Gov. Tony Evers, Sen. Ron Johnson would likely lose if election was this year, poll finds

Poll director: 'I think you could call this a grumpy electorate'

November 3, 2021 1:43 PM

Jaymes Langrehr,

Posted: November 3, 2021 1:43 PM

Updated: November 3, 2021 5:05 PM

by Jaymes Langrehr

MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson have some work to do in the next year if they hope to be re-elected in November 2022, according to the latest poll from Marquette University Law School.

The poll, which was released Wednesday, found 40% of registered voters polled said they would vote to reelect Gov. Evers, while 53% said they would vote for someone else and 6% didn’t know or wouldn’t say.

Registered voters in the poll were even less kind to Sen. Johnson, with 38% saying they would vote to reelect him and 52% saying they would vote for someone else. A total of 10% said they didn’t know who they would vote for in that hypothetical race.

Among registered voters, 40% would vote to reelect Gov. Tony Evers, while 53% would vote for someone else and 6% say they don’t know or decline to say. For Sen. Ron Johnson, 38% would vote to reelect him, 52% would vote for someone else, and 10% say they don’t know.

— MULawPoll (@MULawPoll) November 3, 2021

The poll found a 45% job approval rate for Evers, with 46% disapproving. In the previous poll taken in August, Evers’ job approval rating was at 50% while 43% disapproved.

Similarly, Wisconsin voters appear to be down on President Joe Biden compared to August. Biden’s approval rating in the Marquette poll dropped from 49% in August (with 46% disapproving) to 43% now (with 53% disapproving). However, Biden would still win a hypothetical rematch with former President Donald Trump, according to the poll.

While Biden’s job approval rating has fallen, he leads former President Donald Trump in a hypothetical 2024 rematch, with 45% for Biden to 41% for Trump. Eleven percent of respondents say they would vote for neither, and 3% say they don’t know.

— MULawPoll (@MULawPoll) November 3, 2021

“I think you could call this a grumpy electorate,” Charles Franklin, the director of the Marquette Law School poll, said. “We asked about seven different politicians, and all seven of them were a little bit more negative than positive or a lot more negative than positive. None of them were in net positive territory; that’s the first time in 67 polls that everybody we’ve asked about has been net negative.”

Franklin said the results were a little surprising given the polarization of the current political climate, noting Evers and Johnson are both very popular among their parties and very unpopular among members of the opposite party. Independents are not especially strong supporters of either politician, he added.

“To see incumbents of opposite parties getting almost exactly the same support, you might expect that if one’s at 40 (percent), the other might be at 60 (percent), but that’s not the case,” he said. “I think this reflects the bit of negative sentiment towards politicians of both parties at this point.”

The poll was conducted between October 26 and October 31, with 45% of people who responded identifying as Republicans or leaning Republican and 44% of respondents saying they were Democrats or leaning Democrat.

You can find the full results here.