Next year’s political calendar in Wisconsin features two big races: contests for the state Supreme Court race and the governor’s office.

And they both have something in common: neither will have an incumbent in the race now that Rebecca Bradley says she’ll pass on a reelection bid to Wisconsin's high court.

And in the case of the Supreme Court race, that appears to be an early advantage for the liberals as they seek to broaden their high court majority, political insiders say.

Bradley’s announcement ends weeks of speculation after she initially told WisPolitics in April that she planned to seek another 10-year term in 2026 and would take the coming weeks to put together a plan to win. Not long after, speculation began that she was having second thoughts amid a string of losses for conservatives in spring elections. That was fueled after she reported raising nothing for her campaign over the first six months of 2025.

Since Donald Trump first became president in 2017, conservatives have only won one contested Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, Brian Hagedorn’s victory in 2019. Since then, liberals have flipped the court from a 5-2 conservative majority to a 4-3 edge in their favor. Liberals’ victories in 2018, 2020, 2023 and 2025 all came by double digits, and Susan Crawford’s win this spring has cemented that liberal majority through at least 2028.

In a late August statement announcing her decision, Bradley said she had warned for years that judicial activists would make the Supreme Court more powerful than the Legislature and the governor.

“That warning went unheeded, and Wisconsin has seen only the beginning of what is an alarming shift from thoughtful, principled judicial service toward bitter partisanship, personal attacks, and political gamesmanship that have no place in court,” Bradley said. “The conservative movement needs to take stock of its failures, identify the problem, and fix it.”

Former Gov. Scott Walker appointed Bradley to the court in 2015 to replace Patrick Crooks after the justice passed away. She then secured a full 10-year term in 2016 during a race that was heavily influenced by the presidential primaries.

Bradley beat 4th District Court of Appeals Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg, who also lost a 2011 bid for the court, by 95,515 votes as there were 98,344 more votes cast in the GOP presidential primary than the Dem contest.

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign tallied $5.6 million in spending during that 2016 Supreme Court contest. By contrast, WisPolitics found $115 million was dropped on the April election as Crawford beat conservative Brad Schimel, the former Republican attorney general.

So what conservative will run in Bradley's place? Fellow conservative Maria Lazar quickly told WisPolitics she’s looking at a bid. Lazar, who passed on a bid for the state Supreme Court this spring, was elected to the 2nd District Court of Appeals in 2022 after serving as a circuit court judge in Waukesha County.

She said in a phone interview she will take the coming weeks to consider a bid and “whether or not there is a viable path” for her.

But insiders say it will be harder to find that viable path if you’re not an incumbent and you're having to play catch-up to Taylor and liberals on the money front.

To many, Bradley was conservatives’ best hope next spring. She lit up conservative legal circles with her fiery writings. If she looked at the race and passed, how do conservatives make a credible argument that a replacement could do better?

Insiders see vulnerabilities for Taylor between her voting record in the state Assembly and her time working for Planned Parenthood. But a conservative would need a well-tuned machine to fire up conservative voters and turn them out while pumping money into Taylor’s opponent. Insiders just don’t see that operation waiting in the wings right now and give the liberal a significant advantage as the clock ticks on someone else getting in.

Taylor campaign manager Ashley Franz said in a statement that the 4th District Court of Appeals judge has raised more than $1 million since launching her campaign.

“No matter who Republicans and right-wing special interests recruit to run against her, Wisconsinites will once again have a clear choice between a candidate who believes in stripping rights away and Judge Taylor, who has always been on the side of the people,” Franz said.

For more go to www.wispolitics.com