MADISON — Justice Rebecca Bradley said she was not surprised by Tuesday night's election results, warning that conservative candidates are falling behind Democrats in fundraising and voter turnout for nonpartisan state Supreme Court races.
The election will result in a 5-2 liberal majority on the court after Chris Taylor secured a 20-point victory over Maria Lazar.
Chris Taylor gives acceptance speech after winning seat on Wisconsin Supreme Court
Bradley predicted the election outcome when she decided not to seek re-election last year, noting the issue was not about the candidates themselves. She said she saw a change coming for conservative candidates years ago after she won in 2016, which factored into her decision not to run this year.
"I tried to warn people that we needed to be prepared to make changes and to be prepared for the infrastructure on the so-called other side to develop and grow. But my warnings went unheeded," Bradley said.
The infrastructure Bradley referenced is the need for nonpartisan races like the Wisconsin Supreme Court to rely on political parties for fundraising. She believes Democrats have done a better job at raising money and turning out votes.
Watch: Justice Bradley warns of conservative failures in state Supreme Court races
When I asked why she claimed last year, the conservative movement needs to take stock of its failure, identify the problem, and fix it, Bradley pointed to the party's infrastructure.
"I'm not sure how to fix it. I'm not a politician. I'm not in the political world," Bradley said.
"What I do know is that the Republican Party that tends to support conservative candidates for judicial office needs to have a better ground game and needs to have a strong fundraising mechanism," Bradley said.
Democrats believe it is money and messaging, and they point to election results from Tuesday night.
Philip Shulman, communications director for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said 19 counties that went red for Brad Schimel in 2025 swung blue in 2026 for Taylor, 11 of which are more rural counties.
Democrats also point to percentage gains in strongholds of Milwaukee and Dane County. Taylor made her support for women's reproductive rights and her previous work for Planned Parenthood as part of her campaign message.
When pressed on messaging versus money and whether or not the elections reflected voters' concerns with the current conservative court, Bradley said "she did not think so," adding that she thinks the court was "taken for granted a little bit."
Justice Bradley: Wisconsin court 'taken for granted' as political winds shift
"I think there are issues that are important to people that transcend alignments with political parties, and those are the voters that, among others, that candidates need to be able to speak to," Bradley said.
"It's difficult being a member of the judiciary because we are not supposed to talk about how we will rule on issues. We cannot talk about that, but the voters want to hear that, and it's troubling to me because that's not what our job is all about," Bradley said.
The state Supreme Court races in 2023 and 2025 broke records for the most expensive for any similar race in the country. It was a back-to-back record campaign spending with donations from out-of-state donors last year, including tech billionaire Elon Musk and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. Both races determined which way the court would lean.
Last year, Schimel raised and spent lots of money but was unable to cut into his liberal opponent's margin of victory. He lost by 10 points to Susan Crawford, just like the previous two state Supreme Court races.
Control of the court was not at stake this year, and the race cost less than $10 million, with Taylor raising and spending more than Lazar.
Bradley said her race a decade ago left her with a campaign debt.
"My campaign in 2016 ended with my campaign being in debt of about $66,000, and I cannot raise money directly as a judicial candidate. Our ethics rules prohibit that, so I rely on other people to do that for me, and I could not," Bradley said.
Bradley said another change for conservatives has been the changing landscape of conservative talk radio in Milwaukee, when Charlie Sykes and Mark Behling dominated the airwaves for Republicans.
"We have to have these alternative media outlets, and we just don't have them anymore," Bradley said.
The two remaining conservatives on the court are Annette Ziegler, who is not running next year, and Brian Hagedorn, who is up for re-election in 2029. Bradley is not optimistic about those races following four consecutive wins by Democratic-backed candidates.
I asked Bradley if she foresees the possibility that the court could reach a 7-0 liberal majority. "I saw it 10 years ago as a possibility," Bradley said.
"It's probable, but things can change very quickly in the political environment, and we'll see what happens, but it's a strong possibility," Bradley said.
This story was reported on-air by Charles Benson and has been converted to a longer version on this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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