Marquette Law School: New poll finds large majority of Wisconsin voters not yet tuned in to who is running in major 2026 elections

No candidate has established strong position in public favorability in governor, state Supreme Court races; large majorities of voters undecided

Also:

• Inflation and cost of living draw the most concern among voters overall, with big partisan divisions in concern over health insurance and immigration
• Approval of President Trump job performance ticks down, while approval of Gov. Evers ticks up
• Some overall improvement since February in people’s views of their personal financial situations
• Three-way divide on who is responsible for federal shutdown: Republicans, Democrats, or both

Please note: Complete Poll results and methodology information can be found online at law.marquette.edu/poll

MILWAUKEE — A new Marquette Law School Poll of Wisconsin registered voters finds that the majority of both Republicans and Democrats haven’t decided on a primary choice for governor in 2026, while only 6% say they have heard a lot about the campaigns for that office.

In the gubernatorial race, 70% of Republicans and 81% of Democrats haven’t made a primary choice.

In awareness of the various 2026 campaigns for governor, 57% of registered voters have heard a little and 37% have heard nothing at all, along with the aforementioned 6% who have heard a lot. Those who have heard a lot or a little about the governor’s race are also substantially undecided, with 64% undecided in the Republican primary and 73% undecided in the Democratic primary.

With no incumbent running in either party’s primary, it is not surprising that all candidates are little known statewide, and the long primary campaign must introduce them to the voters. In the Republican primary, Rep. Tom Tiffany is the best known, with 39% who recognize his name and have an opinion of him. In the same primary, Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann is recognized by 17%, and medical service technician Andy Manske is recognized by 11%.

In the Democratic primary, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley is recognized by 26%, closely followed by Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez at 25% name recognition and State Rep. Francesca Hong with 22%. Candidates with recognition rates in the teens include state Sen. Kelda Roys, 17%; lawyer Missy Hughes, 16%; former state Rep. Brett Hulsey, 15%; and Milwaukee beer vendor Ryan Strnad, 11%.

The primary date for the governor’s race is scheduled for Aug. 11, 2026, with the final election on Nov. 3, 2026.

Name recognition and favorability for all candidates are shown in Table 1. Only two candidates, Schoemann and Rodriguez, have positive net favorability, just 1 point in each case, while other candidates have net negative favorability in single digits. In all cases, more than 60% of registered voters say they haven’t heard enough or don’t know how they feel about the candidates.

Table 1: Favorability of gubernatorial candidates

Among registered voters

Candidate
	Name ID	Net Fav	Favorable	Unfavorable	Haven’t heard enough	Don’t know
Republican Primary
Andy Manske	11	-3	4	7	87	2
Josh Schoemann	17	1	9	8	81	2
Tom Tiffany	39	-3	18	21	60	2
Democratic Primary
David Crowley	26	-2	12	14	72	2
Francesca Hong	22	-6	8	14	76	2
Missy Hughes	16	-6	5	11	83	2
Brett Hulsey	15	-7	4	11	82	2
Sara Rodriguez	25	1	13	12	74	1
Kelda Roys	17	-3	7	10	81	2
Ryan Strnad	11	-5	3	8	87	2
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey Oct. 15-22, 2025
Question: Here are some people running for governor. Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of [INSERT NAME] or haven’t you heard enough about them yet?
Note: Name ID is the percentage that have an opinion of the candidate

The survey was conducted Oct. 15-22, 2025, interviewing 846 Wisconsin registered voters, with a margin of error of +/-4.5 percentage points. To cover more subjects, a number of items were asked of random half-samples of 423 registered voters, with a margin of error of +/-6.4 percentage points. The sample size for Republican primary voters is 406, with a margin of error of 6.4 percentage points. The sample size for Democratic primary voters is 378, with a margin of error of 6.9 percentage points.

There are generally small differences in name recognition by party identification, with Republicans and Democrats about equally likely to recognize candidates of their own and of the opposing party. Net favorability, however, differs by party, with Republicans more net favorable to Republican candidates and net negative to Democratic candidates, and Democrats net favorable to their party’s candidates, with two exceptions, and unfavorable to the Republican candidates. These results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2: 2026 gubernatorial race, name ID and favorability, by party identification

Among registered voters

Candidate
	Reps: Name ID	Inds: Name ID	Dems: Name ID	Reps: Net Fav	Inds: Net Fav	Dems: Net Fav
Republican Primary
Andy Manske	10	16	10	0	-4	-6
Josh Schoemann	23	19	11	13	-7	-9
Tom Tiffany	39	34	40	29	0	-38
Democratic Primary
David Crowley	25	37	24	-13	-7	10
Francesca Hong	22	22	21	-20	-16	13
Missy Hughes	19	15	12	-17	-5	6
Brett Hulsey	15	24	13	-9	-16	-1
Sara Rodriguez	23	29	27	-17	1	21
Kelda Roys	14	21	18	-14	-9	10
Ryan Strnad	12	16	9	-8	-2	-3
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey Oct. 15-22, 2025
Question: Here are some people running for governor. Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of [INSERT NAME] or haven’t you heard enough about them yet?
Note: Name ID is the percentage that have an opinion of the candidate

There is some regional variation in candidate name recognition, the most substantial being Tiffany’s in the north and western media markets of the state, where 60% have an opinion of him. This region substantially overlaps with his 7th Congressional District. Crowley is also considerably better known in the Milwaukee media market. With the exception of Tiffany, candidates are a bit better known in the Milwaukee and Madison media markets than they are in the Green Bay market or the north and western markets. These results are shown in Table 3.

Table 3: 2026 gubernatorial race, name ID, by media market

Among registered voters

Candidate
	Milwaukee market: Name ID	Madison market: Name ID	Green Bay: Name ID	North & Western markets: Name ID
Republican Primary
Andy Manske	14	9	9	10
Josh Schoemann	24	16	12	12
Tom Tiffany	34	36	27	60
Democratic Primary
David Crowley	42	20	12	17
Francesca Hong	27	28	13	17
Missy Hughes	20	16	9	12
Brett Hulsey	19	20	10	10
Sara Rodriguez	31	29	17	17
Kelda Roys	20	25	10	9
Ryan Strnad	14	13	9	6
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey Oct. 15-22, 2025
Question: Here are some people running for governor. Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of [INSERT NAME] or haven’t you heard enough about them yet?