Evers job approval drops; more Wisconsinites unhappy with state’s direction

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s governor is less popular as more voters say the state is heading in the wrong direction.

The latest Marquette Law School Poll shows Gov. Tony Evers’ job approval fell in September.

“Evers’ job approval has been over 50% all year, but he dipped under this time,” MU chief pollster Charles Franklin explained. “This is the first time in a year that he’s been below 50%, Though still more approve than disapprove, by a point or two, but there’s been just this little bit of movement in this last month. Notice that it also parallels the change in the [answer to] the state is headed in the wrong direction, or on the wrong track.”

Evers’ approval rating in the new Marquette Poll is at 48%. His disapproval rating is 46%. The governor had a 51% approval rating in Marquette’s polls over the summer.

The wrong direction/on the wrong track numbers ticked up last month as 44% of voters who were asked said Wisconsin is headed in the right direction, while 56% of voters said Wisconsin is on the wrong track.

“Wrong track has been the champion in this contest for four or five years, at least since COVID hit,” Franklin said. “It’s still underwater, and [there’s] still substantial pessimism about how the state is headed.”

Some of the uptick in people who think Wisconsin is on the wrong track, Franklin said, is likely because more voters say they are struggling financially.

The Marquette poll’s numbers show 48% of Wisconsin voters say they are living conformably, while 37% say they are just getting by, and another 16% say they are struggling.

“[The comfortable number] is still hovering in the high 40s, 48% this time. But in 2019, that was up in the 60% range,” Franklin said. “And so, this is the other side of the burden of Biden’s economic outcomes, or at least as people perceive them. There’s a dramatic difference between how people felt about their personal finances in 2019 pre-COVID and where they feel themselves now.”

The survey was conducted Sept. 18-26, 2024, interviewing 882 Wisconsin registered voters, with a margin of error of +/-4.4 percentage points, and 798 likely voters, with the same margin of error of +/-4.4 percentage points as for registered voters.