Liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Chris Taylor seems to be benefiting from her voters’ erroneous belief that control of the Court is at stake this election.
Left-wing Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Chris Taylor is the beneficiary of a huge enthusiasm gap ahead of the April 7th election. A Marquette University Law School poll released Tuesday reveals that Democrats are far more likely to vote.
77% say they are absolutely certain to vote, while only 59% of Republicans and 53% of independents say the same.
Similarly, 51% of Democrats are very enthusiastic about voting for Taylor and other liberal candidates in the Spring Election, while just 32% of Republicans and 19% of independents can say the same.
What could possibly explain this massive gap? Are Democrats just that much more civic-minded or perhaps more motivated to vote since their party does not control the White House (generally the prime driver of turnout in midterm election years)?
Maybe not. It’s entirely likely that they wrongly believe that this Supreme Court election will decide the Court’s ideological balance. 75% of registered voters told pollsters that they thought whomever won this year’s race would determine control of the Court.
In reality, liberals will hold a 4-3 majority even if the conservative Lazar wins. Their majority will move to 5-2 if the leftist Taylor is victorious.
The Marquette poll did not release crosstabs on the ideological makeup of those who incorrectly believe this race will decide control of the Court, but it would stand to reason that far more Democrats and liberal-leaning independents think so since they are so much more motivated to vote and so many more of them than Republicans say they are absolutely certain to vote.
This is a huge boon to Taylor, and it’s reflected in her strong polling throughout this race. Tuesday’s poll shows her leading 30%-22% among likely voters, although 46% remain undecided.
Lazar has a real opportunity to make up that gap in the final days of the race, but she will have to combat the weaponized ignorance of the political left in order to do so. As long as Taylor voters wrongly believe that they must vote to preserve their liberal majority, they will be far more motivated than Lazar voters to actually get to the polls.
That’s a pretty powerful metaphor for the state of politics today: Democrats win when their voters are uninformed enoough to vote for them!
