MILWAUKEE- The two biggest political races heading into November’s midterm election are neck and neck according to the latest poll conducted by Marquette University’s law school.
According to the poll released today, incumbent Governor Tony Evers leads his republican challenger Tim Michels 47% to 44% among likely voters. Independent candidate Joan Beglinger polled at 5% despite ending her campaign on September 6th, while 3% of respondents said they didn’t know who they’re going to vote for.
In the race for U.S. Senate, incumbent Republican Ron Johnson leads his democratic opponent Mandela Barnes 49% to 48%. In the days following the August primary, Barnes had led Johnson by 7%.
Poll Director Charles Franklin said the flip in the race for Senate didn’t come as a surprise because of how many people who answered August’s poll said they held no opinion of Barnes because they didn’t know enough about him.
“Mandela Barnes had very positive views of him but 41% said they didn’t know enough to have an opinion about him,” Franklin said. “His strength coming out of the primary was that people had a positive impression of him but the down side is that the 41% that aren’t familiar with him are ripe for the campaigns to have an effect.”
Neither Johnson, nor Barnes, were held in favorable light by likely voters. Barnes split evenly with 33% favorable and 33% unfavorable. Johnson remains unfavorable in the eyes of respondents by a margin of 39% positive and 47% negative.
In the Governor’s race, 45% of people viewed Evers favorably and 55% unfavorably while 34% had a a favorable opinion of Michels and a 39% unfavorable.
Both results, Franklin said, are within the margin of error.
You can view the full poll results here.