New Marquette Law School poll reveals 55% of Wisconsinites don’t want Gov. Evers to seek reelection, analyzes school funding and more
MILWAUKEE (CBS58) -- Fifty five percent of Wisconsinites say Governor Tony Evers should not seek a third term, according to a new Marquette Law School Poll that just came out on Wednesday, June 25. The survey analyzes the responses of 873 registered Wisconsin voters from June 13-19, 2025, with a margin of error of +/-4.7 percentage points.
Despite the majority of Wisconsinites not wanting Governor Tony Evers to run a third term, he does still have high approval from democrats. According to the poll, 83% of Democrats want him to run a third term, compared to just 7% of Republicans. Nonetheless, “he remains the most popular of the political figures in the state that we ask about,” shared Charles Franklin, Director of the Marquette Law School Poll.
Those numbers are essentially flipped when it comes to President Donald Trump's approval ratings, falling along party lines. About 90% of Republicans approve of Trump's handling of his job as president, while 98% of Democrats disapprove, and 59% of Independents disapprove. Franklin said this hasn't changed much in his term, “despite not much change in approval, people are still very skeptical of tariffs, and think deficits will go up, there are several policy challenges for President Trump. But the things that really lowered his approval in the spring, mostly tariffs, faded into the background some.”
The biggest concern for voters when it came to the election, according to Franklin, was inflation. Most Americans, 55%, believe Trump’s policy proposals will likely increase inflation.
Growing in popularity has been the idea of legalizing marijuana. Around 67% of those polled say they would want it legalized. This is up over 20% from 10 years ago.
Meanwhile, at the state capitol, legislative democrats have said this week that republicans are set to cut tens of millions of dollars from the University of Wisconsin System in the next two years. But 49% of all registered voters want the funding to stay the same, 27% want funding to increase, and 23% want it reduced.
“People like their local schools pretty well; they have complaints about some things; they’re worried about their property taxes and whatnot. But funding for those schools generally, whether it’s special ed or other things, gets pretty substantial majority support,” said Franklin.
As Wisconsin has a roughly $4 billion state budget surplus, 71% of those surveyed said they wanted an increase in aid for special education.
And when it comes to the hot-button issue of cellphones in public schools: “we’ll be quick on this. Get rid of kids' cell phones!” exclaimed Franklin. Around 89% are in favor of banning cell phones in schools.
You can find the full Marquette Law School Poll below, or through this link.