Overview

Wisconsin voters sent a clear message in this year’s Supreme Court race when they elected Judge Chris Taylor by a commanding 20-point margin. Voters showed a strong preference for consensus-builders who will protect freedoms and oppose — not enable — federal overreach, rejecting an extremist who tried to throw out Wisconsinites’ votes and supported attacks on abortion rights.

Tuesday night’s results are the latest in a trend of state-level overperformances here in Wisconsin and around the country. As Democratic enthusiasm overpowers the same brand of far-right extremism that has defined Tom Tiffany’s career in politics and now his campaign for governor, Wisconsin Republicans should be sounding every alarm.

By the Numbers

This election showed that Democratic enthusiasm continued to grow while Republicans failed to match it — particularly in Democratic strongholds and critical bellwether counties — an ongoing trend and a strong sign of momentum heading into November’s closely-watched gubernatorial election. This is the same dynamic that carried Governor Tony Evers to an upset victory over incumbent Scott Walker in 2018. 

  • As of now, 19 counties that went red in 2025 have swung blue, 18 of which are rural counties and vital to Tom Tiffany’s electoral prospects.
  • Democrats flipped and added over 6% to their vote share compared to 2025 in Marathon County, the most populous county in Tom Tiffany’s congressional district.
  • Democratic strongholds of Milwaukee and Dane County increased their Democratic vote share.
  • Democrats picked up:
    • 11.5% of the vote from the reddest county in the 2025 SCOWIS race 
    • A minimum of 3.6% of the vote in each of the famous WOW counties
      • Democrats won Ozaukee County for the first time since 1964
    • A minimum 5.4% of the vote in each of the BOW counties
  • Democrats increased their vote share by 6.3% and 2.4% in the purple swing counties of Kenosha and Racine, respectively.
  • Democrats also won a number of down-ballot races in red areas, including the Waukesha mayoral race.

The Issues that Defeated Lazar Will be Tom Tiffany’s Downfall

Federal Overreach and High Costs: In this election, voters resoundingly endorsed Judge Chris Taylor’s commitment to resisting the federal overreach that is jacking up costs, killing jobs, and denying hardworking families access to health care and food assistance.

As a member of Congress, Tom Tiffany has supported this costly and disastrous agenda at every turn. Tiffany has enthusiastically backed the tariffs that have sent costs soaring and are driving Wisconsin farm bankruptcies to their highest levels in years. And he vocally supported Republicans’ budget law that is gutting Medicaid and SNAP, praising it as “a major win for the American people.” Wisconsin families showed again Tuesday night that they are looking for solutions to the high costs imposed by Tom Tiffany and national Republicans, and that extremists promoting more federal overreach are not welcome in Wisconsin.

Abortion: With abortion rights now being decided by individual states, voters have consistently and decisively backed candidates who will protect personal freedoms and Wisconsin is no exception. Maria Lazar’s hostility to reproductive rights, including saying she would have upheld the state’s pre-Civil War abortion ban and even more extreme restrictions, proved a serious liability. Tom Tiffany’s stance is even more extreme.

In 2022, he co-sponsored a national abortion ban that restricted the procedure, without exceptions for victims of rape or incest, before most women even know they’re pregnant and has already threatened that as governor he would “evaluate” legislation that would tighten Wisconsin’s abortion restrictions. As Wisconsin Republicans continue to push new limits on abortion rights, this issue remains top of mind for voters who want to see their rights protected.

Democracy: Team Tiffany should also be sounding the alarm that Wisconsinites rejected another of his fellow election-deniers Tuesday night. Just like how in 2020, Lazar tried to disenfranchise voters by giving away their personal records — a decision that was overturned by the conservative Supreme Court 5-2 — Tiffany voted to overturn the election results in Congress and was the sole member of the Wisconsin delegation to sign onto an amicus brief that would have thrown out Wisconsin’s electoral results.

Tiffany is a vocal cheerleader of Trump’s takeover of state elections, undermining Wisconsinites’ right to make their voices heard at the ballot box. He supports turning over Wisconsin voters’ unredacted personal information to the federal government, and — despite voting absentee a dozen times — eliminating the mail-in voting that many Wisconsinites depend on, including seniors and people in rural communities.

What this means for the Gubernatorial Race

Every year since 2018, Wisconsin Democrats have capitalized on our spring elections to strengthen our party infrastructure, jumpstart our fundraising, and build momentum to win in November. The same goes for our competitive August primary, which creates opportunities for our candidates to refine their message, engage more voters, build enthusiasm around the race, and broaden our coalition — just like we saw with Gov. Evers’ victory in 2018.

Republicans have not learned this lesson. Their last campaign finance report in the Supreme Court race had just sixteen donors, and they continue to field extreme candidates whose out-of-touch positions alienate independent and moderate voters. Tom Tiffany is no exception. For the next eight months he will have to face nonstop questions about his extensive baggage and his agenda that would drag Wisconsin backwards while doing nothing to lower costs.

Now, as Trump hit his lowest approval numbers ever in the 28 Marquette Law polls that have asked this question, Tiffany will also have to face the additional headwinds of having unequivocally backed policies in Washington that have resulted in surging costs, a deepening health care crisis, economic disruptions that have hurt businesses and workers, the worst uptick in farm bankruptcies in decades, and chaos and uncertainty across Wisconsin.

Don’t Forget about the Dynamics of the 2018 Gubernatorial Election

As it stands, Republicans are claiming that a seven-way Democratic primary is leaving their lone candidate Tom Tiffany at a massive advantage. 

In 2018, GOP incumbent Scott Walker had a political operation behind him that had dominated Wisconsin politics for a decade. The Democrats were facing the same situation they are today: a wide-open primary with no clear frontrunner. But eight years later, Tony Evers is passing the torch at a time when Democrats have moved the court from 5-2 minority to a 5-2 majority and are on the brink of a blue trifecta for the first time since 2008.

The state party is also in a far stronger position and is running the Governor Readiness Program, which is creating the infrastructure and raising the funds the primary winner will need the moment they become the nominee.

Primaries have proven to be healthy for Democrats in Wisconsin, who have won 18 of the last 23 statewide races. While Tom Tiffany may enjoy an “easy” primary season, he has an enormous amount of baggage that can be the singular focus of the entire Democratic field.

Conclusion

Judge Chris Taylor’s resounding victory is the latest sign that Democrats are fired up and continuing to build momentum – and our party infrastructure has never been stronger. By contrast, Tom Tiffany will continue to be dragged down by his extreme positions and by Republicans’ cost crisis and attacks on health care that continue to make this an incredibly hostile political environment for Republican candidates. We stand ready to make sure that voters know who Tom Tiffany is, and we’re confident that our momentum will translate into a strong win for a Democratic nominee, so that we can hold this seat and secure a blue trifecta in November 2026