Key lessons and insights gathered from four months of listening across Wisconsin.
Delafield, Wis. – What common challenges are on Wisconsinites’ minds heading into 2026? The Institute for Reforming Government released its newest community engagement report, Wisconsin Speaks: Listening, Learning, Leading on Tuesday on The Dan O’Donnell Show answering this question.
IRG traveled over 2,000 miles last summer and fall, convened 14 listening sessions, spoke to over 100 Wisconsinites, and conducted statewide public opinion polling through Scott Rasmussen’s RMG Research to find out what is on Wisconsinites’ minds.
Highlights from the report:
1. “It’s the affordability, stupid.” By far, the most significant issue discussed in every listening session was cost of living – rising prices in the basic essentials – as well as costs related to housing, healthcare, and childcare. Inflationary pressures on food and living expenses, housing, health care, child care.
Similarly, in IRG’s poll of statewide voters, 39% of voters said that “cost of living” was the #1 issue that would drive their vote, which included 49% of Independents. One of every two voters said lowering food costs.
2. Health care and state taxes and housing. When they were asked about the top issues facing their family, 20% said affordable housing, 15% state and local taxes, 10% affordable health care. In our statewide poll, over 60% of voters indicated that health care, taxes, and housing were important issues for their vote.
3. K-12 education is on people’s minds but isn’t driving any behavior. The shortcomings of Wisconsin’s K-12 education system came up in almost every listening session – literacy, ties to an inadequate workforce, apprenticeships. But in the IRG statewide poll only 5% of voters indicated that K-12 education was the most important issue in 2026. In the same poll, while voters had plenty of ideas to improve their schools, of the respondents that had school-aged children living at home with them (20% of the total respondents), 45% of them said that they were “very satisfied” with their children’s schools.
WHAT WE DID:
From May through September 2025, IRG held listening sessions from Milwaukee’s north side to De Pere, Wausau, Hayward, Brillion, Beloit, Fond du Lac, and more. Each session followed a simple rule: IRG listened. No policy pitches. No talking points. Just open conversations about kitchen-table concerns.
To strengthen these findings, IRG supplemented the sessions with a written participant survey, an online survey of 100 center-right activists and business leaders, and a statewide poll of 800 registered voters. The poll was conducted by RMG Research from October 23–28, 2025, with a margin of error of ±3.5%.
THE QUOTES:
“This report reflects what Wisconsinites themselves say are the most pressing issues facing their families and communities. We hope it serves as a practical resource for policymakers, business leaders, and community groups—and for anyone who wants to see where Wisconsinites find common ground,” –Courtney Gustafson, IRG’s Director of External Affairs
“As we approach the 2026 election cycle, the data makes one point unmistakably clear: affordability is the defining issue for Wisconsin families. Residents across the state described grocery bills that feel unsustainable, housing and tax burdens rising faster than wages, child care and health care costs that strain every household budget, and jobs that fail to keep pace with inflation. The takeaway is simple—candidates who prioritize affordability and present serious, practical solutions will be the ones who earn the trust of Wisconsin voters in 2026.” -CJ Szafir, IRG CEO
WHAT’S NEXT
IRG will continue building on the momentum of Wisconsin Speaks by:
- Conducting quarterly polling focused on “kitchen table” issues, the solutions people trust, and the intensity behind those preferences.
- Hosting new listening sessions, including targeted conversations with Trump voters who did not vote in the last governor’s race and conversations with suburban women in both Milwaukee suburbs and Green Bay suburbs to better understand disengagement.
