In a significant shift for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the liberal majority expanded to 5-2 on Tuesday when Chris Taylor triumphed over Maria Lazar for an open seat on the bench.
Supported by Democrats, Taylor defeated Lazar by a substantial margin of more than 20 percentage points. This election was held to fill the vacancy left by the retiring conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley.
Taylor’s victory is the latest in a series of successes for liberal candidates, marking the fourth consecutive win in nonpartisan Wisconsin Supreme Court elections.
Justice Janet Protasiewicz’s 2023 victory over Daniel Kelly was pivotal, as it shifted the court’s balance to a liberal majority, ending 15 years of conservative dominance. Susan Crawford’s 2025 win against Brad Schimel solidified this majority, which is expected to last until at least 2028.
This newly formed liberal majority has already made impactful decisions, including the overturning of a state abortion ban and the implementation of new legislative maps to replace those drawn by Republicans.
Here are two key takeaways from the Wisconsin Supreme Court race and the special election in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.
Don’t overread the Wisconsin Supreme Court election results
With liberals already holding a 4-3 majority in the high court, the stakes weren’t all that high in 2026.
Compared to the high-profile contests in 2023 and 2025 – which decided the ideological tilt of the court and saw record-shattering spending for state judicial contests – expenditures were modest in 2026.
Lazar raised about $1.2 million and Taylor raked in roughly $6.2 million, according to data from the State of Wisconsin Ethics Commission.
Liberal groups and Taylor spent some $5 million on campaign advertisements, compared to the roughly $400,000 spent by the Lazar campaign and her conservative backers, according to AdImpact data cited by Politico.
In contrast, total spending in the 2025 race approached $99 million, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice — nearly doubling the previous $51 million record total spent in the 2023 contest.
A Marquette University Law School Poll released late last month suggested that most Wisconsin voters were unfamiliar with the two 2026 candidates heading into the election, with more than half (53%) undecided.
Early voting also lagged far behind last year’s race, with about 50% fewer absentee ballots cast compared to 2025 and early, in-person voting down about 60%, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
President Trump notably did not make an endorsement in the race.
Democrats overperform in Georgia special election
The Georgia special election runoff to replace ex-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in Congress saw Republican Clay Fuller defeat Democrat Shawn Harris — but by a far smaller margin than the GOP would’ve liked.
Fuller, who was endorsed by Trump, topped Harris by a 56% to 44% margin when the Associated Press called the race in his favor, about an hour and a half after polls closed.
The Republican’s margin of victory was slimmer than Greene’s 29-point margin in 2024 (also against Harris) and Trump’s 37-point margin against former Vice President Kamala Harris in the last presidential election.
The over-performance should give Democrats a bit more confidence ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, which will see Sen. Jon Ossof (D-Ga.) compete for another term in the Senate.
MTG’s attacks on Trump, Iran war may have had an effect in deep red district
Harris, a veteran who served in Afghanistan as a combat infantry commander, had made his opposition to the Iran war the centerpiece of his pitch to voters in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.
“I think Congress right now is weak … Congress has allowed us to get into this war,” Harris told reporters earlier Tuesday.
“Here in northwest Georgia, people are concerned because they got sons and daughters in the military, and the last thing they want is another forever war,” the Democrat added, describing Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian “civilization” if a deal is not made “unbelievable” and “dangerous.”
Before polls closed, Greene, who did not endorse a candidate in the race, urged lawmakers and members of Trump’s cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would deem the president unfit for office, in response to his rhetoric.
“Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness,” the former Trump ally posted on X.
Meanwhile, Fuller, a district attorney and Air National Guard veteran, has expressed support for Trump’s decision to launch airstrikes against Iran – calling the regime “a death cult that could not be negotiated with.”
“Our country is safer because of what President Trump has done regarding Iran,” Fuller said in a debate against Harris last month.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — a pro-Israel super political action committee — endorsed Fuller ahead of Tuesday’s contest and argued his victory was part of a “broader pattern.”
“Fuller replaces Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose tenure was marked by repeated efforts to undermine the U.S.-Israel relationship and disparage millions of pro‑Israel Americans engaged in the democratic process,” the group said in a statement.
“His victory is part of a broader pattern so far this election cycle, with nearly 50 AIPAC‑endorsed pro‑Israel candidates advancing nationwide across both parties — reinforcing that support for the U.S.-Israel partnership remains both good policy and good politics,” AIPAC added.
