(The Center Square) – A new poll says abortion and stopping President Trump were the top issues for voters in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election.
The Institute for Reforming Government recently released the poll after the April 1 election.
“Every election that doesn’t go one side’s way people can get us to ‘Why voters did what they did?’ We thought it’s important to really take a deep dive and get some data,” IRG’s Chris Reader said Thursday.
“There were really two, well two and a half, issues. There was Trump, Elon Musk, and the Trump agenda, And the left was just absolutely ready, and wanting, and angry, and they were able to get voters out to the polls in an effort – the voters thought – to stop Elon Musk [and] to stop President Trump’s agenda,” Reader added. “The other big issue that is out there, is the abortion issue.”
The poll said 80% of voters said abortion was an important issue, and 75% of voters said stopping Trump’s agenda was important. The poll said another nearly 60% of voters disapproved of Elon Musk.
The poll paints a picture of a wave of voters who didn’t so much vote for Justice-elect Susan Crawford but voted against Trump.
Reader said it hurt Brad Schimel that Wisconsin’s Trump base, largely, didn’t vote for him.
“The left turned out to stop him, [and] the right did not apparently see that same motivation,” Reader said. “So, 600,000 people that voted for [Trump] last fall did not now five months later and feel it necessary to turn out in order to protect the Trump agenda – to vote in-line with what President Trump and Elon Musk were saying.”
The IRG poll did say that 88% of voters said crime was an important issue. But Reader said no more than 5% said it was the issue that decided the race.
Many of the millions of dollars in ads in the race focused on crime, accusing both Crawford and Schimel of being soft on crime.
The IRG poll suggests those ads didn’t move the needle for most voters.
Wisconsin’s April Supreme Court race set spending records, with at least $100 million spent between both Crawford, Schimel, and outside groups.
