Time to vote in the 2026 Spring Election, Wisconsin
At stake, a 10-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court — and much more. Every election matters. Be sure to make your voice heard.
The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.
Today is the day of the Spring Election in Wisconsin, so first things first: Go vote.
Perhaps you’re one of the hundreds of thousands in the state who voted early, be it in person or by mail, and that’s terrific. Perhaps you’re the kind of person who likes to be there in person on Election Day, and that’s terrific, too. No matter how you get there, be sure to make your voice count and do your civic duty and vote today.
The statewide race for a 10-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court will be on everyone’s ballot across the state, but there are plenty of local races and referenda happening, so be prepared. Go to MyVote Wisconsin now and see what’s on your ballot so you don’t end up scrambling to search something on your phone while you’re in the voting booth (also: you can find where exactly your voting booth is).
This year’s race for Wisconsin Supreme Court isn’t quite like the one last year, with the astronomical spending figures and the absurd theatrics of Elon Musk wearing a cheesehead and handing out (possibly illegal) million dollar checks on stage at a rally in Green Bay, but it is still enormously consequential. This is a race for a 10-year term on the state’s highest court, and if the last 10 years is any evidence, a whole lot can happen over the course of such a term.
So, while the results of this race will not have the immediate outcome of flipping the balance of power on the court (like with Janet Protasiewicz’s victory in 2023) or preserving that new liberal majority from flipping back to right-wing control (like with Susan Crawford’s victory in 2025), we can’t overlook just how much the person elected to this role will be deciding on over the next decade. Changes in balance of power or not, this is a big, big deal.
This is the second in a string of six consecutive years in which a Wisconsin Supreme Court race will be on the ballot in a Spring Election in April. With right-wing justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley not seeking re-election, it’s an open contest between liberal candidate Chris Taylor, a former Democratic legislator and current Court of Appeals judge from Dane County, and right-wing candidate Maria Lazar, a former assistant attorney general in the Walker Era state DOJ and a current Court of Appeals judge from Waukesha County. The two participated in the lone debate of the campaign last week, available to watch on WISN’s YouTube channel here.
I’d also encourage you to watch this pair of discussions from Marquette Law’s “Get To Know” series with each of the candidates. I was there in person for each and found them to be genuinely insightful.
While the balance of power and the overall makeup of the court should not be the top reason driving your decision at your polling place today, it is certainly worth examining. Should Taylor win — and she is unquestionably the favorite in this race — the court’s liberal majority would expand to 5-2. That would be a stunning turnaround in less than a decade following liberals’ nadir in these races in 2017, when they did not even field a candidate in the race against Annette Ziegler. Since, liberal candidates have won five of six contests, including the last three in a row. A Taylor victory would not only extend that winning streak, but secure liberal control of the court through the end of the decade.
Ziegler is not seeking re-election at the end of her term next year, so that means right-wingers will not have the opportunity to pick up a seat until the following year, when liberal Justice Rebecca Dallet’s term is up in 2028. If Lazar wins today and a conservative wins Ziegler’s seat next year, the election for Dallet’s seat would determine the court’s balance of power. But if Taylor wins today, that 5-2 majority would mean that right-wing candidates would need to go on a winning streak of their own to make the 2030 race, when Chief Justice Jill Karofsky’s term is up, one that could determine the balance of the court.
Because in 2029, the 10-year term for Brian Hagedorn, a conservative and one-time “swing vote” on the court, who has sided with liberals on key cases — including against the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election — will come to an end. The three Wisconsin Supreme Court seats held by justices on the right are all up over the next four years, and they’d need to win each race in order to have a path to the majority in the 2030s.
All of that depends on what happens today. Every election is important, and you should be voting in every last one.
Turnout for this race won’t be expected to reach the near-midterm level turnout of a year ago where more than 2.3 million people voted, but perhaps it could be in the neighborhood of the more than 1.8 million people who voted in the 2023 race, or somewhere in between that and the 2020 race, where more than 1.5 million voted.
This is the first in a series of elections in 2026 that present a generational opportunity for the left in Wisconsin. Between this race today, the primaries in August, and the general election for the midterms this November, it’s going to be a busy year at the polls. At the end of it, Democrats could win trifecta control of state government after securing a 5-2 liberal majority in the state Supreme Court. It’s all in play.
As results roll in tonight, be sure to follow for live commentary on social media, on Twitter, Bluesky, Threads and here on Substack. We’ll be watching the Wisconsin Supreme Court race closely, of course, and will also have an eye on a number of local races across the state, and will be paying special attention to the mayoral races we’ve been covering in Brookfield and Waukesha.
Be sure to stay tuned for more commentary, conversation and analysis of the Spring Election over the next few days.
After you go vote (and tell a few friends and family to go vote, too), a few more quick things from those of us here at Recombobulation Area HQ:
1) We are hosting a LIVE PODCAST next week Tuesday, April 14, to celebrate our favorite made-up holiday of the year, Milwaukee Day. We’ll be joined by Angela Lang of BLOC and Matt Wild of Milwaukee Record and a few more special guests at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery for this free event.
Details here:
This event is also happening on the same day as our biggest sale of the year, when we offer 41.4% off all new subscriptions to celebrate the city we call home, here in the 414.
2) We are currently conducting a READER SURVEY, so we’d really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to fill this out. It will help The Recombobulation Area become an even better publication.
3) On Saturday, April 11, at Comedy Sportz, Dan Shafer will be joining the monthly Laughing Liberally Milwaukee event, with live comedy and more.
Find more details about the event here and get your tickets in advance here.
Hope to see you Saturday at 8 p.m.!
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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer and at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social.