MU Poll: Wisconsinites worried about state economy, fewer living comfortably

(The Center Square) – Most voters in Wisconsin say they are struggling or just getting by, and more than half don’t think the state’s economy is in great shape.

The latest Marquette Law School Poll asked voters in the state about both the state’s economy and their personal finances.

“Forty-five percent say [the state’s economy is] excellent or good, 38% say not too good, and 16% say poor,” MU chief pollster Charles Franklin explained Wednesday. “So that 16% is half of the rate that say the national economy is poor. On the other hand, it's still only 45% saying excellent or good we're not up into a majority saying Wisconsin's economy is doing well.”

On personal finances, Franklin said again, many Wisconsinites say they’re doing well, but a majority say they’re not.

The poll says 46% of people say they are living comfortably, 37% say they’re just getting by, and 17% say they are struggling.

“On family finances, we saw a 1-point increase in the percent saying they're living comfortably. But we saw a 2-point increase in the percent saying they're struggling. And so that's a very mixed picture about how people feel about their finances,” Franklin added. “Pre-COVID, we were saying in the high 50s or even 60% saying they were living comfortably. So, this is considerably more negative than it was in 2019.”

But voters don’t appear to be taking out their personal financial worries on Gov. Tony Evers.

The MU Poll gives Evers a 51% favorability rating, and a 43% unfavorable rating.

Evers’ favorability rating is higher than Wisconsin’s two most well-known Republicans. The MU Poll gives Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson just a 38% favorability rating, and a 50% unfavorable rating. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has just a 14% favorability rating, and an unfavorable rating of 35%. But 50% of people asked in the poll say they didn’t know enough about Vos to have an opinion.

The Marquette Law School Poll is the most extensive statewide polling project in Wisconsin history. This survey was conducted June 12-20, interviewing 871 Wisconsin registered voters, with a margin of error of +/-4.6 percentage points. The sample contains 784 likely voters, those who say they are absolutely certain to vote in November, with a margin of error of +/-4.9 percentage points.