Latest Poll Shows Wisconsin Governor’s Race Between Scott Walker And Tony Evers Is A Dead Heat
In the most recent Marquette Law School Poll released on Wednesday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, two-time Republican incumbent Gov. Scott Walker leads Democratic challenger and current Superintendent of Public Schools Tony Evers by just a single percentage point, according to a tweet sent out by the poll’s Twitter account.
Because the poll’s margin of error is 3.6 percent means that no one knows for sure who is really “winning” the race at the moment, just four weeks before Election Day.
The poll found that 47 percent of Wisconsinites favor re-electing Scott Walker for a third term to the state’s executive post. Forty-six percent favor removing Walker in favor of replacing him with Evers, who is the state’s highest-elected Democrat, save for those who serve in federal posts.
Evers and Walker are in a tough battle in a state that has been traditionally “purple,” electing both Democrats and Republicans to statewide offices in the past. Wisconsin, however, went “red” in 2016, electing then-candidate for president Donald Trump, the first time the state had selected a Republican presidential nominee since Ronald Reagan in 1984, according to reporting from Wisconsin Public Radio.
The results from Wednesday’s poll demonstrate just how close this race really is. A previous Marquette Law School Poll from September showed Evers leading the incumbent Walker, holding a five-point lead at the time, according to the poll’s official Twitter account.
BREAKING: New Marquette poll finds Scott Walker, Tony Evers in statistical tie in governor's race https://t.co/oOr1ATQQUS pic.twitter.com/xL8TIUlnWj
— Wisconsin State Journal (@WiStateJournal) October 10, 2018
Walker was first elected governor in 2010 during a Tea Party wave that swept across much of the nation at the time. Immediately after assuming office, Walker proposed an end to a collective bargaining agreement for state workers, a bill that passed his Republican legislature and which he signed into law shortly after, effectively ending the rights of public workers, including teachers, to use their unions to negotiate contracts with the state, according to reporting from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Although that issue continues to be a sticking point for many in the state, other issues are becoming more prominent, including funding schools across the state and the deteriorating condition of roadways across Wisconsin. In February, the state ranked 44th out of all 50 states in the country in terms of its roadways, according to reporting from the Cap Times.
A proposed plant being built in the southeast corner of the state by a company called Foxconn, which Walker provided billions of dollars of tax incentives to in order to build the site, is also a subject of controversy. Forty-eight percent of registered voters think the state is paying more than the project is worth, while 38 percent believe the plant will end up being an economic boon for the state, the Marquette Law School poll tweeted out.
