Takeaways from a pointed Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate debate

Listen to this article

In Brief:

• Maria Lazar calls Chris Taylor a radical extreme legislator.
• Chris Taylor criticizes Lazar for overturning rulings.
• Abortion and Planned Parenthood ties central to debate.
• Candidates clash over voter ID law and 2020 election.

Better late than never.

With just five days to go until the state Supreme Court election, candidates Maria Lazar and Chris Taylor met for their first and only debate – and repeatedly clashed on issues including partisanship, abortion and their own records.

The April 2 debate came a week later than initially planned. Hours before the debate was set to begin on March 25, Taylor went to the emergency room and was diagnosed with kidney stones.

Then Thursday night’s rescheduled debate was delayed by an hour due to severe weather, including tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings.

The stark differences between the candidates quickly emerged during the sometimes testy debate, which was held at WISN-TV Channel 12 studios in Milwaukee.

The winner of the April 7 election will be elected to a 10-year term on the state’s highest court. Early voting started on March 24.

Liberals currently hold a 4-3 majority on the Supreme Court, and will maintain a majority on the court regardless of who wins. A Taylor victory in April would extend the liberal majority to 5-2, while a win by Lazar, the conservative candidate in the race, would maintain the current 4-3 split.

Here are some takeaways from the hourlong debate:

Both candidates paint their opponent as a partisan extremist

During the debate, Lazar accused Taylor of being a liberal activist who would legislate from the bench – at one point calling her a “radical extreme legislator.”

“We need a judge who loves the law, not a judge who loves their causes or their beliefs or their agendas,” Lazar said.

Taylor pushed back hard, accusing Lazar of being the one trying to push her conservative views.

“Judge Lazar is the only person in this race who has brought an extreme right-wing political agenda to the bench,” Taylor said. “She has refused to follow precedent.”

Taylor criticized Lazar over several of her rulings that have been overturned, echoing comments that she’s made throughout the campaign.

Lazar and Taylor clashed throughout the debate, but in their closing arguments they did seem to agree on one thing – how polar opposite they are on just about every issue.

“I hope that the viewers saw a huge difference between myself and my opponent,” Taylor said.

It’s safe to say those differences were on full display.

Abortion remains a key issue in the race

Taylor, a state appeals court judge from Madison, previously worked as law and policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin – a major reproductive health care provider and abortion rights group. She has repeatedly said she agreed with last year’s state Supreme Court decision invalidating Wisconsin’s 1849 law that banned abortions in nearly every situation.

Lazar, a state appeals court judge from Waukesha County, personally opposes abortion but has said that she would uphold Wisconsin’s current 20-week abortion ban.

During the debate, Taylor tore into Lazar over her past comments that the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortion legal nationwide was “very wise” because it sent the issue back to the states.

“It’s not been very wise for victims of rape and incest who now live in states where [abortion is banned],” Taylor said. “It’s not been very wise for women who’ve lost their lives in states because they couldn’t get help when a pregnancy went wrong.”

Lazar, in turn, called on Taylor to recuse herself in cases involving Planned Parenthood. Taylor refused, saying she hadn’t worked for the organization in 15 years. She said she would make recusal decisions on a case-by-case basis.

Clashes over voter ID and the 2020 election

Lazar criticized Taylor over her past opposition to the state’s voter ID law.

“We have to uphold the voter ID law that the citizens of the state passed overwhelmingly,” Lazar said. “And I also would note that when my opponent was in the Legislature, she did her best to dismantle those protections for our safe and fair elections.”

Taylor quickly said, “That is not true.”

“I did everything in my power as a legislator to make sure that people had the ability to vote,” Taylor said.

She pointed to endorsements that Lazar had gotten in past races from conservatives who sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which President Donald Trump lost to former President Joe Biden.

Lazar said she could not be held responsible for the views of everyone who has endorsed her.

And she distanced herself from 2020 election deniers, saying that Biden beat Trump.

“Our election was valid, that Joe Biden did win,” Lazar said. “I support that 100%. And I think we should be looking forward, not back.

Taylor has been a judge since she was appointed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to the Dane County Circuit Court bench in 2020. She previously served for nine years in the state Legislature and was known as one of the more liberal members. Before joining the state Assembly in 2011, Taylor served as public policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.

She’s been a judge on the Madison-based District IV Court of Appeals since 2023.

Lazar has been on the Waukesha-based District 2 Court of Appeals since 2022. She previously served as a Waukesha County judge, an assistant attorney general under Republican Attorneys General J.B. Van Hollen and Brad Schimel, and as an attorney in private practice.