The 2026 Wisconsin Supreme Court election will be held on April 7, 2026, to elect a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court for a ten-year term. Incumbent justice Rebecca Bradley chose not to seek re-election after serving on the court since October 2015. Bradley is associated with the conservative minority on the court, and therefore the 2026 election is not expected to affect the ideological majority of the court, though a liberal victory would result in the court having a 5–2 liberal majority instead of its current 4–3 liberal majority and would further solidify a liberal majority until at least 2030.
If more than two candidates file for this seat, a nonpartisan primary election will be held on February 17, 2026, with the top two vote-getters advancing to the April7 general election. The filing deadline to appear on the ballot in the 2026 election is January 1, 2026.
Background
The Wisconsin Supreme Court tipped from a 4–3 conservative majority to a 4–3 liberal majority due to the 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court election, which at that time was the most expensive judicial election in history. The liberals retained their 4–3 majority in the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court election, when that race became the most expensive judicial election in history. The incumbent in 2026, Rebecca Bradley, is a member of the conservative minority, and therefore the outcome of the election will not change the court's controlling ideology.
Bradley initially announced in April 2025 that she would run for re-election in 2026.[1] Political observers, however, noticed that she was not engaged in any fundraising activity for a re-election campaign; she ultimately announced on August 29, 2025, that she was withdrawing from the race.[2]
Historically, it has been rare for incumbents to lose reelection to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Due to this, open-seat races have generally been regarded as valuable opportunities to potentially alter the court's ideological composition.[3] Particularly since (excluding elections held to fill newly-created seats) only 23 of the more than 136 previous elections held for the court have been for open seats.[4] With Bradley's withdrawal, and the preceding 2023 and 2025 elections having also been open seat-seat contests, this marks the first instance in the court's history in which three consecutive elections will have been for open seats;[a] and will also mark the sixth consecutive election in which a new justice has been elected to the court.[b] This is in difference to the court's previous history, in which most justices have joined the court by gubernatorial appointment to fill a vacancy before any subsequent election.[5]
↑ previously, there have been only five other instances of consecutive Wisconsin Supreme Court elections being for open seats, and none for more than two consecutive elections[4]
↑ 2018, 2023, and 2025 were also open-seat races resulting in a new justice; 2020 saw an incumbent justice unseated
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