What Voters Care About in Wisconsin Ahead of the Primary
The state has turned into an unexpected battleground.
— -- Wisconsin has become an unexpected battleground in the presidential race with Ted Cruz beating Donald Trump by up to 10 points in the polls ahead of the state’s primary on April 5.
Marquette University Law School released a poll that surveyed residents on different political issues. When asked about Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s job performance, 53 percent did not approve of Walker while 43.2 percent did approve.
Professor Barry Burden from the political science department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said that Walker qualifies as a “key issue” in the campaign.
“He recently endorsed Ted Cruz and has been ridiculed by Donald Trump in debates and campaign speeches,” Burden said of Walker. “Republican voters will decide between Cruz and Trump based in part on what they think about Walker.”
Ellie Powell, another political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told ABC News that the anti-Trump movement started in Wisconsin back when Walker was running against him, and those sentiments haven’t died down since Walker dropped out. .
"The Republican political establishment here -- both politicians and talk radio hosts -- have been pushing back against Trump since he entered the race," Powell said.
"I think in some ways Cruz is capitalizing on the anti-Trump groundwork that others have been laying for months,” she said.
In addition to their specific feelings on the individual candidates, poll respondents were asked about their thoughts on various issues like fighting ISIS, the role of trade deals, immigration and tax reform. The two issues with the closest splits were free trade agreements -- 41.2 percent said free trade was good for the U.S. while 40.4 percent disagreed -- and whether the U.S. should send troops to Syria to fight Islamic militants -- 44.6 percent said yes while 48.6 percent said no.
There was another fairly close split on the possible congressional hearings to confirm Merrick Garland as a new Supreme Court justice, with 49.3 percent saying the hearings should be scheduled before the 2016 election and 41.1 percent saying the hearings shouldn't be held until 2017.
A majority of respondents -- 59.7 percent -- believe undocumented immigrants should stay and apply for citizenship. Only 15.6 percent of respondents believe they should be required to leave the country.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents are in favor of increasing taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations in order to reduce income inequality, while just less than a third of respondents opposed the idea.
That said, more people (52.8 percent) said they do not believe it is the role of the government to reduce differences of income, while 41.2 percent believed it was.
More than three-quarters of all respondents categorized the government in Washington as representing their views either "not too well" or "not well at all."
