There are a million reasons why Maria Lazar was crushed in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race last night, but as Dan O’Donnell writes, the main one is because she never really understood that this was a partisan election and needed to be treated as such.
Maria Lazar is an intelligent, highly effective judge with an exemplary record and a reputation for integrity and decency that is beyond reproach.
She also just ran one of the worst judicial campaigns in Wisconsin history.
Really, though, conservatives should have seen this coming months ago. Supreme Court elections in this state aren’t about personal qualifications or dedication to the Rule of Law and haven’t been for years. They’re about connecting with voters, presenting them with a clear vision of how a candidate can deliver for them, terrifying them of the alternative, and motivating them to turn out in huge numbers.
In other words, they’re just like every other election.
So why can’t conservative candidates grasp this? Lazar, like Daniel Kelly, Daniel Kelly again, Michael Screnock, and to some extent Brad Schimel before her treated their elections as an abstract philosophical debate rather than a street fight over real-world results. Voters don’t care about a candidate’s commitment to “judicial restraint” or soft-pedaled references to an opponent’s “activism.” They want to know how a conservative will fight and win for them over the intolerable excesses of the dangerous left.
Lazar avoided this at every turn, even declaring she was not a Republican and didn’t want President Trump’s endorsement. In a hyper-partisan environment, that’s akin to flat-out telling Trump’s voters that you don’t want their votes. It’s no surprise, then, that she didn’t get them.
Taylor, on the other hand, like Janet Protasiewicz, Rebecca Dallet, Jill Karofsky, and Susan Crawford before her, openly campaigned as a partisan Democrat and talked about liberals’ blessed sacrament of abortion every time she opened her mouth.
The result? Taylor, Protasiewicz, Dallet, Karofsky, and Crawford are all Supreme Court justices. Lazar, Kelly, Screnock, and Schimel are not.
Elections inherently draw clear battle lines, and if one general refuses to meet the opponent on the field, the war is lost before it ever really begins. Even a moment’s hesitation to attack hands the advantage to an opponent who will define both the stakes of the race and both candidates without apology or remorse. Taylor did, and so will the next liberal Supreme Court candidate and the next and the next and the next.
Conservatives could be staring at 7-0 liberal Court by April 2029 and, frankly, that outcome seems more likely than not. Until conservative judges understand that winning elections requires doing and saying the things required to win elections, the Court will be lost for generations.
Yes, Lazar was severely underfunded. Yes, donors determined well before she even got in the race that Taylor was all but assured of a victory (why else would Justice Rebecca Bradley announce her retirement a month after Taylor announced her candidacy?). And yes, the Republican Party of Wisconsin is still absolutely pathetic at raising money.
But she needed to give donors a reason to get excited, a reason to believe she could pull off the upset, a reason to think “maybe this candidate is good enough to do the impossible.” She never did.
Small turnout elections—like most Supreme Court elections, including last night’s, are—require hyper-focused, hyper-targeted messaging directly at a loyal, dedicated voter base. Liberals can rely on teachers’ unions and Madison lefties to turn out because every candidate talks directly to them and makes them explicit promises that they will overturn Act 10, gerrymander every map they can find, and personally perform abortions on the bench.
Is it any wonder why liberals turn out in droves and conservatives stay home? Lazar gave them no reason to come out. And no, “I’m a principled judge and my opponent isn’t” is not a reason for a voter to come out. It’s just white noise.
Conservatives will keep losing until they learn to cut through that noise and actually speak to and motivate their voter base. In other words, until they start treating elections like elections.
