Conservative Supreme Court candidate Maria Lazar announced she’s raised more than $200,000 over the past three months. That’s one-tenth of what liberal rival Chris Taylor pulled in for the full six-month reporting period.
Lazar, a judge on the 2nd District Court of Appeals, released her topline number ahead of the Jan. 15 filing deadline hours after Taylor, a judge on the 4th District Court of Appeals, put out hers Wednesday.
Neither candidate said how much they spent during the most recent reporting period, which ends Dec. 31, or what they had for cash on hand to end the year.
Lazar got into the race in October after fellow conservative Rebecca Bradley announced she wouldn’t seek another 10-year term. Taylor launched her bid in May and has pulled in $2.6 million overall.
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Lazar campaign spokesperson Nathan Conrad said Taylor’s head start came from “the same old political machines” while saying the conservative is building a “new style of campaign” that will prioritize “face-to-face dialogue over expensive TV attack ads.”
Taylor’s campaign didn’t immediately comment on Lazar’s fundraising figures. In announcing her numbers, Taylor campaign manager Ashley Franz said they weren’t taking anything for granted.
“Last year we saw right-wing billionaires spend tens of millions to buy a seat on the Court and we know Maria Lazar will call on them to do the same this time around,” she said, a reference to Elon Musk’s involvement in the 2025 campaign.
This year’s race isn’t expected to top the $115 million that was spent on last year’s contest as Susan Crawford locked up liberals’ 4-3 majority through at least 2028. Conservatives would need to win this spring to give them a shot at winning back the majority in two years. Otherwise, liberals would be in line to hold onto their edge through at least 2030.
Taylor is close to the record fundraising place that Crawford set for her 2025 campaign.
Taylor’s haul of more than $2 million for the July through December period trails only the $2.4 million that Crawford reported last year for a similar period. It was the top July-to-December period for any Supreme Court candidate heading into a spring election.
Crawford’s fundraising total for that period included a $1 million transfer from the state Dem Party, but Taylor’s campaign said she won’t report any money from WisDems.
A year ago, conservative Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel reported nearly $1.5 million raised in the last half of 2024. But he got into the race in November 2023 and continued to fundraise through all of 2024.
A closer comparison for Lazar’s number is conservative Daniel Kelly’s comeback bid in 2023. He lost his seat on the court in 2020 after then-Gov. Scott Walker had appointed him to the bench. He then launched a campaign in early September 2022 for an open spot on the court in 2023. Between that launch and the end of 2022, he reported $313,971 in receipts.
