Poll: Wisconsin voters split over candidates' handling of issues

(The Center Square) - Wisconsin voters believe former President Donald Trump would handle four out of the seven major issues facing the country better than President Joe Biden, a new poll shows.

The Marquette Law School poll released this week asked registered voters whether they had confidence in Biden, Trump, both about the same or neither in dealing with national and foreign policy matters.

The poll included immigration and border security, the economy, the Israel-Hamas war, foreign relations, Medicare and Social Security, health care and abortion policy.

Trump rated higher on immigration and border security and the economy, with 52% of voters thinking Trump would do better at both. Only 28% think Biden would do a better job on immigration and border security, and 34% on the economy.

“We’ve seen very little change in these [statistics] over the last few months; the numbers bounce slightly but the order of these is largely the same,” Director of the Marquette Law School Poll Charles Franklin said. “In April the economy was slightly less good for Trump, and Israel Hamas was slightly better – the order of those two have shifted but it’s still a trivial amount of points that have changed.”

While voters favor Trump in handling the Israel-Hamas war, 44-30%, the percentage of voters who trust neither candidate is 19%.

However, 43% of respondents think Biden handles Medicare and Social Security and health care better, with Trump in the mid-30s for both issues.

Biden receives the highest confidence from voters, 47%, regarding abortion policy, with Trump at 33%.

Franklin noted that while the economy, immigration and border security, and abortion are the most important issues to Wisconsin in general, there are large party differences regarding these issues.

“Republicans are overwhelmingly concerned with the economy, followed by immigration…Democrats in contrast put abortion as the number one issue, followed by Medicare and Social Security, and then the economy…Independents look more like Republicans with the economy first, followed by immigration. But abortion and Social Security are tied for third place,” Franklin said.

The partisan makeup of the sample was 31% Republican, 29% Democratic and 40% independent. The Marquette Law School Poll survey was conducted June 12-20, interviewing 871 Wisconsin registered voters, with a margin of error of +/-4.6 percentage points.