An AARP Wisconsin poll released Thursday finds Republican Sen. Ron Johnson leads his Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, by five points (51% to 46%) in the state's U.S. Senate race.
In another marquee race, Republican Tim Michels leads Democratic Gov. Tony Evers by three points, 50% to 47%, in the same statewide poll.
Both results are within the poll’s margin of error.
In the Senate race, Barnes only leads Johnson among three demographic groups: Black voters over age 50, college-educated voters and urban voters. Meanwhile, in the gubernatorial contest, Evers leads Michels among women over age 18, likely voters over age 65, college educated voters, urban voters and Black voters over age 50.
Among the four statewide candidates, Johnson holds the highest favorability rating among likely voters surveyed, with 48% of those surveyed saying they have a favorable view of the senator.
46% of those surveyed have a favorable view of Evers, 45% of those surveyed have a favorable view of Michels and just 43% of those surveyed have a favorable view of Barnes.
AARP's pollsters also interviewed Wisconsin voters about their approval rating of national figures.
They found that former President Donald Trump holds a higher approval rating than President Joe Biden. 45% of those surveyed said they hold a favorable view of Biden and 48% of those surveyed said they hold a favorable view of Trump.
This poll was conducted from September 18 - September 25. Pollsters interviewed a statewide representative sample of 500 voters, plus an oversample of 550 likely voters over age 50. There was an additional oversample of 349 African American/Black likely voters over age 50 in the state. The margin of error for the statewide representative sample is ±4.4%. Voters were interviewed via landline, cellphone and SMS-to-web.
