Marquette Law School Poll

§1About

✎ Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

The Marquette Law School Poll is a survey project of Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee that polls Wisconsin registered voters and, since 2019, U.S. adults on the Supreme Court and national issues.^2,3,4 Its October 2026 methodology statement says the poll is sponsored by the Law School and directed by Prof. Charles Franklin, and that the Marquette Law School Alumni Annual Fund paid for the survey.³

Kind

Academic^2,3

Founded

2012²

§2Who it works with

Why this matters: Owners, news partners and the firms behind a poll's interviews shape what gets asked, how, and what gets published.

§3Whom it works for

Why this matters: A firm that also works for one party's campaigns can still publish accurate polls, but readers deserve to know.

Says it does no work for parties or candidates. A 2022 Law School post describes the poll as an independent effort with no agenda other than learning and publishing what Wisconsin residents think, and its October 2026 methodology credits the Law School alumni Annual Fund for funding.^2,3

Of its 87 polls listed since the 2024 election, VoteHub flags 0 as paid for by a Democratic-aligned sponsor and 0 by a Republican-aligned sponsor⁵.

§4How its numbers compare with other polls

Why this matters: A firm whose polls run steadily to one side of everyone else's is worth reading alongside others.

Each of its polls since the 2024 election is compared with other pollsters' polls of the same question whose field period ended within 14 days, each other pollster counted once⁵. The figure is the average gap, with a 95% margin. This compares it with other polls, not with the truth: the others can be the ones that are off.

Party margin

R+0.3 (±1.5) across 15 polls of the generic ballot and 2026 races, in 2 contests.

Net approval: Donald Trump

−1.7 points (±1.5) across 18 polls, against other polls of the same question.

Net favorability: JD Vance

−4.6 points (±1.2) across 18 polls, against other polls of the same question.

Net favorability: Donald Trump

−2.7 points (±1.3) across 15 polls, against other polls of the same question.

Net approval: Supreme Court

+7.6 points (±4.9) across 11 polls, against other polls of the same question.

D+ means its polls showed Democrats doing better than other polls did; R+, Republicans. A figure from fewer than 5 polls isn't shown.

§5Record against results

Why this matters: The one test that doesn't depend on other polls: how close a firm's final polls came to what voters did.

From FiveThirtyEight's final public data^6,7: general-election polls between a Democrat and a Republican in the last three weeks before each election, compared with the certified result. FiveThirtyEight rated each name polls were published under separately. Across all 8,957 such polls, the average miss was D+0.7, so the relative figure takes out the misses every pollster shared that year.

ABC News closed FiveThirtyEight in March 2025; its data stops at the 2022 elections. 2026 results will be added once states certify them.

§6Its polls

§7What we looked for and didn't find

• No standing media partner found; recent methodology statements name the Law School as sponsor and no outlet.
• No parent organization found beyond Marquette University Law School.
• No campaign or party clients found.
• Findings search: web searches combining the poll name with AAPOR, FiveThirtyEight, Silver Bulletin, exclusion and retraction terms found nothing that fits the finding rules; the Silver Bulletin January 2026 ratings page names no banned pollsters; FiveThirtyEight pages now redirect to ABC News and could not be read; RealClearPolitics, The New York Times, Cook Political Report, Decision Desk HQ and VoteHub policy pages were not reviewed one by one.
• Court records: a web search limited to CourtListener and Justia found no case naming the poll; PACER and state court dockets were not searched.