Biden edges DeSantis, Trump in early Wisconsin polls, Marquette Law finds

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – President Joe Biden holds a slight edge right now over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a potential head-to-head matchup next November, according to a new Marquette University poll.

The MU Law School survey gave the incumbent Democrat a two-point advantage over the GOP governor. The poll also found what is a slight gap for DeSantis starts to yawn when you swap him for former President Donald Trump, who currently leads DeSantis in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

The former president, who lost Wisconsin by less than a percentage point, now faces a nine-point deficit in the possible rematch.

Despite DeSantis’ general election advantage, when it comes to picking between the two candidates to carry the GOP mantle next fall, Republicans and those who lean Republican split almost evenly between him and Trump. The former president topped his top challenger 31% to 30% with nobody else breaking out of the single digits.

While Biden currently holds an advantage over his top two challengers (reminder: there’s still 16 months to go), his support against GOP opponents continues to outpace the percentage of Wisconsinites satisfied with how he is doing his job. Biden’s job approval rose four points, to 45%, in the eight months since Marquette’s last poll, but the bulk of those gains came from those who were undecided last October. He is still underwater overall with those who disapprove only ticking down one point (54%).

Meanwhile, on a state level, Gov. Tony Evers saw a notable post-election bounce in his approval ratings. When Marquette last polled Wisconsin voters on the eve of his reelection, only 46% of voters approved of the job he was doing. Since then, the governor has gone from being one point underwater to a +28 margin, with 57% of the state’s voters happy with Evers’ performance so far.

When it comes to how the state government is running, Poll Director Charles Franklin noted that “unhappiness with how WI government is functioning is “stunningly even” across the partisan spectrum.” Sixty-eight percent of Democrats and Republicans believe state government is broken. That figure is nearly matched by independents, with 64% saying state government is broken.

Sen. Ron Johnson, who was also reelected last fall, saw almost the exact opposite effect. His approval ratings slipped in the first six months of the new congress, going from 43% right before voters hit the polls to 37% now.

Johnson’s Democratic counterpart Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who is up for her own reelection next November, has a 40% approval rating, but with more than one in five voters registering an opinion of her, that is still higher than the 37% who disapproved. As far as whom she will face, Marquette described the potential opponents as not very well known yet. Of the candidates they polled, at least half of respondents had no opinion.

Click here to download the NBC15 News app or our NBC15 First Alert weather app.

Copyright 2023 WMTV. All rights reserved.