Marquette’s Law School released poll results March 5, covering multiple topics including gun control, Foxconn’s impending plant in Racine County and the upcoming midterm primaries.
Forty percent of voters said they think Wisconsin is paying more incentives than the Foxconn plant is worth, and 39 percent said they think the plant will provide at least as much value as the state’s investment.
Residents in the City of Milwaukee are more likely than the rest of the area’s residents to think the plant is not worth the state’s subsidy. They also answered negatively when asked if Foxconn will improve Milwaukee economically. The $10 billion manufacturing plant is set to operate by 2019.
Gun issues were also addressed in the polls. Eighty-one percent of registered state voters said they support background checks. Sixteen percent said they oppose them. A similar Law School poll in June 2016 reported 85 percent of voters supported background checks, while 12 percent opposed them.
Voters expressed a 43 percent approval rating of President Donald Trump, a 2 percentage-point increase since the Law School’s poll in June 2017. Eighty-nine percent of Republicans said they approve of Trump and 89 percent of Democrats said they disapprove of him.
About half of Wisconsin voters said they think Trump is keeping his campaign promises.
However, the governor had a slightly higher approval rating. Wisconsin voters are evenly split between a favorable and unfavorable view of Governor Scott Walker. This changed from a year ago, when more Wisconsin voters viewed Walker unfavorably than favorably by a small margin.
With incoming senate elections near, incumbent senator Tammy Baldwin received a 39 percent unfavorable rating, with a 37 percent favorable rating. A year ago, more voters viewed Baldwin favorably than unfavorably by a small margin.
Thirty-five percent of poll respondents said they plan to vote in the Democratic primary, while 32 percent said they plan to vote in the Republican primary in August. For both parties, nearly half of each party’s voters indicated they do not know who they will vote for.
Kevin Nicholson, a candidate for the senate primary race, resides at the top for the Republican senate primary, while candidate Tony Evers currently resides at the top for the Democratic primary for state governor.
Most of Wisconsin’s registered voters said they are very enthusiastic about voting in this year’s elections. More Democrats than Republicans expressed that they are very enthusiastic, with 64 percent and 54 percent respectively. Forty-six percent of Independents gave the same response.
These levels of enthusiasm are up from the last midterm election four years ago for Democrats, when 52 percent said they were very enthusiastic. Republican enthusiasm has decreased by 1 percent from four years ago.
The poll also addressed the topic of immigration.
Seventy-one percent of Wisconsin voters said they support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants working in the United States. Eighty-six percent said undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children should be allowed to stay and apply for citizenship.
Wisconsin voters also weighed in on Trump’s proposal for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Most voters — 59 percent — said they oppose building a wall along the entire border.
Voters also gave feedback about the ongoing investigation conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller regarding Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
As for Democratic voters, 43 percent said they have a great deal of confidence in Mueller’s fairness, while 12 percent said they have no confidence at all.
Republican voters expressed less confidence in Mueller’s ability to conduct a fair and impartial investigation. Five percent said they have a great deal of confidence, while 34 percent said they have no confidence at all.
The majority of Wisconsin voters expressed that they are very or somewhat concerned about Russian attempts to influence the last presidential election. About a quarter of respondents said they are not at all concerned.
The poll, conducted Feb. 25 through March 1, reached 800 registered Wisconsin voters. The voters were surveyed by telephone. The margin of error is +/- 4.5 percentage points.
