One Year After Musk's Wisconsin Spending Blitz, the State's Supreme Court Race Falls Quiet
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race could have spurred another bank-breaking election cycle. Instead, national super donors have kept their pocketbooks closed, and with only a month until the election, the liberal candidate appears to be sailing ahead in contributions.
Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judge Chris Taylor, the liberal candidate, has raised more than $3.8 million over the past year, compared to the $438,000 conservative candidate Maria Lazar, who is also an appellate judge, has brought in.
The low-key nature of this year’s race is a sharp reversal from the 2025 state Supreme Court contest, when Elon Musk and Turning Point Action, among others, poured more than $100 million into the conservative candidate Brad Schimel’s campaign. Schimel lost to Susan Crawford, maintaining the liberal majority on the court in what was the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history.
But the financial landscape of the election is not a done deal, both camps say.
https://www.notus.org/2026-election/wisconsin-state-supreme-court-race-musk-spending