It’s not gonna work. And it will be embarrassing. And it will be so embarrassing that we would rather just not even field a candidate. … We are cooked.”

• Most recently Lazar’s bid to excite the right featured her rubbing elbows at two right-wing Republican events with former Trump official General Michael Flynn and even disgraced former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Michael Gableman.

• In a television interview, Lazar confirmed her anti-abortion extremism, calling the overturning of Roe v. Wade “very wise” and indicating she would have disagreed with the state supreme court’s 4-3 ruling that an 1849 law could no longer be used to ban abortion across Wisconsin.

• In another recent interview, Lazar highlighted the dissents of former U.S. Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia as a source of personal inspiration, noting she owns a book compiling his opinions. She said, “And the reason I love that book, and I really love that book, is because he wrote them when he was in the minority and when he became in the majority, they now are the law of the entire country.” [Interview on DrydenWire Live, at 39:37, 10/14/25 (emphasis added)] Among Scalia’s many notorious dissents are opinions in support of unlimited corporate spending on political campaigns and in opposition to marriage equality.

• Trying to make good on right-wing radio, Lazar expressed support for allowing wrongly-decided court cases to have the force of law for “decades” despite being wrong and without regard to their real-world impact. She shockingly used as her example the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which approved the enslavement of African American people in the United States and gave judicial cover for slavery to continue. To make matters worse, on top of Lazar’s willingness to tolerate such a wrongly-decided case for “decades,” Lazar wildly misstated the legal history of Dred Scott, which was actually overturned by the adoption of the 13th and 14th amendments in 1865 and 1868, respectively.

• In the lead-up to her campaign launch, Lazar participated in a summer panel discussion hosted by The 5Riders, a far-right so-called “patriot group.” There, Lazar seemed to lay groundwork to cozy up to Donald Trump supporters in Wisconsin. She criticized federal judges who determined actions taken by the Trump administration were unconstitutional and implied she saw no constitutional problems with the Trump regime’s extreme policies and actions. Lazar also seemed to embrace fringe right-wing legal theories by jumping into the discussion to note that some constitutional protections do not extend to all individuals.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.