MILWAUKEE— New poll data showed the majority of Wisconsinites support abortion legality in most or all cases, and overwhelmingly believe in red flag laws for gun ownership.
The newest Marquette University Law School poll was released Wednesday. The team surveyed more than 800 Wisconsinites from June 14 to 20. The poll has a margin of error of +/-4.3%.
The results showed inflation is the top issue for Wisconsinites right now. Following inflation, and tied with one another, were abortion and gun policies.
When it comes to abortion, 27% of Wisconsinites surveyed said it should be legal in all cases, and 31% said it should be legal in most cases. On the other end, 24% of people said it should be illegal in most cases, and 11% said it should be illegal in all cases.
These numbers have stayed relatively steady over the last 10 years, according to Charles Franklin, Marquette Law poll director.
“Since the Supreme Court’s leaked draft decision in May, we have not seen any substantial shift in the preferences about abortion,” Franklin said. “We have seen some differences in how people rate the importance of the question, and we’ll find out in months to come whether it becomes a more important voting issue or not.”
On the topic of gun violence, an overwhelming majority of Wisconsinites said they support red flag laws. In total, 81% of people said they believe red flag rules should become law.
For the first time, the poll asked whether respondents think the age to buy a gun should be raised to 21. Of the people polled, 58% said yes, and 38% said no.
The poll also asked about the race for Wisconsin governor and for U.S. senator.
The numbers showed, in the GOP race for governor, Rebecca Kleefisch and Tim Michels are in a dead heat. Kleefisch got 26% of support, while Michels got 27%. However, 32% of respondents were undecided.
Kleefisch got the majority of the vote at the state GOP convention in May, but Michels won the endorsement of former President Donald Trump earlier this month.
When it comes to the other candidates running, Kevin Nicholson had 10% of support, while Tim Ramthun had 3%.
In the general election, the poll showed Governor Tony Evers winning against all the GOP challengers, but not by much. The data showed Rebecca Kleefisch was within two points of Evers, while Tim Michels trailed him by seven points.
In the race for U.S. Senate, the poll showed Mandela Barnes still has an edge over Alex Lasry. Barnes had 25% of the support, while Lasry had 21%. Those numbers are relatively the same as they were in the last poll from April. This race also has a big undecided vote: 36% of people said they didn’t know who they’d choose.
Against Senator Ron Johnson, the numbers showed Mandela Barnes has the biggest chance of winning against him: Barnes would get 46% of support, while Johnson would get 44%. In a Johnson-Lasry matchup, Johnson would get 45%, and Lasry would get 42%.
The results of the poll had an unsurprising conclusion to many: Wisconsin is still purple.