Also:

• In Democratic field, 45% of voters are still undecided; Hong leads contestants with 26%, Barnes second at 15%; Rodriguez had 11% before she dropped out of the race
• Head-to-head polling points to a close final election in November, regardless of the Democratic nominee
• Gov. Evers’ poll numbers tick upward, while President Trump’s decline to the lowest level of his presidency
• Majority of voters say Republican party is too conservative, Democratic party too liberal
• Two-thirds of Democratic voters say having a candidate who can win in November is “extremely important”
• Economic issues continue to be the top concerns of Wisconsin voters overall

Please note: Complete Poll results and methodology information can be found online at law.marquette.edu/poll

MILWAUKEE — A new Marquette Law School Poll survey of Wisconsin registered voters finds State Rep. Francesca Hong leading the Democratic primary field, yet a plurality of voters are still undecided as the Aug. 11 primary approaches.

Among Democratic primary voters, Hong is the choice of 26%, followed by former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes with 15%. Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, who dropped out of the race after polling was completed, has 11%, with 2% for Joel Brennan and 1% for State Sen. Kelda Roys. Forty-five percent are undecided. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley dropped out of the race prior to the poll being conducted, reentering the race after it was completed, and so is not included.

All voters were asked who their second choice would be. When Rodriguez’ supporters’ second choices are allocated to the other candidates, Hong stands at 27%, Barnes at 18%, Brennan at 5%, and Roys at 2%, with 48% undecided.

Among Rodriguez supporters, 29% pick Brennan as their second choice, 28% choose Barnes, 12% say Hong, and 4% go to Roys, while 26% say they haven’t decided.

While she was in the race, Rodriguez had the largest percentage of second choices, 25%, followed by Barnes at 20%, Hong at 9%, Brennan 6%, and Roys 4%. A substantial 35% said they were undecided on a second choice.

The exits of Crowley and then of Rodriguez, and the subsequent reentry of Crowley, leave a lot of uncertainty in a race to which many voters had been paying relatively little attention, as the large undecided rate shows. In the previous Marquette Law School Poll in March, 65% were undecided.

In the Republican primary, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany is supported by 67%, with Andy Manske at 2% and 30% undecided. The high undecided rate in the Republican primary is a further indication that the Aug. 11 primaries have not been at the center of attention for voters of either party.

Among Democratic primary voters who support a candidate, 64% say they are certain about their choice, while 36% say they might change their mind. Hong supporters are most firm in their support, with 72% saying they are certain to support her.

Among Democrats who have chosen a primary candidate, 67% say having a candidate who can win against the Republican in November is extremely important to them. Among Hong supporters, 69% say winning in November is extremely important, as do 65% of those supporting Barnes.

This survey was conducted July 8-16, 2026, interviewing 838 Wisconsin registered voters, with a margin of error of +/-4.5 percentage points. For likely voters, the sample size is 695, with a margin of error of +/-4.9 percentage points. The sample size for Republican primary voters is 399, with a margin of error of +/-6.5 percentage points. The sample size for Democratic primary voters is 430, with a margin of error of +/-6.1 percentage points.

Sources of support

Support for candidates varies across ideological lines among Democratic primary voters. Of those who call themselves “very liberal,” 58% say they support Hong, as do 26% of those who identify as “liberal.” She has just 8% of support among those who say they are “moderate” or “conservative.” Democratic primary voters who are very liberal are also the least likely to say they are undecided at 24%, while 39% of liberal voters and 60% of moderate and conservative voters are undecided in the Democratic primary. The full results by ideology for Democratic primary voters are shown in Table 1. (All results in the tables are stated as percentages.)

Table 1: Democratic primary vote, by ideology

Among registered voters in the Democratic primary

Ideology	Vote choice
	Mandela Barnes	Joel Brennan	Francesca Hong	Sara Rodriguez	Kelda Roys	Haven’t decided
With Rodriguez
Moderate/conservative	15	3	8	12	1	60
Liberal	18	0	26	16	0	39
Very liberal	10	0	58	3	4	24
Without Rodriguez
Moderate/conservative	21	5	10	NA	1	62
Liberal	20	7	27	NA	1	44
Very liberal	11	0	59	NA	5	25
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: In the Democratic primary for Governor, will you vote for, and please bear with me as I read the 5 candidates…
Note: “Without Rodriguez” allocates her support to respondents’ second-choice candidates

Among these Democratic primary voters, 24% describe themselves as very liberal, 31% as liberal, 38% as moderate, and 7% as conservative or very conservative. Because of Wisconsin’s open primary, those saying they will vote in the Democratic primary includes 6% Republicans, 13% independents, and 81% Democrats.

Hong describes herself as a democratic socialist and is a member of the socialist caucus in the Wisconsin legislature. Self-described socialist candidates have recently won in primaries in New York and Colorado, as well as the New York mayor’s race in 2025. The emergence of Democratic socialists in Democratic primaries in Wisconsin and around the country raises the question of how voters view this political label.

To test this, the sample was divided into two random half-samples, with one sample asked to rate their opinion of “Democratic Socialists of America” (DSA), the organization most prominent in the socialist movement. The other half-sample was asked about the label some candidates apply to themselves as “Democratic socialist,” without mention of the organization. More people say they don’t have an opinion of the organization, DSA, than lack an opinion of the label “Democratic socialist.” The percent unfavorable is higher for the Democratic socialist label than for the DSA organization’s name, while the favorable percentages are the same. The two responses are combined in a single measure for the full sample, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Favorability to Democratic socialists

Among registered voters

Question wording	Favorability
	Net Fav	Favorable	Unfavorable	Haven’t heard enough
Democratic Socialists of America	-18	25	43	32
Democratic socialists	-30	25	55	19
Combined DSA/Democratic socialists	-24	25	49	26
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey July 8-16, 2026
Question: Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of [INSERT NAME] or haven’t you heard enough about them yet?
Note: The sample was divided into two random half-samples, with one asked about ‘Democratic Socialists of America’ and the other asked about ‘Democratic socialists.’ The combined measure merges these two answers for the full sample.

Opinion of Democratic socialists varies by party and by political ideology among Democrats. Among Republicans, 1% have a favorable view (using the combined measure) with 84% unfavorable, and among independents 13% are favorable with 52% unfavorable. Fifteen percent of Republicans say they haven’t heard enough, as do 31% of independents. Among Democrats, 54% have a favorable opinion of Democratic socialists, 10% are unfavorable, and 36% haven’t heard enough.

Among Democrats, views of Democratic socialists vary sharply by political ideology. Among moderate or conservative Democrats, opinion is slightly net positive but with more than half saying they haven’t heard enough. Opinion is much more positive with liberals and overwhelmingly so among Democrats who describe themselves as very liberal, as shown in Table 3.

Table 3: Favorability to Democratic socialists, combined measure

Among Democratic registered voters

Ideology	Favorability
	Net Fav	Favorable	Unfavorable	Haven’t heard enough
Among all Democratic registered voters	44	54	10	36
Moderate/conservative	6	25	19	56
Liberal	54	60	6	33
Very liberal	79	82	3	14
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey July 8-16, 2026
Question: Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of [INSERT NAME] or haven’t you heard enough about them yet?
Note: The sample was divided into two random half-samples, with one asked about ‘Democratic Socialists of America’ and the other asked about ‘Democratic socialists.’ The combined measure merges these two answers for the full sample.

Among Democratic primary voters who are favorable to Democratic socialists, Hong wins 45% of the primary vote, and among those unfavorable to Democratic socialists she receives 8%, the same as among those who say they haven’t heard enough to have an opinion of Democratic socialists.

Hong has notably more support from younger primary voters than from older ones, and older voters remain more undecided than the young, as shown in Table 4.

Table 4: Democratic primary vote, by age

Among registered voters in the Democratic primary

Age	Vote choice
	Mandela Barnes	Joel Brennan	Francesca Hong	Sara Rodriguez	Kelda Roys	Haven’t decided
With Rodriguez
18-29	14	0	43	4	4	35
30-44	12	1	37	6	0	44
45-59	17	4	20	13	1	45
60+	17	1	9	19	1	53
Without Rodriguez
18-29	14	4	43	NA	4	35
30-44	16	1	38	NA	0	45
45-59	20	9	21	NA	1	48
60+	22	5	12	NA	2	59
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: In the Democratic primary for Governor, will you vote for, and please bear with me as I read the 5 candidates…
Note: “Without Rodriguez” allocates her support to respondents’ second-choice candidates

There is less variation in candidate support by education or by income, despite Hong’s campaign appeals to working-class voters. Hong does slightly better with college graduates than non-college graduates, though none of these differences are as large as the ideology or age differences. The percentage undecided is similar regardless of education. The results for education are shown in Table 5.

Table 5: Democratic primary vote, by education

Among registered voters in the Democratic primary

Education	Vote choice
	Mandela Barnes	Joel Brennan	Francesca Hong	Sara Rodriguez	Kelda Roys	Haven’t decided
With Rodriguez
Non-college	15	0	25	12	2	46
College	14	3	27	10	1	44
Without Rodriguez
Non-college	19	6	24	NA	2	49
College	18	3	31	NA	2	46
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: In the Democratic primary for Governor, will you vote for, and please bear with me as I read the 5 candidates…
Note: “Without Rodriguez” allocates her support to respondents’ second-choice candidates

Vote choice by income shows similarly small differences in candidate choice, with Hong doing a bit better with lower-income than with higher-income voters. This is shown in Table 6.

Table 6: Democratic primary vote, by income

Among registered voters in the Democratic primary

Income	Vote choice
	Mandela Barnes	Joel Brennan	Francesca Hong	Sara Rodriguez	Kelda Roys	Haven’t decided
With Rodriguez
under $50k	24	0	28	10	0	38
$50k to $99k	10	2	27	10	1	51
$100k plus	11	2	23	14	3	46
Without Rodriguez
under $50k	26	4	28	NA	0	41
$50k to $99k	12	5	29	NA	1	54
$100k plus	17	5	25	NA	5	48
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: In the Democratic primary for Governor, will you vote for, and please bear with me as I read the 5 candidates…
Note: “Without Rodriguez” allocates her support to respondents’ second-choice candidates

The sample size of non-white voters is too small to report separately for Black, Hispanic, and other racial groups. Combining non-white voters shows modest differences in candidate choice, but a larger percentage undecided among non-white than among white voters, as shown in Table 7.

Table 7: Democratic primary vote, by race

Among registered voters in the Democratic primary

Race	Vote choice
	Mandela Barnes	Joel Brennan	Francesca Hong	Sara Rodriguez	Kelda Roys	Haven’t decided
With Rodriguez
White	15	2	27	11	2	44
Non-White	12	0	21	15	0	52
Without Rodriguez
White	19	4	28	NA	2	46
Non-White	15	9	21	NA	0	55
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: In the Democratic primary for Governor, will you vote for, and please bear with me as I read the 5 candidates…
Note: “Without Rodriguez” allocates her support to respondents’ second-choice candidates

General election matchups

In general election matchups with Tiffany, among registered voters, Barnes is the only Democrat in the survey and still in the race with an edge over the Republican (4 points), while the others trail by 3 or 4 percentage points. All of these matchups are relatively close. Because Crowley had dropped out of the race when the poll was conducted, he was not included in the survey. Rodriguez holds a 1-point margin over Tiffany in the survey but has dropped out of the race. The results are shown in Table 8.

Table 8: November general election matchups

Among registered voters

Matchup	Vote choice
	Net D-R	Democrat	Republican	Haven’t decided
Barnes vs. Tiffany	4	44	40	16
Rodriguez vs. Tiffany	1	42	41	17
Brennan vs. Tiffany	-3	39	42	19
Hong vs. Tiffany	-3	40	43	17
Roys vs. Tiffany	-4	38	42	21
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: If the candidates for governor were (…, the Democrat) and (Tom Tiffany, the Republican), for whom would you vote?

The matchups change when looking at likely voters, i.e., those who say they are certain to vote in November. Here, Barnes leads Tiffany by 5 percentage points, and Hong ties with Tiffany, while Brennan trails by 1 point and Roys by 2 points. Rodriguez’ margin rises to 4 points.

This shift is due to more Democrats saying they are certain to vote than Republicans, a pattern that has appeared in each recent Marquette Law School Poll survey of Wisconsin. Among Democrats, 84% say they are certain to vote in November, compared to 79% among Republicans and 69% among independents. Whether this pattern will continue to hold through the fall is unknown. A vigorous campaign may boost the currently lagging Republican motivation to vote, or Democratic enthusiasm may decline. The matchups among likely voters are shown in Table 9.

Table 9: November general election matchups

Among likely voters

Matchup	Vote choice
	Net D-R	Democrat	Republican	Haven’t decided
Barnes vs. Tiffany	5	47	42	10
Rodriguez vs. Tiffany	4	47	43	10
Hong vs. Tiffany	0	44	44	11
Brennan vs. Tiffany	-1	43	44	13
Roys vs. Tiffany	-2	42	44	14
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: If the candidates for governor were (…, the Democrat) and (Tom Tiffany, the Republican), for whom would you vote?

Comparing the general election performances of Barnes and Hong finds that, among registered voters, Democrats and independents are more supportive of Barnes than they are of Hong. Barnes leads Tiffany by 11 points with independents, while Hong trails Tiffany by 7 points with that group. Barnes wins 91% from Democrats while Hong holds 85% within the party. Democrats are also slightly more undecided in the race with Hong than in the race with Barnes. Tiffany’s support among Republicans is virtually identical against either Barnes or Hong, with slightly less party loyalty than for either Democrat. This comparison is shown in Table 10.

Table 10: November matchups, by party identification

Among registered voters

Party ID	Vote choice
	Democrat	Republican	Haven’t decided
Barnes vs. Tiffany
Republican	5	83	13
Independent	27	16	53
Democrat	91	1	9
Hong vs. Tiffany
Republican	4	84	13
Independent	23	30	47
Democrat	85	3	12
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: If the candidates for governor were (Mandela Barnes, the Democrat) and (Tom Tiffany, the Republican), for whom would you vote?
Question: If the candidates for governor were (Francesca Hong, the Democrat) and (Tom Tiffany, the Republican), for whom would you vote?

The same comparison among likely voters shows both Barnes and Hong doing slightly better within their party and Hong improving to a 6-point margin with independents. Tiffany also improves with Republican voters and does 1 point better with Republicans than Hong does with Democrats, though he remains behind Barnes’ level of party loyalty. This is shown in Table 11.

Table 11: November matchups, by party identification

Among likely voters

Party ID	Vote choice
	Democrat	Republican	Haven’t decided
Barnes vs. Tiffany
Republican	6	89	6
Independent	27	21	48
Democrat	94	0	6
Hong vs. Tiffany
Republican	4	90	6
Independent	33	27	39
Democrat	89	2	10
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: If the candidates for governor were (Mandela Barnes, the Democrat) and (Tom Tiffany, the Republican), for whom would you vote?
Question: If the candidates for governor were (Francesca Hong, the Democrat) and (Tom Tiffany, the Republican), for whom would you vote?

A majority of all partisan groups say it is more important for a governor to be willing to compromise to achieve some of their goals than to be uncompromising in their principles. Republicans are somewhat less supportive of compromise than are Democrats or independents. Among all registered voters, 72% say compromise is more important, while 28% say they prefer a governor who is uncompromising. The comparison by party identification is shown in Table 12.

Table 12: More important for governor to compromise, by party identification

Among registered voters

Party ID	Compromise
	Uncompromising in their principles	Willing to compromise in order to achieve some of their goals
Among all registered voters	28	72
Republican	37	63
Independent	17	82
Democrat	20	79
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: Which is more important in a governor: (someone who is uncompromising in their principles) or (someone willing to compromise in order to achieve some of their goals)?

Vote in legislative elections

Asked generically about the November elections for the state legislature, 46% of registered voters say they will vote for the Democratic candidate, 42% for the Republican candidate, and 12% say they haven’t decided. Among likely voters, 48% favor the Democrat, 44% prefer the Republican, and 8% haven’t decided. This “generic ballot” does not address party strength in individual districts but provides a general sense of the electorate. Among registered voters, Democrats hold a 10-point advantage in party loyalty over Republicans, 97% to 87%, while independents favor the Democrat 35% to 19%, with 46% undecided.

Favorability and name recognition

Name ID, involving the ability of respondents to give a favorable or unfavorable opinion of a candidate, is a measure of how well-known candidates are. In this poll, only Tiffany and Barnes have a name ID more than 50%, with 71% having an opinion of Tiffany and 60% of Barnes. Hong, who is leading the Democratic primary field, has a 44% name ID rate, while the other remaining Democratic candidates are rated by 21% or less among registered voters. Rodriguez has a name ID of 35%. This is another indicator showing that the public has not paid close attention to the candidates and that the campaign advertising has not helped many voters learn who the candidates are.

In terms of net favorability, all the current candidates are viewed more unfavorably than favorably, though by varying amounts. Rodriguez has a barely net positive rating. Tiffany at -1 net favorable has the best such rating among the active candidates, with Hong at -4 and Barnes at -8. The ratings of all candidates are shown in Table 13.

Table 13: Name ID and favorability of candidates for governor

Among registered voters

Candidate	Favorability ratings
	Name ID	Net Fav	Favorable	Unfavorable	Haven’t heard enough
Sara Rodriguez	35	1	18	17	65
Tom Tiffany	71	-1	35	36	29
Francesca Hong	44	-4	20	24	54
Kelda Roys	21	-7	7	14	78
Mandela Barnes	60	-8	26	34	40
Joel Brennan	16	-8	4	12	82
Andy Manske	14	-8	3	11	84
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of <> or haven’t you heard enough about them yet?

Familiarity and favorability differ across party, with Republicans more familiar and favorable to their party’s candidates and vice versa for Democrats. Independents are less familiar with all candidates than are partisans, and they view them all net negatively, except for Rodriguez. Tiffany is the best known across all partisan groups, with a high positive net rating among Republicans, but the most negative net rating among independents and among Democrats. Among Democrats, Barnes and Hong have the highest net favorable ratings and are the two most familiar to Democrats. They are less familiar to independents, with Hong holding a net favorable rating of -4 points and Barnes -10 points. The full set of ratings is shown in Table 14.

Table 14: Name ID and favorability of candidates for governor, by party identification

Among registered voters

Candidate	Favorability ratings
	Name ID	Net Fav	Favorable	Unfavorable	Haven’t heard enough
Republican
Tom Tiffany	75	63	69	6	25
Andy Manske	17	-7	5	12	82
Joel Brennan	19	-15	2	17	81
Kelda Roys	21	-21	0	21	78
Sara Rodriguez	28	-22	3	25	70
Francesca Hong	44	-40	2	42	56
Mandela Barnes	59	-51	4	55	41
Independent
Sara Rodriguez	29	5	17	12	71
Francesca Hong	24	-4	10	14	73
Kelda Roys	13	-7	3	10	84
Andy Manske	11	-7	2	9	85
Joel Brennan	9	-9	0	9	87
Mandela Barnes	44	-10	17	27	55
Tom Tiffany	57	-13	22	35	44
Democrat
Mandela Barnes	65	39	52	13	35
Francesca Hong	52	36	44	8	46
Sara Rodriguez	43	25	34	9	57
Kelda Roys	23	7	15	8	76
Joel Brennan	15	-1	7	8	83
Andy Manske	12	-10	1	11	87
Tom Tiffany	72	-66	3	69	28
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of <> or haven’t you heard enough about them yet?

Favorability ratings for the candidates for attorney general are shown in Table 15. Both Democratic incumbent Josh Kaul and Republican challenger Eric Toney have net positive favorability, but neither reaches 40% name identification.

Table 15: Name ID and favorability of candidates for attorney general

Among registered voters

Candidate	Favorability ratings
	Name ID	Net Fav	Favorable	Unfavorable	Haven’t heard enough
Josh Kaul	39	5	22	17	59
Eric Toney	19	3	11	8	80
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of <> or haven’t you heard enough about them yet?

Candidate and party ideology

Voters see the candidates for governor as representing a range of ideological views, though many say they haven’t heard enough to know the candidates’ liberal or conservative ideology. Tiffany is seen as the most conservative, with 29% rating him very conservative. Hong is seen as the most liberal, with 34% rating her very liberal. Only 6% say Tiffany is moderate, and only 4% see Hong as moderate. In contrast to these candidates, 13% of voters see themselves as very conservative and 12% say they are very liberal, while 33% view themselves as moderate.

The ideology ratings for each candidate, and the respondents’ ratings of themselves, are shown in Table 16. The respondents’ self-placement is shown first, with the candidates then in order of the increasing percentage rated very liberal.

Table 16: Ideology of respondent and of candidates

Among registered voters

Who	Ideology
	Very conservative	Conservative	Moderate	Liberal	Very liberal	Haven’t heard enough
Self-placement	13	26	33	17	12	NA
Tiffany	29	37	6	1	1	26
Brennan	0	1	7	15	5	71
Roys	0	0	6	16	9	69
Rodriguez	0	1	9	24	11	55
Barnes	0	2	9	29	24	36
Hong	0	1	4	17	34	45
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: In general, would you describe your political views as… Question: In general, would you describe (name) as…

Just over half of registered voters see each party as too ideologically extreme. Fifty-one percent say the Republican party in Wisconsin is too conservative, and 52% say the Democratic party in Wisconsin is too liberal. With respect to the Republican party, 30% of registered voters say the party’s ideology is about right, as do 26% for the Democratic party.

Moderates are less likely to see either party as about right than as too ideological. More than half of very conservative and conservative voters say the Republican party is about right for them, while liberals are evenly divided between seeing the Democrats as too moderate and as about right. More very liberal people say the Democrats are too moderate than say it is about right. The fit between the respondent’s ideology and their view of the parties is shown in Table 17.

Table 17: Perception of party ideology, by respondent ideology

Among registered voters

Respondent ideology	Party ideology
	Too conservative	Too moderate	Too liberal	About right for me
Republican party
Among all registered voters	51	10	8	30
Very conservative	1	26	22	52
Conservative	12	19	12	57
Moderate	61	5	6	27
Liberal	94	3	2	1
Very liberal	98	1	1	0
Democratic party
Among all registered voters	6	16	52	26
Very conservative	1	3	94	2
Conservative	1	1	88	9
Moderate	8	7	47	37
Liberal	5	42	12	42
Very liberal	17	48	4	31
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: As far as you are concerned, is the Republican party in Wisconsin (too conservative), (too moderate), or (too liberal) or is it about right for you?
Question: As far as you are concerned, is the Democratic party in Wisconsin (too conservative), (too moderate), or (too liberal) or is it about right for you?

Within each party, about half say their party’s ideology is about right. Thirty percent of Democrats say their party is too moderate, while 18% of Republicans say their party is too moderate. Relatively few Republicans, 14%, say their party is too conservative, similar to the 12% of Democrats who say their party is too liberal.

A majority of independents see each party as too ideologically extreme for them. This is shown in Table 18.

Table 18: Perception of party ideology, by party identification

Among registered voters

Party ID	Party ideology
	Too conservative	Too moderate	Too liberal	About right for me
Republican party
Among all registered voters	51	10	8	30
Republican	14	18	12	56
Independent	56	12	5	24
Democrat	89	2	5	4
Democratic party
Among all registered voters	6	16	52	26
Republican	3	3	87	6
Independent	9	14	59	17
Democrat	8	30	12	50
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: As far as you are concerned, is the Republican party in Wisconsin (too conservative), (too moderate), or (too liberal) or is it about right for you?
Question: As far as you are concerned, is the Democratic party in Wisconsin (too conservative), (too moderate), or (too liberal) or is it about right for you?

Voters see shifting ideology in both parties, with 54% saying the Republican party in Wisconsin has become more conservative over the past 10 years and 54% saying the Democratic party in Wisconsin has become more liberal. A few people see each party as becoming more moderate, while very few see the Republicans becoming more liberal or Democrats more conservative. About a quarter say the parties haven’t changed.

The most conservative voters see less conservative movement in the Republican party, and the most liberal voters see less liberal movement in the Democratic party. Moderates see more change in the Republican party than in the Democratic party. These comparisons are shown in Table 19.

Table 19: Perception of change in party ideology, by respondent ideology

Among registered voters

Respondent ideology	Change in party ideology
	More conservative	More moderate	More liberal	Hasn’t changed much
Republican party
Among all registered voters	54	13	8	25
Very conservative	15	23	21	41
Conservative	27	24	13	35
Moderate	57	12	4	26
Liberal	85	3	1	11
Very liberal	96	0	1	3
Democratic party
Among all registered voters	4	17	54	24
Very conservative	3	0	92	5
Conservative	3	3	86	7
Moderate	3	20	43	33
Liberal	6	31	22	41
Very liberal	6	39	24	31
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: Over the last 10 years, would you say the Republican party in Wisconsin has become (more conservative), (more moderate), or (more liberal), or hasn’t it changed much at all?
Question: Over the last 10 years, would you say the Democratic party in Wisconsin has become (more conservative), (more moderate), or (more liberal), or hasn’t it changed much at all?

Voters see far more ideological change in the other party than in their own party. Likewise, independents see more movement in both parties than do that party’s loyalists. These perceptions reinforce the perception of ideological polarization as each party sees the other as moving further, while they see their own party as moving less. The results are shown in Table 20.

Table 20: Perception of change in party ideology, by party identification

Among registered voters

Party ID	Change in party ideology
	More conservative	More moderate	More liberal	Hasn’t changed much
Republican party
Among all registered voters	54	13	8	25
Republican	26	25	12	37
Independent	53	9	7	29
Democrat	84	3	3	11
Democratic party
Among all registered voters	4	17	54	24
Republican	1	6	82	11
Independent	6	10	47	35
Democrat	6	32	26	35
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: Over the last 10 years, would you say the Republican party in Wisconsin has become (more conservative), (more moderate), or (more liberal), or hasn’t it changed much at all?
Question: Over the last 10 years, would you say the Democratic party in Wisconsin has become (more conservative), (more moderate), or (more liberal), or hasn’t it changed much at all?

State issues

Inflation and the cost of living continues to top the list of most important issues, with 42% of Wisconsin voters giving that answer. The second most important issue is illegal immigration and border security, picked by 13%, followed by health insurance at 9%. These were also the top three issues in the March Marquette poll. Five of the top issues are related to the cost of living, a further indication of the pervasiveness of economic concerns, including property taxes, jobs and the economy, and the affordability of housing. At the bottom of the list are public schools, abortion policy, and crime.

Despite controversy over data centers in the state, only 5% name this as their most important issue.

Respondents were also asked for their second most important issue. Here, too, economic concerns predominate. Inflation and the cost of living is the most frequently mentioned second most important, followed by jobs and the economy, with health insurance and affordability of housing tied for third place among the second most important issues. Concern for immigration declines as a second choice to sixth place. The issues least frequently mentioned as the most important are also least frequently mentioned as the second most important.

The full list is shown in Table 21.

Table 21: Most important issue

Among registered voters

Issue
	Percent most important	Percent 2nd most important
Inflation and the cost of living	42	20
Illegal immigration and border security	13	9
Health insurance	9	12
Property taxes	7	10
Jobs and the economy	7	16
Affordability of housing	6	12
Data centers	5	5
Public schools	4	5
Abortion policy	4	6
Crime in your community	3	4
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: Which one of the following issues matters MOST to you right now?
Question: And which is the second most important issue to you right now?

While not chosen very often as the most important issue, the majority who say the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits has increased to 76%, from 69% in March. The change in opinion of data centers since October 2025 is shown in Table 22.

Table 22: Costs and benefits of data centers

Among registered voters

Poll dates	Data centers
	The benefits of data centers outweigh the costs	The costs of data centers outweigh the benefits
7/8-16/26	22	76
3/11-18/26	30	69
2/11-19/26	29	70
10/15-22/25	44	55
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin surveys, latest: July 8-16, 2026
Question: There are several large data centers being proposed or under construction in Wisconsin. Which comes closer to your opinion, even if neither is exactly right:
Question: October wording: There are several large data centers being proposed or under construction in Wisconsin though Microsoft recently announced it would not build one after facing community opposition. Which comes closer to your opinion, even if neither is exactly right:

A majority of each partisan group say the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits. In October 2025, there were virtually no differences between parties on the issue, with each mildly opposed to data centers. The percentage saying the costs outweigh the benefits has grown steadily among Republicans while fluctuating, at higher percentages, among independents and Democrats, as shown in Table 23.

Table 23: Costs and benefits of data centers, by party identification

Among registered voters

Poll dates	Costs outweigh benefits of data centers
	Republican	Independent	Democrat
10/15-22/25	53	55	56
2/11-19/26	55	76	85
3/11-18/26	62	69	77
7/8-16/26	67	71	88
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin surveys, latest: July 8-16, 2026
Question: There are several large data centers being proposed or under construction in Wisconsin. Which comes closer to your opinion, even if neither is exactly right:
Question: October wording: There are several large data centers being proposed or under construction in Wisconsin though Microsoft recently announced it would not build one after facing community opposition. Which comes closer to your opinion, even if neither is exactly right:

A small majority of registered voters, 53%, say they would like to see Act 10, the law that limited collective bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin, repealed and collective bargaining restored, while 46% say the law should be kept as it is. There is a sharp partisan divide on this issue, with 86% of Democrats wanting a return to collective bargaining and 76% of Republicans want to keep the current law. Among independents, 65% want Act 10 repealed, while 31% say the law should remain unchanged.

School funding is a constant issue in Wisconsin. In this poll, 47% say their local public schools receive too little funding from the state, 33% say the schools get enough state funding, and 18% say schools get more than is needed. When last asked in January 2016, 57% said their schools got too little state aid, 30% said they got enough, and 7% said schools got more than needed.

Concern for property taxes remains high, with 58% saying it is more important to hold down property taxes and 41% saying school funding is more important. There has been no change in this since the March poll.

In May, the legislature defeated a bill proposed by Gov. Tony Evers and Republican legislative leaders to use the projected budget surplus to provide an increase in funding for special education, some property tax relief, and refunds directly to taxpayers, among other things. A Marquette Law School Poll survey in May, after the bill was defeated, found 80% of registered voters saying the bill should have been passed, 11% saying it should have been defeated, and 9% saying they didn’t know. In this July poll, 70% say the bill should have passed, with 14% saying it should have been defeated and 16% saying they don’t know.

As in the May poll, a second question mentioned objections from opponents of the bill who said the bill was fiscally irresponsible for spending a projected surplus now that might lead to a deficit in future budgets. Respondents were then asked if it was better to delay spending the projected surplus or better to provide the benefits of the bill immediately. In July, 27% say it is better to delay the spending, while 49% say the surplus should be spent now, with 23% saying they don’t know. In May, 21% favored delaying, 69% said it was better to provide the spending now, and 9% didn’t know.

National issues

Among Wisconsin voters, President Donald Trump’s job approval is 40%, with 58% disapproving. This is a decline from 42% in May. This is his lowest approval rating in either his first or second term in the Marquette Law School Poll, and his worst net approval. His approval ratings in his second term are shown in Table 24.

Table 24: Trump job approval in second term

Among registered voters

Poll dates	Job approval
	Net	Approve	Disapprove
7/8-16/26	-18	40	58
3/11-18/26	-14	42	56
2/11-19/26	-10	44	54
10/15-22/25	-7	46	53
6/13-19/25	-5	47	52
2/19-26/25	-3	48	51
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: Overall, do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president?

Only 14% of registered voters say the United States has achieved its goals in the Iran war, while 85% say it has not. Large majorities of each partisan group say the U.S. goals have not been achieved, as shown in Table 25.

Table 25: Has U.S. achieved its goals in Iran war

Among registered voters

Party ID	Achieved goals in Iran
	Has achieved its goals	Has not achieved its goals
Among all registered voters	14	85
Republican	25	75
Independent	7	90
Democrat	5	95
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: Has the U.S. achieved its goals in the Iran war?

A somewhat higher percentage, though still an overall minority, say the Iran war has been worth the costs, boosted by a small majority of Republicans who say this, as shown in Table 26.

Table 26: Has Iran war been worth the cost

Among registered voters

Party ID	Worth cost
	Worth the cost	Not worth the cost
Among all registered voters	29	71
Republican	59	41
Independent	13	85
Democrat	0	99
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: Has Iran war been worth the cost?

Almost half of Wisconsin voters, 49%, say Iran now has more control over the Strait of Hormuz than it did before the war, while 28% say it has less control and 22% say there hasn’t been any change. Republicans are more likely to say Iran has less control, unlike independents or Democrats, as shown in Table 27.

Table 27: Does Iran have more or less control of Strait of Hormuz

Among registered voters

Party ID	Control of Strait of Hormuz
	More control	Less control	Hasn’t been any change
Among all registered voters	49	28	22
Republican	30	45	25
Independent	56	22	17
Democrat	68	11	21
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, July 8-16, 2026
Question: Compared to before the war with Iran began, do you think Iran now has (more) control over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, or (less) control over shipping, or hasn’t there been any change?

Approval of governor, legislature, and Wisconsin Supreme Court

Approval of the job Evers is doing as governor rose to 51% from 47% in March. Evers’ approval since February 2025 is shown in Table 28.

Table 28: Evers job approval

Among registered voters

Poll dates	Approval
	Net	Approve	Disapprove	Don’t know
7/8-16/26	7	51	44	5
3/11-18/26	0	47	47	6
2/11-19/26	4	49	45	6
10/15-22/25	5	50	45	5
6/13-19/25	2	48	46	5
2/19-26/25	5	49	44	6
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin surveys, latest: July 8-16, 2026
Question: Overall, do you approve or disapprove of the way Tony Evers is handling his job as Governor of Wisconsin?

Approval of how the Wisconsin legislature is handling its job declined to 36%, from 39% in March, with disapproval rising to 53% from 48%. The trend since February 2025 for approval of the legislature is in Table 29.

Table 29: Legislature job approval

Among registered voters

Poll dates	Approval
	Net	Approve	Disapprove	Don’t know
7/8-16/26	-17	36	53	11
3/11-18/26	-9	39	48	13
2/11-19/26	-3	41	44	15
10/15-22/25	-11	39	50	11
6/13-19/25	-9	41	50	10
2/19-26/25	-11	38	49	13
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin surveys, latest: July 8-16, 2026
Question: Overall, do you approve or disapprove of the way the Wisconsin legislature is handling its job?

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has held a net positive approval rating in polling since 2023, with approval at 50% and disapproval at 38% in July, up from 46% approval in March. The full trend is shown in Table 30.

Table 30: Wisconsin Supreme Court job approval

Among registered voters

Poll dates	Approval
	Net	Approve	Disapprove	Don’t know
7/8-16/26	12	50	38	12
3/11-18/26	9	46	37	17
2/11-19/26	15	49	34	16
10/15-22/25	6	45	39	15
6/13-19/25	11	49	38	13
2/19-26/25	9	46	37	16
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin surveys, latest: July 8-16, 2026
Question: Overall, do you approve or disapprove of the way the Wisconsin state Supreme Court is handling its job?

Favorability of political figures

Evers is seen favorably by 47% and unfavorably by 44%. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is close behind with 43% favorable and 44% unfavorable. Sen. Ron Johnson’s rating is 36% favorable and 45% unfavorable. Vice President JD Vance and Trump have the lowest favorability ratings.

The full set of favorability ratings is shown in Table 31.

Table 31: Favorability to state and national political figures

Among registered voters

Political figure	Favorability
	Net Fav	Favorable	Unfavorable	Haven’t heard enough
Tony Evers	3	47	44	9
Tammy Baldwin	-1	43	44	13
Ron Johnson	-9	36	45	18
JD Vance	-15	38	53	9
Donald Trump	-19	39	58	3
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey July 8-16, 2026
Question: Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of [INSERT NAME] or haven’t you heard enough about them yet?

Favorability to political groups

Both political parties have negative net-favorability ratings, though the Democratic party is seen more negatively than the Republican party. The Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement’s rating is identical to that of the Republican party, as shown in Table 32.

Table 32: Favorability to political organizations

Among registered voters

Political organization	Favorability
	Net Fav	Favorable	Unfavorable	Haven’t heard enough
The MAGA movement	-19	38	57	5
The Republican Party	-19	38	57	5
The Democratic Party	-23	35	58	7
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey July 8-16, 2026
Question: Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of [INSERT NAME] or haven’t you heard enough about them yet?

About the Marquette Law School Poll

The Marquette Law School Poll is the most extensive statewide polling project in Wisconsin history. This survey was conducted July 8-16, 2026, interviewing 838 Wisconsin registered voters, with a margin of error of +/-4.5 percentage points. For likely voters, the sample size is 695, with a margin of error of +/-4.9 percentage points. To cover more subjects, some items were asked of random half-samples of 419 registered voters with a margin of error of +/-6.2 percentage points. The sample size for Republican primary voters is 399, with a margin of error of 6.5 percentage points. The sample size for Democratic primary voters is 430, with a margin of error of 6.1 percentage points.

Half-sample items:

Satisfaction with public schools; reduce property taxes or increase school spending; enough state aid to schools; repeal Act 10; deporting immigrants in U.S. illegally; tariffs help or hurt the economy; tariffs helping farmers

The survey was conducted with a hybrid sample of 621 respondents selected from the Wisconsin voter registration list, and 217 selected from the SSRS Opinion Panel, a sample drawn from postal addresses across the state and invited to take part in surveys online. The interview was conducted online with 782 respondents and with 56 by telephone with a live interviewer. Full details of the methodology are contained in the methodology statement at the link below.

The partisan makeup of the sample is 36% Republican, 32% Democratic, and 33% independent. When independents who lean to a party are counted as partisans, the sample is 46% Republican, 42% Democratic, and 13% independent. In all polls conducted in 2025 and 2026, the combined samples were 36% Republican, 32% Democratic, and 32% independent. Counting independents who lean to a party as partisans, the 2025-26 samples were 46% Republican, 42% Democratic, and 13% independent.

The entire questionnaire, methodology statement, full results and breakdowns by demographic groups are available on the Marquette Law School Poll website.

Also:

• By age 40, three-quarters of adults have children
• Trust across generations in families is generally strong
• About half of adults say their standard of living is better than their parents’ was
• 7 in 10 say they are adherents to an organized religion
• 60% say religion is important in their lives

MILWAUKEE – American family life doesn’t end when the kids leave home. A new Marquette Law School Poll national survey provides in-depth insights into the way the lives of individuals and extended families evolve beyond many people’s child-raising years.

Most government statistics focus on fertility and child-rearing but pay little attention to family life after children reach age 18. This Marquette survey examined aspects of family life among parents of adult offspring, including the role of grandparents. This provides glimpses of family relationships across the second half of life.

The survey finds that large numbers of families have active multigenerational lives, including grandparents who frequently care for grandchildren and families in which all the grandparents, parents, and grandchildren live within 50 miles of each other. Relatively few of those in later life, including after 70, are isolated from their children.

The survey also examined important aspects of American religious life, including how frequently people attend religious services, how often they pray, and how their religious lives as adults compare to their religious involvement as teenagers.

The Marquette Law School Poll survey was conducted June 9-15, 2026, interviewing 1,514 adults nationwide, with a margin of error of +/-2.7 percentage points. This is the fourth of four news releases announcing results of the survey, which looked at an array of aspects of the lives and attitudes of American adults as the nation marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

From school-age to post-school-age families

Among American adults, aged 18 and older, 38% don’t have children of any age. Making up the 62% of adults with children, 20% have only children younger than 18, 8% have children both younger than 18 and children 18 or older, and 34% have children only 18 or older.

There are transitions in family composition as parents age. The youngest age groups can only have younger children, and eventually the oldest groups are very unlikely to have children under 18.

Just 25% of adults under age 30 reported having children, with 100% of those parents having children under 18. That increased to 56% with children for adults in their 30s. This age cohort reported 48% having only young children, 5% of adults having both young children and adult offspring, and 3% with only adult children.

The 40s mark the transition from younger children to adult children, among the 75% of these adults having children. These families have almost as many young and old children (26% of these families) as only young (30%), with a sharp increase over those in their 30s in respect to having only adult children (19%). This also marks the point at which most childbearing ceases. Only 25% of those in their 40s have no children.

In the 50s and beyond, the percentage with only adult children grows with each decade of age, and very few have younger children. The percentage with no children also levels off in these years after the end of childbearing. There is only a small decrease in childlessness among those 70 or older. (All results in the tables are stated as percentages.)

These transitions are shown by age in Table 1.

Table 1: Young and adult children, by parental age

Among adults

Age	Young and old children
	Young kids only	Young and adult kids	Adult kids only	No children
18-29	25	0	0	75
30-39	48	5	3	44
40-49	30	26	19	25
50-59	4	16	51	29
60-69	1	2	69	29
70+	1	2	78	18
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: How many children do you have who are 18 years old or older? How many children do you have who are 17 years old or younger?

Most government surveys report on number of children per household rather than the number of children an individual has, as is done in this survey. An exception is the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and the National Center for Health Statistics. That study measures the number children ever born to women of childbearing age and children ever fathered by men, in both cases for those between 15 and 49 years old. The Marquette Law School Poll can construct a similar measure for those 18-49, and by gender. This comparison shows that the Marquette data closely match the estimates from NSFG, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Number of children of any age

Among those 18-49 (Marquette Law Poll) or 15-49 (NSFG)

Response	Number of children
	Marquette Law Poll percent, among women 18-49	NSFG percent, among women 15-49	Marquette Law Poll percent among men 18-49	NSFG percent, among men 15-49
None	42	45	55	56
One	17	16	15	14
Two	20	21	17	18
Three	10	12	7	12
Four+	11	6	6	NA
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026 / National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), CDC/NCHS, 2017-2019
Question (Marquette Law Poll): How many children do you have who are 18 years old or older? How many children do you have who are 17 years old or younger?
Question (NSFG): Number of children ever born, number of children ever fathered. For NSFG men, the entry for 3 children is for 3 or more

Adults are likely to enter their 40s with children, and usually multiple children, though under 30% have no children. For such older adults, the percentage who have children is larger than it would appear from the previous table because the previous table includes those in the childbearing years who have not yet had children but will.

To get a clearer picture, which includes all children and a look at later adulthood, the total number of offspring by parental age is shown in Table 3.

Table 3: Total number of children, by parental age

Among adults

Age	Number of children
	None	One	Two	Three	Four+
18-29	75	14	6	2	3
30-39	44	19	21	8	8
40-49	25	16	29	15	16
50-59	29	13	26	17	15
60-69	29	17	27	17	11
70+	18	13	36	19	14
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: How many children do you have who are 18 years old or older? How many children do you have who are 17 years old or younger?

For people in their 40s and beyond, more than half have two or more children. Barring untimely death, these adult children will define and extend family for their parents though the end of the parents’ lives.

Adult children extend their parents’ family by creating grandchildren. In this survey, 43% of parents have at least one grandchild, but that figure includes those too young to have grandchildren yet. The number of grandchildren by age is shown in Table 4.

Table 4: Number of grandchildren, by age

Among those with children

Age	Number of grandchildren
	None	One	Two	Three	Four	Five	Six+
18-29	100	0	0	0	0	0	0
30-39	97	2	1	0	0	0	0
40-49	75	12	6	4	1	1	1
50-59	57	9	10	6	5	4	8
60-69	30	14	11	12	11	4	19
70+	10	8	22	8	12	10	30
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: How many grandchildren do you have?

While the number of children becomes stable in the 40s, the presence of grandchildren, and their number, grow throughout the later years among those who have children. Grandchildren are a prominent part of family life for older Americans, and many have four or more.

Grandparents engage with their grandchildren in many ways, but a prominent one is through providing childcare of one sort or another. Among grandparents, 50% say they take care of a grandchild at least once a month, with 31% doing so a few times a year and 20% who never take care of a grandchild.

Another window into this is parents who say they have one or more of their parents take care of a child. Among these middle-generation parents, 38% say a parent cares for a grandchild at least monthly, with 28% reporting this happens a few times a year and 34% saying that they don’t have a grandparent take care of a child.

Adulthood is generally marked by children leaving home and starting homes of their own, but for most parents this doesn’t mean an end to proximity to their children. For those with adult children, 45% have all of their adult children within 50 miles of the parents. Another 37% have some children near and others far, while 18% have all of their children living more than 50 miles away.

As parents age, their adult children’s lives also change, and this may include relocation for a variety of reasons. Despite this potential, a large majority of parents with adult children continue to live within 50 miles of at least one grown child. For most parents of adult children, at least some children live nearby, regardless of the age of parents. For those younger than 60, only about 15% have all their adult children more than 50 miles away, though this percentage rises to about 20% for those in their 60s or older. Thus, upwards of 80% of parents have at least some adult children living within an hour’s drive. This is shown in Table 5.

Table 5: Distance to adult children

Among those with adult children

Age	Near or far
	Both near and far	Near only	Far only
40-49	35	50	15
50-59	37	48	15
60-69	34	46	20
70+	42	36	22
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: How many of your adult children 18 or over live within 50 miles of your home?
Question: How many of your adult children 18 or over live more than 50 miles from your home?

Proximity fosters interaction with grandchildren as well. For those with adult children within 50 miles of their home and at least one grandchild, 56% say they take care of the grandchild at least once a month, while among those whose adult children all live beyond 50 miles, this rate drops to 18% and care only a few times a year rises to 46%, representing in part the occasional family visit. For those with only distant grandchildren, more than a third say they never provide childcare (36%), though this does not rule out visits. This is shown in Table 6.

Table 6: Take care of grandchild, by distance of adult children

Among those with grandchildren

Distance of adult children	Care for grandchild
	More than once a month	A few times a year	Never
Has adult kids w/in 50 mi	56	27	17
No adult kids w/in 50mi	18	46	36
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: [Take care of a grandchild] How often do you do the following things?
Question: How many of your adult children 18 or over live (within/more than) 50 miles from your home?

Caring for grandchildren seems to peak for grandparents in their 50s, a time when both their children and grandchildren are relatively young, and then declines with age, though taking care of grandchildren remains common into the 70s, as shown in Table 7.

Table 7: Take care of grandchild, by age of grandparent

Among those with grandchildren

Age	Care for grandchild
	More than once a month	A few times a year	Never
40-49	47	30	24
50-59	61	33	6
60-69	56	28	16
70+	41	32	28
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: [Take care of a grandchild] How often do you do the following things?
Note: There are too few grandparents in their 30s for analysis, so they are omitted from the table.

This picture of families with adult children and grandchildren shows there is considerable interaction throughout life, with most families remaining, at least in part, in geographic proximity, and connections with grandchildren playing a prominent role in the lives of older Americans. Relatively few of those in later life, including after 70, are isolated from their children. It should be noted that this analysis has focused exclusively on those with children and has not considered the later lives of those who do not have children, an important topic to be explored another time.

Trust in your family

To shift focus, not all families are happy families. Looking at trust of immediate family, 62% say they can trust their immediate family a great deal, 30% trust their family a fair amount, 6% say they trust family not very much, and 2% trust them not at all. (In subsequent analysis, the last two categories are combined.)

Marital status is associated with trust in the family, with married people expressing the greatest level of trust, while those who have never married are the least trusting, as shown in Table 8.

Table 8: Trust in family, by marital status

Among adults

Marital status	Trust in immediate family
	A great deal	A fair amount	Not much/not at all
Married	71	25	3
Widowed	60	31	9
Single, living with a partner	56	33	10
Divorced/Separated	55	37	8
Single, that is, never married	50	36	15
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: [Your immediate family] How much can you trust the following people?

Having children boosts family trust regardless of marital status, but by just four percentage points among married people and by six points among those not currently married.

While those who are currently divorced or separated are less trusting, among those currently married, a previous divorce has little effect on trust in the family. Among those married with a previous divorce, 68% say they trust family a great deal, while for those without a previous divorce, 72% trust family a great deal, as shown in Table 9.

Table 9: Trust in family, by prior divorce

Among currently married adults

Prior divorce	Trust in immediate family
	A great deal	A fair amount	Not much/not at all
Yes	68	27	4
No	72	25	3
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: [Your immediate family] How much can you trust the following people?
Question: Have you ever been divorced?

Trust in family members is lowest for the youngest age group and highest for the oldest, but varies little for those between 30 and 69, as seen in Table 10.

Table 10: Trust in family, by age

Among adults

Age	Trust in immediate family
	A great deal	A fair amount	Not much/not at all
18-29	47	37	15
30-39	63	29	9
40-49	60	32	8
50-59	66	28	5
60-69	64	32	4
70+	78	19	3
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: [Your immediate family] How much can you trust the following people?

Financial stress plays a substantial role in reducing trust in family. Among those who say they are struggling financially, 42% say they trust their family a great deal, compared to 61% among those who are just getting by and 70% among those who say they are living comfortably. Similarly, trust in family is related to income levels, as seen in Table 11.

Table 11: Trust in family, by income

Among adults

Income	Trust in immediate family
	A great deal	A fair amount	Not much/not at all
Less than $50k	51	37	12
$50k-$100k	64	31	5
More than $100k	76	20	4
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: [Your immediate family] How much can you trust the following people?

Intergenerational standard of living

Intergenerational economic mobility is an important aspect of family life. Compared to the standard of living they experienced growing up, about half say they are now better off. That includes 21% who say they are much better off and 31% who are somewhat better off, while 20% are somewhat worse off and 9% are much worse off. Twenty percent say their standard of living is about the same as when they were young.

An improved standard of living is somewhat related to education, especially for those with more than a bachelor’s degree. Substantially reduced standards of living are more common with those who finished high school or less, as seen in Table 12.

Table 12: Change in standard of living, by education

Among adults

Education	Change in standard of living since childhood
	Much better	Somewhat better	About the same	Somewhat worse	Much worse
Less than HS	14	34	16	19	16
HS graduate	19	29	23	17	12
Vocational/tech school/some college/ associates	20	30	17	24	8
Bachelor’s degree	20	33	21	22	5
Post grad study/professional degree	31	30	18	16	5
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: Compared to your parents when you were growing up, do you think your own standard of living now is better or worse than theirs was?

Current financial strain also affects how people see their standard of living compared to that during their childhood. Those who are most comfortable are much more likely to say they are better off, while those who are struggling remember things being better when they were young, as shown in Table 13.

Table 13: Change in standard of living, by current financial situation

Among adults

Current financial situation	Change in standard of living since childhood
	Much better	Somewhat better	About the same	Somewhat worse	Much worse
Living comfortably	35	37	18	9	1
Just getting by	11	29	23	28	10
Struggling	7	17	16	31	28
Marquette Law School Poll, national,  June 9-15, 2026
Question: Compared to your parents when you were growing up, do you think your own standard of living now is better or worse than theirs was?

Similarly, present income is substantially related to the sense of improving or worsening standard of living, as Table 14 shows.

Table 14: Change in standard of living, by income

Among adults

Income	Change in standard of living since childhood
	Much better	Somewhat better	About the same	Somewhat worse	Much worse
Less than $50k	13	24	24	25	14
$50k-$100k	20	33	20	20	7
More than $100k	31	38	14	14	4
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: Compared to your parents when you were growing up, do you think your own standard of living now is better or worse than theirs was?

Income is related to marital status, but within income levels, more of those who are married say their standard of living has improved since childhood than those who are not married. This is especially true of lower and higher income groups, with only a small difference for those in the middle range of income, shown in Table 15.

Table 15: Change in standard of living, by income and marital status

Among adults

Married or not	Change in standard of living since childhood
	Better	Same	Worse
Less than $50k
Married	51	21	28
Not married	31	25	43
$50k-$100k
Married	54	21	25
Not married	53	18	29
More than $100k
Married	72	13	15
Not married	56	16	28
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: Compared to your parents when you were growing up, do you think your own standard of living now is better or worse than theirs was?

Faith and family

Most Americans say they identify as adherents to a religious group, though the percentage not affiliated has grown in recent years. In this survey, 28% say they are not adherents, while more than 70% identify themselves with a religious tradition. Table 16 shows the size of each group.

Table 16: Religious affiliation

Among adults

Religion
	Percent
Born-again Protestant	23
Mainline Protestant	18
Roman Catholic	19
No religion	28
Other religion	11
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: What is your present religion, if any?

While fewer than a third of Americans say they are not affiliated with a religion, more than half say they seldom or never attend worship services. The rate of attendance is shown in Table 17.

Table 17: Attendance at religious services

Among adults

Attendance
	Percent
More than once a week	6
Once a week	15
Once or twice a month	9
A few times a year	14
Seldom	22
Never	34
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: Aside from weddings and funerals, how often do you attend religious services?

Each religious group has a substantial number of adherents who seldom or never attend services. The highest attendance is among born-again Protestants, followed at some distance by Roman Catholics, by those of other religions (which is a heterogeneous mixture of faiths), and by mainline Protestants with the least regular attendance. Those who say they have no religion are very unlikely to attend, though a few do, at least occasionally. This is shown in Table 18.

Table 18: Religious attendance, by affiliation

Among adults

Religion	Attendance
	Regularly (monthly or more)	A few times a year	Seldom	Never
Born-again Protestant	57	14	19	11
Mainline Protestant	24	24	30	22
Roman Catholic	39	15	25	21
No religion	4	6	18	71
Other religion	32	19	22	27
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: Aside from weddings and funerals, how often do you attend religious services?
Question: What is your present religion, if any?

Family plays an important role in attendance. Of married couples who say they affiliate with a religion, those whose spouse shares their faith are more than twice as likely to regularly attend worship services than if the spouse does not share their faith. Likewise, when faiths do not match, more seldom or never attend, as shown in Table 19. Among married couples, 79% say they are of the same faith.

Table 19: Religious attendance, by spouse shares faith

Among married adults affiliated with a religion

Does spouse share faith?	Attendance
	Regularly (monthly or more)	A few times a year	Seldom	Never
Yes	49	17	21	13
No	21	16	34	30
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: Aside from weddings and funerals, how often do you attend religious services?
Question: Do you and your spouse share the same religious faith?

Reported rates of church attendance for the respondents and for their spouse (among married couples) are closely aligned, as shown in Table 20.

Table 20: Attendance by self and by spouse

Among married adults

Self or spouse	Attendance
	Regularly (monthly or more)	A few times a year	Seldom	Never
Self	34	14	22	30
Spouse	34	12	16	39
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: How often does your spouse attend religious services?
Question: Aside from weddings and funerals, how often do you attend religious services?

Attendance for self and spouse is very strongly correlated for those who share a faith, as seen in Table 21.

Table 21: Attendance for spouse, by self-attendance

Among married adults who share same faith

Self-attendance	Spouse attendance
	Regularly (monthly or more)	A few times a year	Seldom	Never
Regularly (monthly or more)	92	4	3	1
A few times a year	12	64	15	10
Seldom	10	4	56	30
Never	2	2	4	92
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: Aside from weddings and funerals, how often do you attend religious services?
Question: How often does your spouse attend religious services?

Beyond affiliation and attendance, religious practice includes prayer and reading sacred texts. Given relatively low attendance rates of respondents, a surprisingly large number of people (55%) say they pray at least a few times a week. This contrasts with just 21% who attend religious services weekly. Furthermore, prayer is frequent even among those who attend services only rarely, including those who never attend, as shown in Table 22.

Table 22: Prayer, by attendance

Among adults

Attendance	Prayer frequency
	A few times a week or more	A few times a month	Seldom	Never
Regularly (monthly or more)	88	5	4	3
A few times a year	69	15	12	5
Seldom	48	10	34	8
Never	24	7	23	46
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: Aside from weddings and funerals, how often do you attend religious services?
Question: Outside of religious services, how often do you pray?

A more demanding practice, reading religious texts or scripture, does not produce a similarly high reported rate, as 23% say they read scripture often, a number more in line with those who attend weekly services. There is also a sharp decline in reported scripture-reading as attendance declines, unlike the case for prayer.

Table 23: Scripture reading, by attendance

Among adults

Attendance	Scripture reading frequency
	A few times a week or more	A few times a month	Seldom	Never
Regularly (monthly or more)	53	19	21	7
A few times a year	27	16	37	19
Seldom	9	6	50	36
Never	5	4	16	75
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: Aside from weddings and funerals, how often do you attend religious services?
Question: Outside of religious services, how often do you read scripture?

Faith across generations

To measure how religious attachment flows through life, respondents were asked about their attendance and the importance of religion during their teenage years. This is, of course, a recollection of the past, and not a direct measure from adolescence. Nonetheless, it gives us a look at how religion persists and changes, at least from the respondent’s subjective report.

Religious attendance during adolescence is recalled as being much higher than reported attendance as an adult. While 30% of today’s adults say they attend monthly or more, more than double that, 62%, say they attended at least monthly when 12-17 years old. Likewise, about half as many say they never attended in youth as never attend today. The comparison is shown in Table 24.

Table 24: Attendance as an adolescent and as an adult

Among adults

As adolescent and adult	Attendance
	Regularly (monthly or more)	A few times a year	Seldom	Never
As adolescent	62	13	9	16
As adult	30	14	22	34
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: Aside from weddings and funerals, how often do you attend religious services?
Question: When you were 12-17 years old, how often did you attend religious services?

Early participation in religious services is correlated with adult attendance, if weakly; and more move from regular attendance in youth to seldom or never as adults, than move from seldom or never attending as adolescents to regular attendance as adults, as shown in Table 25.

Table 25: Attendance as an adult, by attendance as an adolescent

Among adults

Attendance as an adolescent	Attendance as an adult
	Regularly (monthly or more)	A few times a year	Seldom	Never
Regularly (monthly or more)	37	15	23	24
A few times a year	22	21	25	33
Seldom	18	12	27	42
Never	14	5	14	66
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: Aside from weddings and funerals, how often do you attend religious services?
Question: When you were 12-17 years old, how often did you attend religious services?

There is a small increase in the percentage of adults who say religion is important in their lives now, compared to whether they say that was the case when they were teenagers.  But there are also a few more for whom religion is not at all important as an adult. See Table 26.

Table 26: Importance of religion as an adolescent and as an adult

Among adults

As adolescent and adult	Importance of religion
	Very important	Somewhat important	Not too important	Not at all important
As adolescent	29	29	21	21
As adult	36	24	16	24
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: How important is religion in your life now?
Question: How important was religion in your life when you were 12-17 years old?

Unlike with attendance, the subjective importance of religion as a youth and as an adult is rather strongly correlated. Those who recall religion as very important in the past are quite likely to say it is important now. Those who didn’t think religion was important as a young person are very likely to say it is not important in adulthood. This is shown in Table 27.

Table 27: Importance of religion as an adult, by importance in youth

Among adults

Importance as an adolescent	Importance as an adult
	Very important	Somewhat important	Not too important	Not at all important
Very important	65	20	10	5
Somewhat important	35	36	18	12
Not too important	22	24	30	24
Not at all important	10	11	10	69
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: How important is religion in your life now?
Question: How important was religion in your life when you were 12-17 years old?

Those who think religion is important to them now are also especially likely to think it is important for children to attend religious services, shown in Table 28.

Table 28: Important for children to attend worship, by importance of religion

Among adults

Importance of religion	Important for youth to attend
	Very important	Somewhat important	Not too important	Not at all important
Very important	74	22	2	2
Somewhat important	19	61	15	5
Not too important	8	40	43	9
Not at all important	1	10	25	64
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: How important is it for children to attend religious services when they are 12-17 years old?
Question: How important is religion in your life now?

People think it is important for children to learn moral values through religion, but substantially more think it is important that children learn moral values apart from religious instruction. The two are not in competition—those who stress moral instruction apart from religion also give more importance to learning values through religion. The comparison is in Table 29.

Table 29: Importance of moral values through and apart from religion

Among adults

Religion or apart from religion	Importance learning moral values
	Very important	Somewhat important	Not too important	Not at all important
Through religion	44	28	12	16
Apart from religion	71	19	5	4
Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, June 9-15, 2026
Question: How important is it for children to learn moral values through religion?
Question: How important is it for children to learn moral values apart from religion?

About the Marquette Law School Poll

The survey was conducted June 9-15, 2026, interviewing 1,514 adults nationwide, with a margin of error of +/-2.7 percentage points. For the analysis of married persons, the sample size is 761, with a margin of error of +/-3.8.

Interviews were conducted using the SSRS Opinion Panel, a national probability sample with interviews conducted online. Certain other data from this survey were previously released on June 24, June 25, and July 7. The detailed methodology statement, survey instrument, topline results, and crosstabs for this release are available on the Marquette Law Poll website.