Support for raising tariffs on Canadian goods increased in the latest Marquette University Law School Poll even as more respondents said they’re hurting Wisconsin farmers.
In the school’s final poll before next week’s election, 33% of surveyed registered voters said they support raising tariffs on Canada while 67% were opposed. In the previous poll, conducted about a month earlier, that split was 30-70.
But at the same time, the latest survey found a shift in respondents’ views on how tariffs are impacting farmers in the state.
Eight percent said they think tariffs are helping Wisconsin farmers while 70% said they’re hurting farmers, and 21% said they’re not making much of a difference. In the previous poll, 12% had said tariffs are hurting farmers while 65% said they’re helping them and 22% said there’s no difference.
Back in February, the difference was even greater with 17% saying tariffs help farmers and 55% saying they hurt, while 26% saw no difference.
Meanwhile, registered voters’ views on data centers were virtually unchanged from the prior poll with 75% saying their costs outweigh their benefits and just 24% saying the opposite.
In October of last year, the split was 55-44, even with additional language in that survey’s question referencing community opposition causing Microsoft to reverse course on a planned data center.
Perceptions of rising gas and grocery costs also remain stable between September and this month, with near-unanimous agreement that prices have either increased or stayed the same over the last six months.
In the latest survey, 92% of respondents said their gas prices have gone up while 5% said they stayed the same and 2% said they’ve gone down. On the same question for groceries, 85% said their costs have gone up in the last six months while 11% said they’ve stayed the same and 4% said they’ve gone down.
The poll also found dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump’s efforts to address inflation and the cost of living, which 48% of registered voters said was their most important issue this fall. Illegal immigration and border security was a distant second at 12%.
Just 19% said Trump’s policies will decrease inflation, while 67% think they’re driving it higher, and 16% said they’re better off than a year ago, matching last month’s number.
Poll Director Charles Franklin yesterday said the president has been getting more unpopular over the course of his second term, voters are turning more negative on the economy and there’s real doubt that Trump’s policies are addressing the most important issue facing voters.
The Marquette poll of 818 registered voters was conducted Oct. 14-22 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points. It included 668 likely voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.
