The jury trial I wrote about several weeks ago has come to a conclusion, with the jury finding Tesla liable in the death of Naibel Benavides Leon. Notably, the jury concluded that the driver, George McGee, was 67% responsible for the crash, while Tesla was 33% responsible. Nonetheless, Tesla will be required (pursuant to a judgment entered yesterday) to pay more than $42 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages.
The verdict may not survive appeal or may be reduced. Still, the result is a major vindication of the plaintiff’s theory of defect against Tesla, and ought to put the company on notice that its “blame the driver” litigation strategy may not hold water with juries.
Tesla was able to demonstrate at trial that the driver’s distraction was a significant factor in this case (in the language of 1L torts, a but-for cause). McGee dropped his cellphone and was looking for it on the floor of his car when he ran a stop sign at 65 miles per hour and crashed into a parked Chevy Tahoe. Tesla sought to pin blame for the crash on him, arguing that no level 2 driver assistance system could have prevented it. To some extent this worked, as shown by the jury’s finding that McGee was 67% responsible for the incident (he was not a defendant in the case, having previously settled plaintiffs’ separate case against him).
Plus 1k adults share their biggest concerns about the country
The latest national survey from the Marquette Law School Poll is out now. Here are just a few of the interesting results we found. For more, read our press release about national politics here, our Supreme Court press release, or our complete topline and crosstab tables. At the last link you’ll also find our new Trend Toplines file, which includes tables and graphs showing how the responses to each question have changed over time.
The Supreme Court’s decisions were popular this term.
Majorities of adults favored the Supreme Court’s rulings in all 7 of the major cases we asked about from the past term.
Uphold TX law requiring proof of age to access adult websites: 75% favor
Require due process for those subject to deportation: 73% favor
Uphold TN ban on transgender treatment for minors: 71% favor
Allow parents to opt school children out of lessons: 71% favor
Uphold law requiring TikTok sale: 60% favor
Require religious tax exemption for Catholic Charities: 59%
Limit district court use of nationwide injunctions: 56% favor
Overall, 49% approved of the Court’s job performance and 51% disapproved. This is a four-point drop in those approving, driven by a large (13-point) drop-off among Democrats.
Back in the summer of 2021, the parties scarcely differed in their views of the court. This changed rapidly, particularly following the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v Wade. In the latest poll, 83% of Republicans approve of the Supreme Court’s job vs 20% of Democrats and 45% of independents.[i]
Trump’s overall job approval is stable but varies a lot by topic.
Approval of Trump’s job performance ranges from +8 on border security to -30 on tariffs, inflation, and the cost of living.
Pessimism about inflation
Opposition to immigration and frustration with high inflation helped elect Trump in 2024, and initially Trump enjoyed support for his policies on both these issues.
In December 2024, shortly after winning the election, 81% of Trump voters anticipated that his policies would decrease inflation. This fell to 75% in February, 67% in March, 59% in May, and 58% in July.
Among all adults in July, just 28% believe Trump’s policies will decrease inflation and 60% expect an increase. 65% percent predict that “inflation and the cost of living will increase” over the next 12 months, while just 18% expect it to decline.
Support for deportations is waning
Since early 2024, we’ve asked “Do you favor or oppose deporting immigrants who are living in the United States illegally back to their home countries?” Phrased this way, support for deportations grew after Trump’s election, reaching 68% favoring deportations in March with 32% opposed. In July, support for deportations fell to 57% with 43% opposed.
Views on deportations are highly dependent on how the question is phrased. Throughout this period, we have also asked, “Do you favor or oppose deporting immigrants who are living in the United States illegally back to their home countries even if they have lived here for a number of years, have jobs and no criminal record?” Put this way, support for deportations has never exceeded 44% and stood at 38% in July 2025.
Most people (55%) think the U.S. is “mostly deporting immigrants who have no criminal records,” while 45% believe mostly immigrants with criminal records are being deported. July is the first time we’ve included this question.
Themes in open-ended responses
Unlike our Wisconsin state polls, all survey respondents complete our national polls online. This allows us to ask open-ended, free-response questions. Since December, we’ve asked, “What do you [like/dislike] about Donald Trump?” In July, we added a new question. “What is your biggest concern about the country these days?”
You can read, search, sort, and filter all 1,005 responses at this link. This is an exercise I find invaluable in understanding what voters (and non-voters) are actually thinking.
Here are a few of my impressions from the free responses:
The balance of open-ended responses has shifted modestly against Trump, tracking his slow decline in overall job approval. In December 2024, 51% named things they both liked and disliked about Trump, while 12% didn’t dislike anything and 35% didn’t like anything. In July, a similar number, 49%, list likes and dislikes, but the those who don’t like anything grew to 40% and those who don’t dislike anything fell to 8%.
If I had to describe the content of the “biggest concern” question in one word it would be “fear” or “anxiety” even more so than “anger,” which was also present in many responses.
Ninety-one people spontaneously mentioned going to war as among their top concerns for the country.
Many answers described social divisions and frustrations with other Americans. Elsewhere in the survey, 56% said that “generally speaking, most people can’t be trusted.” This is the highest level mistrust we have measured in 24 surveys going back to September 2021. Our open-ended explorer tool allows you to filter answers by the respondent’s level of trust in others.
Over 90 people spontaneously mentioned something related to immigration, ICE, or deportations as among their biggest concerns. Of these, 58% were generally supportive of Trump’s policies, 31% were opposed, and the views of 11% were unclear or unclassifiable.
13 people, 11 of them Republicans, spontaneously mentioned Jeffrey Epstein, always in criticism of Donald Trump. Our survey was in the field from July 7-16, with most interviews completed by July 9th. The Department of Justice published its memo ending the Epstein investigation on July 7th.
[i] These figures are for unleaned party ID, where independents who lean to a party are still counted as independents. The press release shows figures for leaned party ID. I use the unleaned party ID in this graphic because it has a longer time series.
Gov. Tony Evers announced July 24 that he will not seek a third term in 2026.
Evers has been the most consistently popular state politician in Wisconsin since his election in 2018. He has maintained an average approval rating above 50%, with disapproval averaging 41%. He is also better known and better liked than most other office holders in the state.
With Evers out of the race all the candidates in both the Democratic and Republican primaries will begin with very low name recognition and will need substantial campaign resources to introduce themselves to voters statewide.
A majority of registered voters in the June 2025 Marquette Law School poll said they would not like Evers to seek a third term, though over 80% of Democrats wanted him to run.
Should Evers run? (June 2025 MULawPoll)
Would you personally like to see Tony Evers seek a third term as governor in 2026?
Poll dates
Yes
No
Don’t know
Refused
n
6/13-19/25
42
55
2
1
873
Evers retains strong support for a third term with Democratic voters, 83% of whom support a third term bid, but 50% of independents oppose a third term as do a very large majority of Republicans.
Party ID
Yes
No
Don’t know
Refused
n
Republican
7
93
0
0
398
Independent
37
50
9
4
106
Democrat
83
15
1
1
363
Evers job approval history
Overall, do you approve or disapprove of the way Tony Evers is handling his job as Governor of Wisconsin?
Poll dates
Net
Approve
Disapprove
Don’t know
Refused
n
1/16-20/19
17
39
22
38
1
800
4/3-7/19
10
47
37
15
0
800
8/25-29/19
20
54
34
10
1
800
10/13-17/19
18
52
34
13
1
799
11/13-17/19
5
47
42
10
1
801
12/3-8/19
12
50
38
11
1
800
1/8-12/20
11
51
40
9
0
800
2/19-23/20
13
51
38
10
1
1000
3/24-29/20
36
65
29
6
1
813
5/3-7/20
26
59
33
7
1
811
6/14-18/20
16
54
38
6
1
805
8/4-9/20
20
57
37
6
0
801
8/30-9/3/20
8
51
43
5
2
802
9/30-10/4/20
10
52
42
5
1
805
10/21-25/20
7
50
43
7
0
806
8/3-8/21
7
50
43
7
0
807
10/26-31/21
-1
45
46
8
1
805
2/22-27/22
9
50
41
8
1
802
4/19-24/22
6
49
43
7
1
805
6/14-20/22
3
48
45
6
1
803
8/10-15/22
2
47
45
8
1
811
9/6-11/22
-3
44
47
8
0
801
10/3-9/22
-2
46
48
5
1
801
10/24-11/1/22
-1
46
47
6
2
802
6/8-13/23
18
57
39
4
0
913
10/26-11/2/23
7
53
46
2
0
908
1/24-31/24
7
51
44
5
0
930
4/3-10/24
8
52
44
3
0
814
6/12-20/24
7
51
44
6
0
871
7/24-8/1/24
7
51
44
5
0
877
8/28-9/5/24
7
51
44
5
0
822
9/18-26/24
2
48
46
5
0
882
10/16-24/24
6
51
45
4
0
834
2/19-26/25
5
49
44
6
0
864
6/13-19/25
2
48
46
5
0
873
Average approval: 50.4% Average disapproval: 41.2%
Number of poll with positive and negative net approval:
Net postive approval: 31 of 35 polls.
Net negative approval: 4 of 35 polls.
Approval by year
Year
Net
Approve
Disapprove
Don’t know
Refused
n
2019
13
48
35
16
1
4800
2020
16
54
38
7
1
7443
2021
2
47
45
7
1
1612
2022
2
47
45
7
1
5625
2023
13
55
42
3
0
1821
2024
7
51
44
5
0
6030
2025
4
49
45
6
0
1737
Evers favorability
[Tony Evers] Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of <> or haven’t you heard enough about them yet?
Poll dates
Net
Favorable
Unfavorable
Not heard+DK
Haven’t heard enough
Don’t know
n
2/25-3/1/18
7
20
13
66
48
18
800
6/13-17/18
5
22
17
61
45
16
800
7/11-15/18
11
25
14
60
46
14
800
8/15-19/18
8
31
23
45
37
9
800
9/12-16/18
9
35
26
39
29
10
800
10/3-7/18
3
38
35
27
22
5
1000
10/24-28/18
0
38
38
24
18
5
1400
1/16-20/19
17
41
24
34
28
6
800
4/3-7/19
13
48
35
17
12
5
800
8/25-29/19
14
49
35
16
11
5
800
10/13-17/19
12
47
35
18
13
5
799
11/13-17/19
2
43
41
15
12
3
801
12/3-8/19
8
45
37
17
12
5
800
1/8-12/20
8
45
37
17
14
3
800
2/19-23/20
3
43
40
16
12
4
1000
3/24-29/20
26
54
28
17
11
6
813
5/3-7/20
14
50
36
13
7
5
811
6/14-18/20
17
54
37
9
7
2
805
8/4-9/20
17
52
35
13
9
4
801
8/30-9/3/20
6
47
41
11
9
2
802
9/30-10/4/20
7
47
40
12
9
3
805
10/21-25/20
4
47
43
10
8
2
806
8/3-8/21
4
46
42
11
8
3
807
10/26-31/21
-3
42
45
12
9
4
805
2/22-27/22
6
47
41
11
7
4
802
4/19-24/22
5
47
42
10
7
3
805
6/14-20/22
2
44
42
14
11
2
803
8/10-15/22
5
46
41
12
6
6
811
9/6-11/22
0
45
45
10
7
3
801
10/3-9/22
-2
44
46
9
6
3
801
10/24-11/1/22
-2
44
46
9
6
3
802
6/8-13/23
13
52
39
9
8
1
913
10/26-11/2/23
8
50
42
8
7
1
908
1/24-31/24
7
52
45
3
3
0
930
4/3-10/24
5
50
45
5
5
0
814
6/12-20/24
8
51
43
6
6
0
871
7/24-8/1/24
9
50
41
9
9
0
877
8/28-9/5/24
6
49
43
8
8
0
822
9/18-26/24
9
51
42
7
6
0
882
10/16-24/24
5
49
44
7
7
0
834
2/19-26/25
0
47
47
7
6
0
864
6/13-19/25
-2
45
47
8
8
0
873
Evers favorability by year
Year
Net
Favorable
Unfavorable
Not heard+DK
Haven’t heard enough
Don’t know
n
2018
6
31
25
43
33
10
6400
2019
12
46
34
20
15
5
4800
2020
11
49
38
13
10
4
7443
2021
0
44
44
12
8
4
1612
2022
3
46
43
11
7
4
5625
2023
10
51
41
8
7
1
1821
2024
7
50
43
6
6
0
6030
2025
-1
46
47
8
7
0
1737
Building name familiarity
Evers is now far better known than any of the potential Democratic or Republican candidates. His absence from the race levels the playing field with all candidates having to take time to build recognition. While candidates may be well known locally in their city or district, creating statewide name recognition requires extensive campaigning.
In February 2018, Evers was unknown to 66% of registered voters (who said they either hadn’t heard enough or didn’t know if they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of him.) Even by July 2018 he was still unfamiliar to 60%. This is typical of non-incumbent candidates who must introduce themselves to voters statewide.
For comparison, in February 2022 Rebecca Kleefisch, after serving 8 years as Lt. Governor, was unfamiliar to 50%. In January 2019, following his election as Attorney General, Josh Kaul was not familiar to 77%. In June 2023, U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany was unfamiliar to 75%.
