A big part of winning Supreme Court elections is recruiting the right candidates, and a big part of that is developing a bench on the bench ready to run and win. Eric Brooks presents a deep dive into just how to do it.
The most recent Wisconsin Supreme Court election should serve as a wake-up call for Republicans across the state. GOP-backed candidate Maria Lazar lost to liberal Chris Taylor by 20 points—a decisive defeat that capped off nearly a decade of struggles in statewide judicial races. Lazar was a historically bad candidate, losing 7 of Wisconsin’s 8 congressional districts, including the 7th Congressional, which Donald Trump had carried by more than 20 points just two years earlier. It was the worst Supreme Court blowout in more than three decades, when Janine Geske received 77.2% of the vote over William Pangman–long before judicial races became the high-dollar, high-stakes spectacles they’ve become in recent years.
Unfortunately, many of our conservative candidates–like Lazar–continue to campaign like that era still exists, and it’s precisely why they have lost 5 of the last 6 Supreme Court races by double digits.
What this race ultimately revealed is not just a bad cycle or unfavorable political winds, but a fundamental mismatch in how the two parties approach judicial elections.
Democrats have fully adapted to the modern reality that these races are political, high-stakes, and increasingly nationalized. They campaign accordingly—leaning into issues, energizing their base, and attracting significant outside funding. Republicans, by contrast, too often approach these races as if they are still low-key, professional contests focused on legal credentials and judicial philosophy. Conservative candidates continue to emphasize “judicial restraint” and the “proper role of a judge,” while their opponents are speaking directly to voters about issues that drive turnout.
The result is predictable. One side is running to win elections, while the other is running to satisfy the expectations of the legal community. Simply put, Democrats run these elections as if they were running to be President. Republicans run them as if they were running to be President of the Bar Association, catering their message to the legal community rather than Republican voters whose votes they need to win.
That disconnect has real consequences, and it has now cost Republicans control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court through at least 2030.
The Candidate Quality Problem
While much has been made about the litany of legitimate issues plaguing the Republican Party of Wisconsin, the reality is this: candidate quality matters. Yes, fundraising disparities are real, particularly as liberal candidates benefit from national donor networks that view state supreme courts as critical battlegrounds. Yes, turnout dynamics also shift significantly when Donald Trump is not on the ballot, making it harder for Republicans to replicate their performance in presidential years.
But even with those challenges, none of that matters when the candidate is completely unwilling to run the type of race that is needed to motivate voters (and donors) to believe in her.
And that brings us to an uncomfortable but necessary point. Republicans did not field a candidate who could effectively compete in the current environment. Maria Lazar openly told Republican voters–who already struggle to turn out in April elections–that she is not a Republican or a conservative. Unsurprisingly, those voters did not feel compelled to support her.
The question that inevitably follows every loss—“Who else is there?”—does not have a reassuring answer at the moment.
While the elections of two young, conservative judges in Anthony LoCoco and Grant Scaife this past Tuesday bring me a lot of hope for the future, they haven’t even been sworn in yet. The Waukesha County Circuit Court bench is stacked with a number of up-and-coming trial court judges, but are they ready to take that big of a leap this quickly? Appellate Court Judge Shelley Grogan has long been considered a potential Supreme Court option, but she is up for re-election in 2027 and would have to give up her appellate court seat to run. Would she take that risk after just seeing her appellate court colleague get trounced by 20 points?
Growing The Bench
This lack of clarity over who runs next points to a more systemic issue. If Republicans want to regain a majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the solution will not come from simply finding a better candidate at the top of the ticket. It must begin with a long-term strategy to rebuild the party’s bench from the ground up—and that means focusing on local judicial and District Attorney races that have been largely ignored.
Across Wisconsin, Republicans are consistently winning counties at the federal and state level, often by wide margins. Yet in many of those same counties, key positions within the justice system are held by liberal judges and left-leaning DAs.
According to my analysis of all 261 circuit court seats in Wisconsin, at least 45% of circuit court judgeships in counties that President Trump won in 2024 are currently held by liberal judges. This includes Lyndsey Boon-Brunette, a liberal Clark County judge who considered running for Supreme Court this year–but who instead stepped aside for Taylor, with the expectation that Boon-Brunette will run for the Ziegler seat being vacated next year. Trump won Clark County by 39 percentage points in 2024, giving Boon-Brunette a platform to masquerade as a rural moderate who knows how to win in Trump Country.
In addition to the judgeships, nearly 40% of District Attorneys offices in Republican counties are held by Democrats or left-leaning DAs. Since taking office in January of 2019, Governor Tony Evers has appointed 29 of the 71 DAs in Wisconsin (Menominee County shares a DA with Shawano). That means that Evers, in the course of 8 years, has appointed more than 40% of all District Attorneys in the State of Wisconsin–with many of those appointments coming in overwhelmingly conservative areas.
This is especially problematic when you consider that many of these DAs, or their assistant district attorneys, end up running for the judgeships in the county down the road.
But here’s the worst part: nearly all of these liberals go completely unopposed, essentially giving themselves lifetime appointments while voters aren’t given an alternative that better represents their values.
In 2024, 94% of District Attorney races went unopposed. Three races (Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington Counties) had contested primary elections to determine the next DA while Kenosha County was the only county in the state to have a contested general election, with Republican Xavier Solis upsetting Carli McNeill.
The numbers aren’t much better for circuit court races, with only 6 out of the 23 circuit court races this April being contested, with 3 of them being open seats. Of the 3 incumbents who saw challengers this spring, only one was defeated–Gordon Leech, an Evers appointee in Washington County who was defeated soundly by conservative Grant Scaife.
This lack of electoral accountability has real-world consequences. In Lincoln County, for example, a liberal judge elected unopposed in a heavily Republican area sentenced a violent offender to no jail time. Just four days after being released, that individual went on to commit a fatal act of violence. While no single case tells the entire story, it illustrates the broader point: when these positions go uncontested, the outcomes—both legal and electoral—are shaped without meaningful input from the communities they serve.
Why Republicans Aren’t Competing
To be fair, recruiting candidates for these roles is not without challenges. In many rural parts of the state, the pool of eligible attorneys is limited, and running for a judgeship or district attorney position often requires a significant pay cut compared to private practice. For many conservative lawyers, those financial considerations are a real deterrent.
But the reality is that Democrats are not allowing those barriers to stop them. They are willing to relocate, accept lower salaries, and run in conservative areas in order to advance their priorities. Because they are playing the long game.
Building the Pipeline Back
Republicans desperately need to start placing a premium on these local judicial and DA races. If we continue to just hand these seats to the left without a fight, the consequences will extend far beyond individual counties. Democrats have built a deeper and more experienced bench of judicial candidates simply because Republicans have allowed them to. Every uncontested DA race, every unchallenged circuit court seat, becomes part of a pipeline that eventually feeds into appellate courts and, ultimately, the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Reversing that trend will require a deliberate and sustained effort. The Republican Party, along with aligned legal and policy organizations, must begin treating these local races as strategic priorities. That means actively identifying potential candidates, recruiting them early, providing the necessary support to run viable campaigns, and ensuring that conservative voters are aware of the stakes in these elections. It also means learning the lessons of failed Supreme Court candidates and running the types of issues driven, political elections that these races demand.
The Path Forward
There is no reason why counties that consistently deliver overwhelming victories for Republican candidates should be represented by liberal judges and prosecutors. That is not an inevitable outcome; it is the result of neglect.
The path back to a conservative majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court will not be decided solely in the next high-profile statewide race. It will be built over time, in courtrooms and district attorney offices across the state, by candidates who have proven themselves in competitive elections and demonstrated a commitment to applying the law faithfully while staying true to conservative values.
Candidates like Grant Scaife in Washington County proved that this is possible–while Lazar ran away from Republican voters, Scaife actively embraced them by wearing his conservatism on his sleeve.
If Republicans are serious about retaking the court, they must start by showing up where it matters most. That means contesting every race possible, no matter how small it may seem, and investing in the kind of long-term bench-building that Democrats have already embraced.
Because if they don’t, the next generation of Supreme Court candidates will already be chosen—and it won’t be conservatives making those choices.
Eric Brooks is a longtime conservative grassroots activist and a member of the Waukesha Board of Education. His views do not represent the views of the School District of Waukesha.
