Taylor was the first Democrat elected Governor of Wisconsin since William A. Barstow in 1853. He was nominated as the consensus candidate of the "Reform Party,"—a coalition of Democrats, Liberal Republicans, and Grangers, on a platform of political and economy reform.
William Robert Taylor, at the time of the 1873 election, was a Trustee for the State Hospital of the Insane. Previously, he had served as President of the state agriculture society, had been chairman of the Cottage Grove town board, and the Dane County board of supervisors, and had been a member of the Wisconsin State Senate and Assembly.
^Joint Committee on Legislative Organization, Wisconsin Legislature (2015). Wisconsin Blue Book 2015–2016. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Department of Administration. pp. 699–701. ISBN978-0-9752820-7-6.
^Theobald, H. Rupert, ed. (1966). "Statistical information on Wisconsin". The Wisconsin Blue Book, 1966 (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. p. 607. Retrieved June 15, 2019.