After record breaking spending in the 2023 and 2025 Supreme Court races, the Marquette survey has found this year\u2019s contest has largely flown under the radar. Two weeks out from the election, the poll found only 12 percent reported hearing or reading a lot about the race for the state\u2019s highest court, a slight drop from last month. Another 57 percent said they\u2019d heard a little.<\/p>\n
During a Tuesday presentation, Marquette University Law School pollster Charles Franklin said there were more respondents this month who said they\u2019ve heard something about the Supreme Court race, \u201cbut it\u2019s still a sort of stunningly low number.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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At the same point in last year\u2019s nationalized Supreme Court race, nearly 40 percent of Marquette respondents said they\u2019d heard a lot about the election.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unlike Wisconsin\u2019s last two Supreme Court elections, ideological control of the court isn\u2019t up for grabs. However, the Marquette survey found three-quarters of all registered voters incorrectly believe the court\u2019s liberal majority can be flipped.<\/p>\n
Liberals currently hold a 4-3 majority on the court. If Lazar wins, that margin will remain the same. If Taylor wins, it will grow to 5-2.<\/p>\n
![\"Stairs](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/210609_scowis01-scaled.jpg\")
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday, June 9, 2021, at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wis. Angela Major\/WPR<\/p>\n
Democratic voters far more excited to vote on April 7 than Republicans<\/p>\n
Across three metrics, the Marquette poll found Democrats are notably more excited about voting in the Supreme Court election.<\/p>\n
Among respondents identifying themselves as Democrats, 77 percent said they\u2019re certain to vote on April 7. Among Republicans, that was 59 percent, which represents a slight decline from February.<\/p>\n
When asked how important the outcome of the Supreme Court race is, 65 percent of Democrats said it\u2019s very important, while 46 percent of Republicans said the same.<\/p>\n
The survey also showed 51 percent of Democrats are very enthusiastic about voting in April, compared to just 32 percent of Republicans.<\/p>\n
Francesca Hong leads Democrats running for governor, but most voters aren\u2019t paying attention yet<\/p>\n
The Marquette survey this month found the vast majority of voters have heard little to nothing about the race for governor and most are unfamiliar with the bulk of an expansive field of candidates. Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and former Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes were the only two with name recognition surpassing 50 percent.<\/p>\n
![\"Seven](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/260121_GOVCANDIDATES01-scaled.jpg\")
The seven Democratic candidates for governor participate in a forum Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, at the Cooperage in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major\/WPR<\/p>\n
But Among Democrats who have made up their mind in the August primary, state Rep. Francesca Hong of Madison was the first choice, with 14 percent supporting her. Barnes came in a close second with 11 percent.<\/p>\n
The rest of the Democratic primary candidates polled in the low single-digits. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and current Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez each received 3 percent; former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan received 2 percent; while state Sen. Kelda Roys of Madison and former Wisconsin Economic Development Director Missy Hughes each received 1 percent.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump\u2019s net approval hits record low in Wisconsin<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump\u2019s approval ratings were deeply underwater in Marquette\u2019s latest poll. Overall, 56 percent of respondents disapproved of the job he\u2019s doing, while 42 percent approved. That led to a net approval of -14, a record low for Trump in in first or second terms.<\/p>\n
The survey showed the ongoing trend of Republicans standing firmly behind him and Democrats being nearly universally opposed. Trump\u2019s net approval rating among independent voters was -40 percentage points.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP26021735665248-1-scaled.jpg\")
President Donald Trump walks down the stairs after a meeting during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. Markus Schreiber\/AP Photo<\/p>\n
Franklin said the findings pose potential problems for both Democratic and Republican candidates running toward the midterm election. He said Democrats need to find ways to distinguish themselves when the party is so focused on opposing Trump. For Republicans, Franklin said, seeing independent voters align with Democrats on their views of the president \u201cis one of the bad news pieces\u201d for the GOP.<\/p>\n
\u201cHolding on to Republican support is certainly a good thing for the GOP and for the president, but you need some more folks to come onboard over the next six months until Election Day,\u201d said Franklin.<\/p>\n
The survey was conducted from March 11-18. Its margin of error was plus or minus 4.4 percent for the whole sample and 5.3 percent for likely voters.<\/p>\n
Wisconsin Public Radio, \u00a9 Copyright 2026, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With two weeks to go until the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, a new poll shows liberal Appeals Court…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,111,15304,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-544840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-supreme-court","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}