Democrat David Crowley Gains Slight Polling, Fundraising Advantage In Last Week Of Campaign

Wisconsin Examiner

October 29, 2026

Democratic candidate for governor David Crowley is heading into the final week of the campaign with an expanded polling advantage over Republican candidate Tom Tiffany. Crowley also had a slight fundraising advantage in the most recent reporting period, though Tiffany, who has raised more money overall, is still outspending the Democratic candidate.

The final Marquette Law School poll before Election Day found that Crowley maintained a 7-point lead over Tiffany among likely voters; 51% said they will vote for Crowley, while 44% said they’d vote for Tiffany. Four percent remained undecided.

A month ago Crowley led the Marquette Law School poll 49% to 46% among likely voters.

“What’s happened in this month is Tiffany has gone down two points and Crowley has gone up two points,” poll director Charles Franklin said.

Crowley was also ahead among registered voters; 49% said they would vote for Crowley, while 46% said they’d vote for Tiffany.

The poll was conducted from Oct. 14 through 22, with surveys ending just before the only debate in the race, so the poll did not capture voters’ response to the debate. It interviewed 818 Wisconsin registered voters about the election. The sample of likely voters was 668.

Crowley has the support of 98% of Democrats, up from 96% in September, while Tiffany has the support of 92% of Republicans, down from 95% in September.

Crowley has increased his support among independents to 56% from 44% in September, while Tiffany’s support grew from 18% to 26%. The percentage of undecided independent voters has decreased from 38% to 18%.

“Independents are coming in, they are making up their minds, and they’re going for Crowley pretty significantly,” Franklin said.

Fundraising reports filed this week showed Crowley reported raising $15.5 million over the last four weeks, due in large part to transfers of $9 million from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. The state party received $5.5 million from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman during the pre-election period.

Tiffany reported raising a little over $10 million during the same time period, which included $9 million from the Republican Party of Wisconsin as well as $3.5 million in in-kind contributions. The state party reported receiving $13 million from Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks, bringing her total donated to the party this year to $21 million.

Tiffany reported spending $17 million over the time period and ended with $4.8 million in the bank, while Crowley spent $14.2 million and ended with $4.1 million in the bank.

In total over the year, Tiffany has raised $49.7 million and spent $46.6 million. Crowley has raised $26.7 million and spent $23 million.

Both candidates have been delivering their closing arguments to voters this week at campaign events and through ads.

Crowley has focused on addressing the cost of living by making healthcare affordable and funding education and tying Tiffany to the Trump administration. The Marquette poll found that Trump’s job approval fell one point in Wisconsin over the last month to another record low of 61% disapproval and 37% approval.

Tiffany has focused on addressing high costs by cutting taxes, limiting transgender students’ rights in schools and other cultural issues. Two ads released by the Tiffany campaign soon after the Marquette poll focused on Crowley’s previous support of placing tampons in all school bathrooms and criticized the use of racial equity policies in Milwaukee County while Crowley has served as the county executive. The ads call Crowley’s agenda “radical.”

Crowley spokesperson Philip Shulman said in a statement that the campaign is “taking nothing for granted and running like we’re one point down in this final week.”

“Wisconsinites are clearly fired up to elect David Crowley the next governor of Wisconsin as he continues bringing his vision of making life more affordable to every corner of the state,” Shulman said.

The Marquette poll asked voters about which candidate would do more on specific issues.

Among registered voters, 39% said Crowley would do more on making healthcare affordable to Tiffany’s 23%; 44% said Crowley would do more to improve education to Tiffany’s 30% and 32% said Crowley would do more to handle data centers to Tiffany’s 25%.

The only issue where Tiffany was ahead was reducing taxes — 42% said he would do more, while 17% said Crowley would.

Voters across the state will also determine which party controls the state Legislature, which Republicans have held since 2011. Democrats are seeking to flip two seats in the state Senate and five seats in the state Assembly to take majorities in both houses.

Among likely voters, the Marquette poll found 51% said they would vote for the Democratic candidate, while 44% said they would vote for the Republican candidate.

Franklin said there is also a change in voters’ preference for unified government as opposed to divided government. The poll found that among registered voters, 60% prefer unified control and 38% favor divided government.

“After a long period of divided government, people do seem to have a bit of a taste for unified control and the things that you can get done when you have one party in control,” Franklin said, adding that preferences for which party takes charge depend on voters’ partisan affiliations.

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