With support from wealthy folks from across the country, the political Left’s candidate state Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor of Madison is outraising her opponent by more than 6-1, spooking conservatives who hope to hold the seat.
State Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor of Madison has reported raising nearly $5.6 million since she announced her candidacy in May of 2025, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which tracks political spending. That dwarfs the fundraising haul of the political right’s candidate, Maria Lazar, also a state Court of Appeals judge in Waukesha. Lazar, who announced her candidacy in October, has reported raising about $900,000.
Taylor was elected to the state Assembly in 2011 and reelected there until 2020, when Gov. Tony Evers appointed her to the Dane County Circuit Court. In 2023, she was elected, running unopposed, to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District IV, which covers 24 counties in southwestern Wisconsin, including Dane.
Wisconsin Democrats have dominated fundraising in recent years, as the state party has built a successful national machine. Perhaps unsurprisingly, candidates on the Left have thrashed candidates on the Right in races for state Supreme Court in recent years, winning by more than ten points in each of the last three elections.
While state law caps donations from individuals to candidates for state Supreme Court at $20,000 per election cycle, political parties in Wisconsin are not capped and can receive unlimited amounts from wealthy donors and then give unlimited amounts to political candidates. The Republican-controlled state Legislature could place caps on donations to and from political parties, but has not.
The 2026 race for Wisconsin Supreme Court is drawing much less attention – and money – than the race for the court last year, which saw more than $100 million raised and spent as the ideological majority of the court was at stake, and Elon Musk injected millions unsuccessfully trying to swing the election to the candidate on the political Right.
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DONATERaces for the Wisconsin Supreme Court are technically nonpartisan, but both major political parties back their preferred candidate. The open seat on the 7-justice state Supreme Court is being vacated by the retiring Justice Rebecca Bradley, a conservative stalwart. If Democrats flip the seat, the political Left will improve its majority on the court to 5-2. Republicans holding it will maintain the ideological balance of 4-3 in favor of the left-leaning justices.
The general election is Tuesday, April 7. Eligible voters can register to vote on the day of the election by proving their residence and showing a government-issued ID.
TOP DONORS TO TAYLOR
| Name | City, State | Notes | Amount |
| Democratic Party of Wisconsin | Madison WI | Political parties in Wisconsin can give unlimited amounts to candidates | $370k |
| Adelaide Gomer | Ithaca, NY | An heiress to the Park Communications and Duncan Hines fortunes | $20,000 |
| Alida Messinger | Saint Paul, MN | An heir to the Rockefeller family fortune | $20,000 |
| Laurits Christensen | Madison, WI | UW-Madison Economist | $20,000 |
| Beatrice Christensen | Madison, WI | Retired, wife of Laurits Christensen | $20,000 |
| Bonnie Potter | New York, NY | President of the Lester Fund, an anti-poverty nonprofit | $20,000 |
| Timothy Burns | Middleton, WI | Attorney | $20,000 |
| Chris Stolte | Seattle, WA | Founder of Tableau, the data visualization company | $20,000 |
| Clifford Burnstein | New York, NY | Co-founder of music management company Q-Prime | $20,000 |
| Gwendolyn Sontheim | Rancho Santa Fe, CA | Heir of Cargill fortune (great-great-grandfather was founder of Cargill) | $20,000 |
| John Miller | Fox Point, WI | Secretary & CEO of Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation | $20,000 |
| Lynde Uihlein | Milwaukee, WI | philanthropist, heiress to the Schlitz brewing fortune | $20,000 |
| Lynn Schusterman | Tulsa, OK | Wife of late oil billionaire Charles Schusterman | $20,000 |
| Stacy Schusterman | Tulsa, OK | Daughter of late oil billionaire Charles Schusterman | $20,000 |
| Sheldon Lubar | Milwaukee, WI | Founder and Chairman of Lubar & Co., a private investment firm | $20,000 |
| Marianne Lubar | River Hills, WI | Philanthropist, wife of Sheldon Lubar | $20,000 |
| David Lubar | Milwaukee, WI | President and CEO of Lubar & Co., son of Sheldon and Marianne | $20,000 |
| Madeleine Lubar | Fox Point, WI | Nonprofit leader, wife of David Lubar | $20,000 |
| Joan Lubar | Milwaukee, WI | Nonprofit leader, daughter of Sheldon and Marianne | $20,000 |
| Susan Lubar-Solvang | Mequon, WI | Nonprofit leader, daughter of Sheldon and Marianne | $20,000 |
| Pat Stryker | Fort Collins, CO | Billionaire heiress to the Stryker Corporation, a medical technology company | $20,000 |
| Patricia Taylor | Madison, WI | Chris Taylor’s mother, retired teacher, now deceased | $20,000 |
| Peggy Hedberg | Madison, WI | Former CEO of Renovar, an architectural company | $20,000 |
| Scott Feldman | Madison, WI | Retired lawyer, Chris Taylor’s father-in-law | $20,000 |
| Scott Shenker | Berkeley, CA | Computer Science professor at UC Berkeley | $20,000 |
| Susan Crawford for Wisconsin | Madison, WI | Campaign committee of the Wisconsin Supreme Court justice | $20,000 |
| Timothy Burns | Middleton, WI | Insurance lawyer, partner at Bruns Bair LLP | $20,000 |
| William Connell | Lake Forest, IL | Former CFO of Duchossois Capital Management | $20,000 |
| Susan Sroka | Somerset, WI | Retired | $19,900 |
| AFSCME PEOPLE | Washington, DC | The labor union of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees | $18,000 |
| Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee | Washington, DC | official party committee dedicated to electing Democrats to statehouses | $18,000 |
| IBEW PAC Voluntary Fund | Washington, DC | Union for electrical workers | $18,000 |
| Justice PAC | Santa Ana, CA | Pro-democracy and pro-reproductive rights PAC | $18,000 |
| MTI Voters (Madison Teachers Inc) | Madison, WI | Madison teachers’ union | $18,000 |
| Operating Engineers 139 PAC | Pewaukee, WI | Union for heavy equipment operators in construction industry | $18,000 |
| SEIU Wisconsin State Council PAC | Madison, WI | Service Employees International Union | $18,000 |
| UFCW Active Ballot Club General Fund | Washington, DC | Union for grocery workers and other related jobs | $18,000 |
| WEAC PAC | Madison, WI | Wisconsin teachers’ union | $18,000 |
| WI Laborers District Council | DeForest, WI | Former Attorney General Eric Holder serves as chairman of this org which focuses on redistricting and is affiliated with the Democrats | $18,000 |
| WI Pipe Trades PAC | Madison, WI | Piping industry union | $18,000 |
| WI State Council of Carpenters | Madison, WI | Carpenters’ union | $18,000 |
| Deborah Kern | Fox Point, WI | Retail owner, philanthropist | $15,000 |
| National Democratic Redistricting PAC | Washington, DC | Retired professor in electrical engineering, inventor of the McClellan transform and co-author of the Parks–McClellan filter design algorithm | $13,016 |
| Thomas Neujahr | Madison, WI | Founder of Urban Land Interests, a property management company | $12,500 |
| Mark Thomsen | Milwaukee, WI | Lawyer at Gingras, Thomsen, & Wachs | $10,745 |
| Gordon Johnson | Berlin, WI | Owner of Brain Injury Law Group | $10,500 |
| Andrew Beck | New York City, NY | Former hedge fund D.E. Shaw Group’s investor relations head | $10,000 |
| Arthur Lipson | Salt Lake City, UT | CIO for Western Investment LLC, an investment advisory firm | $10,000 |
| David Gruber | Fox Point, WI | Founder and CEO of Gruber Law Offices | $10,000 |
| James McClennen | Harwich, MA | Retired professor in electrical engineering, inventor | $10,000 |
| Joel Rogers | Madison, WI | Professor of law, political science, public affairs and sociology at UW-Madison | $10,000 |
| Joseph Kaempfer | McLean, VA | Founder and chairman of McArthurGlen, a British shopping mall operator | $10,000 |
| Karen Walsh | Madison, WI | Regent President, University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents | $10,000 |
| Kurt Sroka | Somerset, WI | Retired, philanthropist | $10,000 |
| Linda Hughes | Madison, WI | Heir of Bell Laboratories, a pest control company, now owned by Berkshire Hathaway | $10,000 |
| Marilynn Duker | Pikesville, MD | Co-Chair, Brightview Senior Living | $10,000 |
| Martin Schreiber | Milwaukee, WI | Former lieutenant governor and interim governor of Wisconsin | $10,000 |
| Michael Booth | Baltimore, MD | $10,000 | |
| Molly Munger | Pasadena, CA | Daughter of Charlie Munger, former vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway | $10,000 |
| Peter Mensch | New York, NY | Co-founder of music management company Q-Prime | $10,000 |
| Randall Rozek | Milwaukee, WI | Personal injury lawyer, Rozek Law Offices, S.C. | $10,000 |
| Robert E Haselow | Edina, MI | Founder of Minneapolis Radiation Oncology | $10,000 |
| Stephen English | Pasadena, CA | Retired attorney of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius | $10,000 |
| Stuart Ellison | Chicago, IL | Corporate finance and development | $10,000 |
| Lisa Minsky | New York, NY | Physician, philanthropist | $10,000 |
| Yaron Minsky | New York, NY | Co-head of Technology at Jane Street Capital, a private trading firm | $10,000 |
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