Affordability leads voters’ concerns, but the candidates split sharply on abortion, schools, guns, and the role of the socialist left.

Wisconsin voters will elect a new governor Tuesday, Nov. 3, choosing between Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers declined to seek a third term. It’s the state’s first open governor’s race since 2010.

The final Marquette Law School poll conducted Oct. 14–22 and released Wednesday, Oct. 28, found Crowley with 51% support among likely voters to Tiffany’s 44%, with 4% undecided. This 7-point margin sits within the poll’s 4.7-point margin of error for likely voters. Among registered voters, Crowley leads by 47% to 44%, with 9% undecided. The survey interviewed 818 registered Wisconsin voters (including 668 likely voters). Democratic voters report higher levels of motivation. The survey found 82% of Democrats are “very” or “somewhat” enthusiastic about voting, compared to 74% of Republicans.

What voters care about

The economy dominates. When asked which issue matters most, 45% of registered voters in Marquette’s September survey named inflation and the cost of living. Illegal immigration ranked second at 11%, then health insurance, jobs, and property taxes in single digits. Abortion policy and data centers each ranked 5%; public schools, housing, and crime ranked 4% or less.

National polls ask different questions but show similar emphasis. CNN’s October survey found cost-of-living concerns the top issue for voters nationwide, with corruption and democracy the only others above 10%. A Fox News poll found 60% of registered voters extremely concerned about government corruption. An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found Americans trust Democrats over Republicans on the cost of living by 14 percentage points, and a Pew Research Center survey of registered voters found 84% say the economy is very important to their vote.

Both campaigns have built their closing arguments around affordability. Their Facebook pages draw the same contrast: Tiffany’s, with about 30,000 followers, promotes ending the “400-year” property tax increase, “reject[ing] big-government socialism” and protecting farmland from “Big Data”; Crowley’s, with about 9,400, emphasizes making life more affordable for working families, expanding BadgerCare, strengthening schools and legalizing recreational marijuana.

Economy and taxes

The candidates would use the state’s projected $3 billion surplus in sharply different ways.

Tiffany would return it to taxpayers through permanent income and property tax cuts, including a 10% cut for families earning less than $150,000, and would end Evers’ “400-year” school-funding increase written with his veto pen. “I would prefer not to do it as a one-time check,” Tiffany said at the candidates’ only debate, Oct. 21 at Marquette University Law School.

Crowley would direct the surplus toward schools, child care and health care. His “Badger Basics” plan targets housing and energy costs, caps child care costs at 7% of household income, and would make kindergarten universally free for 4-year-olds.

Abortion

Wisconsin bans abortion at 20 or more weeks after fertilization — roughly 22 weeks’ gestation — except when immediate abortion is needed to avert death or a 24-hour delay creates a serious risk of substantial, irreversible impairment of a major bodily function. It requires a 24-hour waiting period and an ultrasound. A separate post-viability ban exempts abortions necessary to preserve the woman’s life or health. The state Supreme Court struck down the state’s 1849 ban in 2025.

Tiffany voted for the 20-week restriction as a state legislator and, in Congress, co-authored a bill to ban abortion after six weeks. He said he would uphold the state’s limit, would not sign a state version of the federal bill, and accused Crowley of supporting abortion through “the full nine months.”

Crowley said he would push to enshrine abortion access in the state constitution. Asked whether he would sign a bill with no gestational limits, he did not answer directly, saying such a law would never reach his desk and the decision belongs “between the patient and a healthcare provider.” He said abortions after 20 weeks usually involve “extreme circumstances.”

Education and parental rights

Tiffany released the “Parents and Teachers Bill of Rights” on Oct. 22. It would create A-through-F school report cards, let parents review curriculum materials, require parental consent before a school changes a student’s name or pronouns, and bar transgender students from girls’ sports and facilities.

Crowley would fully fund public schools, raise the special education reimbursement rate from 45% to 90%, make early childhood education universal, and overhaul what he calls a broken funding formula. He supports repealing Act 10, the 2011 law limiting teachers’ collective bargaining.

On vouchers, Tiffany is open to raising income limits — a child “trapped in a failing school” should be able to choose another, he said — while Crowley opposes expansion but would veto any bill eliminating Milwaukee’s program. Crowley has not specifically addressed the parental-consent and curriculum-review proposals in the materials reviewed; Tiffany says they give parents transparency into what schools teach and respond to conservatives’ concerns about political ideology in curriculum.

Second Amendment

The National Rifle Association endorses Tiffany. He supports national concealed-carry reciprocity, opposes red-flag laws and expanded background checks, and helped repeal Wisconsin’s 48-hour handgun waiting period in 2015.

Crowley holds an F rating from the NRA and was named a “Gun Sense Candidate” by Moms Demand Action. He supports universal background checks, red-flag laws and safe-storage requirements.

Crime and immigration

Tiffany, endorsed by the Wisconsin Fraternal Order of Police, would ban sanctuary policies statewide and require local, county and state law enforcement to coordinate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Crowley would end “crimeless revocation” — reimprisonment for technical parole violations — and shrink the prison population through prevention and mental health investment. He supports commutations, but not for violent crimes. He opposes local ICE detainer agreements, wants ICE agents unmasked, and says immigrants who commit crimes should be deported.

Health care

Tiffany would require health care price transparency, legalize medical marijuana with safeguards, allow Farm Bureau health plans and audit Medicaid for waste. He opposes public funding for gender-affirming care, including for adults, and would restrict funding for facilities offering surgeries to minors.

Crowley would expand BadgerCare and invest in mobile health outreach, addiction treatment and paid family leave. He said he would not limit rights transgender people currently have, including gender-affirming care.

Socialists and communists

The Democratic Socialists of America counted more than 120,000 members nationally as of July, with six Wisconsin chapters — about 900 members each in Milwaukee and Madison. Two state legislators formed a socialist caucus in 2023, the first in 90 years; it has since grown to four. DSA member Francesca Hong, a Madison state representative, lost the August primary to Crowley by 0.4 points. Marquette’s June poll found Wisconsin Democrats view the DSA favorably, 42% to 17%. Madison Area DSA campaigns for democratic control of the economy, worked to “decarcerate Dane County” and fights to extend Madison’s data-center moratorium.

Asked at the debate which democratic socialist priorities he shared, Crowley cited expanding BadgerCare, funding public education and child care, and holding wealthy Americans accountable. Asked separately about the DSA platform, he said, “I’m not familiar with the DSA platform to be answering that question.”

Tiffany has made the socialist left a running theme — his Facebook page says Wisconsin will “stand strong against socialism” — and says Wisconsin must never “join the movement to defund the police.”

State Democratic convention delegates approved June resolutions calling for abolishing ICE, protecting gender-affirming care for minors and ending the school voucher program. Crowley has not called for abolishing ICE, supports protecting gender-affirming care access, opposes expanding the voucher program and has promised to veto eliminating Milwaukee’s.

Milwaukee’s socialist history is real: the city elected three socialist mayors in the 20th century, the last of whom, Frank Zeidler, left office in 1960.

Liberties and freedoms

Each faction emphasizes different liberties. The Republican Party of Wisconsin’s 2026 platform stresses free speech and open civic debate, the right to worship, parents’ primary role in their children’s education, medical autonomy and informed consent, and election integrity—and its nominee adds the right to keep and bear arms.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s platform stresses unimpeded ballot access — including same-day registration and voting by mail — equal rights and opportunity, campaign finance limits and public education as a foundation of democracy. The DSA describes its goal as “an economic and political system run by and for the working class.”

Where the race stands

The winner will govern a state where 54% of voters prefer reducing property taxes over increasing school spending and 74% say data centers’ costs outweigh the benefits. With the race within the margin of error, both campaigns are scrambling for the undecided voters who will decide it.

AI was used in the research and development of this article.