WASHINGTON — Marquette University Law School’s newest poll showed Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris with a four-point lead ahead of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump among likely Wisconsin voters.
Among likely Wisconsin voters, Harris held 52% of the votes, compared to Trump’s 48%, a statistical tie given the margin of error.
Pollsters interviewed 822 registered voters and 738 likely voters between Aug. 28 and Sept. 5. The margin of error is +/- 4.6 percentage points for statistics utilizing registered voters and +/- 4.7 percentage points for statistics utilizing likely voters.
Harris' lead is a slight bump for her from the last poll, taken from July 24 to Aug. 1, which showed Harris with a one-point advantage among likely voters.
“It was the poll after the [Democratic National] Convention, taken a little more than a week after the convention,” Charles Franklin, director of the poll, said. “We'll see if it persists in our poll that's going in the field next week.”
When including Robert F. Kennedy in the race to the White House, the poll found 47% of registered Wisconsin voters supported Harris, 43% supported Trump and 6% supported Kennedy.
The poll was taken after Kennedy dropped out of the race, but he will remain on the ballot in Wisconsin.
The poll found that the economy is the top issue among registered voters in Wisconsin, an issue Franklin said Harris needs to convince voters on.
“As long as she's blamed for the negative perceptions of the economy from the Biden Administration, she's in trouble on that issue,” he said. “Trump had the opportunity last night to drive that point home.”
Trump and Harris had their first debate on Tuesday evening. The poll was taken before then.
As for the race for the U.S. Senate, 52% of likely Wisconsin voters supported Democratic incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin, while 47% supported Republican businessman Eric Hovde.
When undecided voters are included, Baldwin receives 49% of votes, Hovde receives 44% of votes, and 7% said they "don’t know" who they would vote for.
“We've seen anywhere from a four- to a seven-point Baldwin lead in the Senate, and this time, we have a four- or five-point lead across different ways of asking the question,” Franklin said. “So I don't think we saw much shift in the Senate, whereas we saw a little bit of gain in the presidential race.”
Get the latest data from the Marquette University Law School poll, here.