April 16, 2025
NEW IRG Poll: Voters Decided Election on Abortion, Musk & Trump’s Agenda
Despite all the emphasis on crime, voters were focused elsewhere
Delafield, Wis. – The Institute for Reforming Government (IRG) is continuing its public polling project with Napolitan News Service and Scott Rasmussen in 2025, with the focus in this poll on Wisconsin’s 2025 Spring Election. RMG Research was one of the most accurate pollsters in Wisconsin’s 2025 Spring Election and the 2024 Fall Election.
Key Findings:
- Tough on crime was important to voters but it was not the most impactful issue for their choice of candidate:
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- 88% of all voters said crime was an important issue
- Among all voters, the following issues identified as very important:
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- Abortion – 60%, Independents at 47%, Women at 65%
- Sharing my values – 51%
- Being tough on crime – 50%
- Voter ID requirements – 47%
- Abortion continues to dominate elections:
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- 82% of all voters thought abortion was an important issue
- 70% of Independents said abortion was an important issue
- In a Spring Election where turnout is lower and 635,214 Trump Voters didn’t show up, the election becoming a referendum on the Trump Agenda & Elon Musk had dire consequences:
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- 59% disapprove of Musk, 64% of Independents
- 50% have an unfavorable view of DOGE, 62% view tariffs unfavorably
- In IRG’s January Poll, results foreshadowed that voters were interested in more than just tough on crime:
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- 91% of voters wanted Justices to make decisions based on the Constitution and law, not their own political preferences
- 52% intended to select the candidate that cares about issues important to them, 27% intended to choose candidate who is tough on crime
This survey of 800 Registered Voters was conducted online by Scott Rasmussen on April 8-14, 2025. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. Certain quotas were applied, and the sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage, and political party to reasonably reflect the population of Registered Voters. Other variables were reviewed to ensure that the final sample is representative of that population. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is +/- 3.5 percentage points.