Anti-Trans Attack Ads Fail Again As Wisconsin Liberal Wins Supreme Court By Historic 20-Point Margin

Chris Taylor's win comes despite Maria Lazar's ads focused on transgender sports participation.

USA Today

On Tuesday, Judge Chris Taylor defeated Judge Maria Lazar in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race by 20 points, the largest margin in 26 years by any justice. The race is significant because Lazar ran on a heavily anti-trans ad strategy, reminiscent of the strategy used by some Republicans in the 2024 election—running ads that demonized transgender people as threats to the "safety and dreams" of children. When conservatives attacked Taylor's pro-LGBTQ+ legislative record, including bills she authored supporting transgender rights, she did not disavow or distance herself from it. Despite the ads, Taylor won by a historic margin, following two other Wisconsin Supreme Court races in recent years where anti-trans ad strategy was a major part of the losing campaign.

Lazar ran on a heavy anti-trans strategy. One ad opened with a mother saying, "It's just not fair. My daughter worked so hard and loves sports, but now I'm worried about her competing against boys because of activists like Chris Taylor. It breaks my heart to see her safety and dreams dashed by activist politicians." Lazar herself posted on twitter that Taylor would "legislate from the bench to knock down voter ID, allow abortion up to birth, and allow boys in girls' sports." The Federalist ran articles targeting Taylor's pro-transgender legislative record, including bills she authored for a transgender rights task force. Despite all of this, Lazar lost by a historic 20-point margin.

See an example of the ads here:

Instead, Chris Taylor cruised to victory. She won 60-40—a 20-point margin that represents the largest margin of victory in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race since 2000. Her win expands the liberal majority to 5-2, the largest liberal majority on the court since at least the 1970s. Taylor carried more than 20 counties that voted for Donald Trump in 2024, and virtually every county in the state swung toward Democrats compared to the presidential race. Perhaps most remarkably, Taylor flipped Ozaukee County—part of the notorious "WOW counties" (Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington) that have been the bedrock of Republican strength in southeastern Wisconsin for decades. In Dane County, Taylor hit 84%, meaning Lazar received just 16%—the worst performance by a conservative candidate in the county's history.

Shift in margin map, NYT

LGBTQ+ organizations praised the results. Fair Wisconsin posted a simple message to their Facebook page: "Thank you for voting for equality, Wisconsin!" The Movement Victory Project, a coalition partner of Fair Wisconsin, praised the victory and thanked the organization for "providing regular voting information and education, including a guide to voting while trans." The ACLU likewise praised the result, stating, "Tonight Wisconsinites proved that no matter what's going on at the federal level, we can have the greatest impact in our own state and communities."

Taylor's win is significant for LGBTQ+ rights in the state. Wisconsin Republicans have repeatedly tried to pass anti-transgender legislation, though Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed every bill that has reached his desk—including, just last week, five anti-trans bills he vetoed on Trans Day of Visibility. But Evers will not be governor forever; he is not seeking reelection in 2026. Meanwhile, the Trump administration's pressure campaign has already reached Wisconsin: in January, both Children's Wisconsin and UW Health—two of the state's largest pediatric hospitals—paused gender-affirming care for minors, despite having no legal obligation to do so, after the administration threatened to strip Medicare and Medicaid funding from providers. Congressman Mark Pocan urged both hospitals to resume care, calling the pause premature. Colleges across the country have also capitulated to Trump's demands to ban transgender athletes from women's sports. With Evers' governorship ending and federal pressure mounting, a 5-2 liberal Supreme Court majority may become the most important backstop transgender Wisconsinites have—and Taylor's pro-LGBTQ+ record gives advocates reason to believe she will be a reliable voice on that court.

The victory is just the latest in a repudiation of anti-trans politics that has become a defining feature of the 2025 and 2026 elections. In November 2025, Democrat Abigail Spanberger won the Virginia governor's race by 13 points despite more than 57 percent of Republican ad spending going toward anti-transgender messaging—and Democrats swept to leads in 65 House of Delegates contests, one of the largest state legislative gains in recent years. In New Jersey, Democrat Mikie Sherrill won the governor's race decisively despite a similar barrage of anti-trans ads. In Wisconsin itself, the pattern has now repeated itself: In 2025, Elon Musk poured tens of millions into the race backing Brad Schimel, whose campaign ran ads framing transgender rights as a "radical agenda"—Susan Crawford won by 10. And now in 2026, Lazar ran her own anti-trans ads and lost by 20. The trend is unmistakable: anti-trans politics is not winning elections.

In the wake of the 2024 election, Democratic strategists at organizations like Third Way and the Searchlight Institute urged candidates to throw transgender people under the bus—to "moderate" on trans issues, to treat us as a political liability. Some prominent Democrats, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have taken that advice. But the Democrats who are actually winning elections—Spanberger, Sherrill, Crawford, and now Taylor—have refused to do so. They have won by historic margins, while candidates running against transgender people have lost. The lesson could not be clearer: support for transgender people is not the political liability that some have promised. What is a liability is running a campaign built on scapegoating a minority group while voters are worried about the economy, their health care, and the future of their democracy.