Big political news dropped the Friday before Labor Day weekend in Wisconsin, with right-wing state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley announcing that she will NOT be seeking re-election to another 10 year term on the court. 

In her statement announcing the decision, Bradley bemoaned a "shift from thoughtful, principled judicial service toward bitter partisanship, personal attacks, and political gamesmanship" in recent years. If you’ve followed Bradley time on the bench, you couldn’t help but note the hypocrisy in that statement, because that’s the exact kind of extreme, toxic approach she’s brought to the Wisconsin Supreme court over the past decade. 

But beyond that, this sets up yet another open race for state Supreme Court in Wisconsin. This one, however, will be a bit different than recent races won by liberal justices Janet Protasiewicz and Susan Crawford, where majority control of the court was on the line. In this race, liberals will have the opportunity to expand their majority from 4-3 to 5-2, if candidate Chris Taylor, a former Democratic state legislator, wins the election in Spring 2026.

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