{"id":71135,"date":"2026-04-07T21:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T02:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/liberals-tighten-grip-on-battleground-state-supreme-court-in-low-key-but-high-stakes-election\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T21:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T02:55:14","slug":"liberals-tighten-grip-on-battleground-state-supreme-court-in-low-key-but-high-stakes-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/liberals-tighten-grip-on-battleground-state-supreme-court-in-low-key-but-high-stakes-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberals tighten grip on battleground state Supreme Court in low-key but high-stakes election"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Liberals expanded their majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/elections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an election Tuesday<\/a>, strengthening control in a key battleground state, in a ballot box showdown that drew limited nation attention but had plenty riding on the results.<\/p>\n<p>Wisconsin Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor, a former democratic state representative, defeated Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar, a conservative, the Associated Press reports.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor will succeed a retiring conservative justice and with the victory, liberals will expand their majority on the state Supreme Court to 5-2.<\/p>\n<p>While officially a non-partisan contest, state Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/midwest\/wisconsin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">elections in Wisconsin<\/a> have become extremely partisan in recent election cycles.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/primary-pause-political-firestorm-high-stakes-elections-month-take-center-stage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>PRIMARY PAUSE, POLITICAL FIRESTORM: HIGH-STAKES ELECTIONS THIS MONTH TAKE CENTER STAGE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>With the court&#8217;s majority on the line in last year&#8217;s contest, outside money poured in and out-of-state door knockers blanketed Wisconsin. One of the biggest spenders was Trump ally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/person\/elon-musk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elon Musk<\/a>, who headlined a rally days before the election and donned a cheesehead hat worn by fans of the Green Bay Packers. Musk also personally handed out $1 million checks to voters.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/elections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The liberal candidate won that election by a larger-than-expected margin to capture a 4-3 majority on the state Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>Since the majority wasn&#8217;t at stake in this year&#8217;s showdown, the campaign battle wasn&#8217;t showered with national resources, money, or attention.<\/p>\n<p>Liberals took control of the state Supreme Court in 2023, ending a decade and a half of conservative control. Since taking the majority, the liberals have reversed several election-related rulings by the prior conservative majority, including one that banned absentee ballot drop boxes.<\/p>\n<p>This year&#8217;s campaign focused on abortion rights, congressional redistricting, and union rights cases that will likely come in front of the state Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>The judicial ballot box showdown also came six months ahead of November&#8217;s elections, when Democrats in Wisconsin aim to keep control of the governor&#8217;s office and potentially flip the state legislature, which Republicans have controlled for 15 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liberals expanded their majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in an election Tuesday, strengthening control in a key battleground state, in a ballot box showdown that drew limited nation attention but had plenty riding on the results. Wisconsin Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor, a former democratic state representative, defeated Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar, a &#8230; <a title=\"Liberals tighten grip on battleground state Supreme Court in low-key but high-stakes election\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/liberals-tighten-grip-on-battleground-state-supreme-court-in-low-key-but-high-stakes-election\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Liberals tighten grip on battleground state Supreme Court in low-key but high-stakes election\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}