The 2026 race for Wisconsin Supreme Court saw a blowout win for liberal candidate Chris Taylor, defeating conservative candidate Maria Lazar by 20 points. It made for an early night at the candidate parties.

The crowd at Taylor’s election night party on April 7 expected her to win, but that confidence didn’t diminish excitement when the race was officially called before 9 o’clock.

Since liberals flipped the state’s high court in 2023, they’ve paraded their majority on stage on election night for a celebratory moment. But with Taylor’s victory, the liberal majority becomes 5-2 and with former Justice Ann Walsh Bradley on hand, the stage wasn’t big enough

Instead, they had to hold their group photo afterwards.

“Wow, we did it, Wisconsin!” Taylor said in her victory speech at the Concourse Hotel in Madison.

Contrary to the previous two record setting elections, the 2026 race was quieter, with less outside interest group spending, fewer ads and lower turnout.

While Taylor held a 8-1 spending advantage over Lazar, the justice-elect praised her campaign’s get-out-the-vote effort for getting her supporters to the polls.

“I am so grateful for the grassroots support that I needed to win this race,” Taylor said in her speech. “This was a grassroots campaign about the people of the state of Wisconsin, and tonight, the people of Wisconsin spoke, and what you said is clear: We are moving forward!”

At her event, Lazar was gracious in defeat, hugging supporters and consoling those who thought she could pull off the upset.

“I have spoken with Chris Taylor and I have conceded. And that’s OK,” Lazar said in her concession speech at the Ingleside Hotel in Pewaukee.

But the parties weren’t even over before thoughts turned to the next Wisconsin Supreme Court election in April 2027.

Incumbent conservative Justice Annette Ziegler has already announced she won’t run again, and with conservatives having lost five out of the last six races, there’s a real question of what it will take for conservative candidates and their Republican supporters to be competitive in the spring.

“This race was run in a way that we were always behind catching up. That’s not how races are going to go from now on. I want people in this state to demand better from your candidates,” Lazar said in her speech.

On the liberal side, potential candidates for the spring 2027 election need to decide soon if they’re running, in order to start building up the fundraising network that has been central to their winning streak.

Milwaukee-based Court of Appeals Judge Pedro Colón was at Taylor’s party and has talked about running in the past.

“As I said, every race is unique,” Colón said. “So I have to uniquely think about race for the Supreme Court. But tonight is a great victory for the state of Wisconsin.

With their new 5-2 majority, liberals will control the court until at least 2030.