The latest Marquette University pollon the race for Wisconsin governor shows Democratic incumbent Tony Evers with still a slight lead over Republican challenger Tim Michels. But the new survey shows that lead has shrunk from four percentage points shown in a poll last month to three points now.
Marquette conducted the poll September 6-11, talking by phone with 632 likely voters. The survey's margin of error is nearly plus or minus 5%.
READ: Wisconsin U.S. Senate race tightens, Marquette pollster calls it a 'toss-up'
Pollster Charles Franklin said for one thing, there has been a small movement of independent voters toward Michels and away from Evers.
"And, I would say the bigger thing with Evers is his declining net job approval, becoming net negative by three points this month. Only the second time in his time in office that he's been that negative. That is an important thing, and the fact that it's become less positive over the year and has now turned net negative for the campaign," Franklin said during a poll release briefing Wednesday afternoon.
But Franklin said some poll results show things in Evers' favor. For example, on the question of which candidate for governor better understands the problems of ordinary people in Wisconsin. Evers is at 47 percentage points. Michels, a wealthy business owner, is at 41.
"That's a six point gap, compared to the three point vote margin. So, Evers has a little bit of an image advantage on this question," Franklin explained.
Evers also leads Michels 47-41 on the question of whether the candidates share the values of people surveyed.
Most questions in the poll show very few likely voters undecided about the candidates, with still nearly two months left in the campaign and millions of dollars to be spent on candidate advertising.
Wisconsin's midterm elections are Tuesday, November 8, 2022. If you have a question about voting or the races, submit it below.
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