New polling shows Wisconsin voters favor limiting government authority to close churches during emergencies.
A new statewide poll indicates that debates over religious freedom and government emergency powers remain politically salient in Wisconsin. According to polling released this week, a majority of voters support amending the state constitution to restrict the government’s ability to force churches and places of worship to close during emergencies.
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The results suggest that pandemic-era controversies have not faded from voter memory. Instead, they continue to influence how Wisconsinites think about constitutional authority, executive power, and the balance between public safety and civil liberties.
Polling released by Wisconsin Family Action shows 55% of likely general election voters support a constitutional amendment that would limit the state’s emergency powers as they apply to churches and other places of worship. Only 31% of respondents said they oppose the measure, giving supporters a substantial margin.
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The Question Surveyed Voters were asked whether they would support or oppose a proposed constitutional amendment that would limit the government’s broad emergency powers and ensure the state could not force churches or other places of worship to close during public health or other emergencies. Support for the amendment is not confined to a single voter bloc. The polling memo shows majority backing across race and gender categories, with particularly strong support among conservative voters at 71%. Non-white voters also show majority support at 62%. Geographically, support measures around 60% across most of Wisconsin, with the Madison media market standing out as the only region where voter opinion is closely divided. |
The survey was conducted as part of the bipartisan Badger Battleground Poll by Platform Communications. The survey was conducted using live telephone interviews on both landlines and cell phones and included 500 likely general election voters statewide. Fieldwork took place April 7 through April 9, 2025, shortly after Wisconsin’s closely contested Supreme Court election, making the results an early indicator of voter priorities heading into the midterm cycle.
The poll was in the field from April 7 to April 9, 2025, shortly after Wisconsin’s high-profile Supreme Court election. With a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4%, the results provide an early indicator of where voters stand as the state moves toward the next midterm cycle.
The proposed amendment is rooted in disputes that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic, when emergency public health orders led to the closure of churches across Wisconsin. In 2020, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that certain executive actions restricting religious gatherings exceeded constitutional limits, restoring in-person worship.
Supporters of the amendment argue that those conflicts exposed gaps in constitutional protections and left too much discretion in the hands of state officials during emergencies. By placing explicit limits on government authority in the constitution, they say, future crises would be less likely to trigger similar legal and political battles.
Wisconsin Family Action President Daniel Degner has framed the issue as a matter of long-term religious liberty rather than a response to a single public health event.
“Religious freedom in Wisconsin should not merely be tolerated; it should flourish. In 2020, it took a Supreme Court ruling to fully restore the people’s right to assemble in places of worship. Religious freedom is not negotiable. We urge the Legislature to pass this amendment and send it to the people for a vote.” Daniel Degner explained.
He has pointed to the COVID-era church closures as evidence that constitutional protections were left vulnerable during emergencies, requiring judicial intervention to restore in-person worship. Degner has urged lawmakers to move the amendment forward and allow voters to decide whether explicit limits on government authority should be added to the state constitution.
If the amendment advances through the Legislature, it would still require voter ratification, setting up a statewide campaign focused on emergency powers and constitutional rights. The polling suggests such a campaign would begin with a favorable electorate, particularly outside urban Democratic strongholds.
For Republican candidates, the issue aligns with broader messaging on government overreach and constitutional limits. For Democrats, especially those representing suburban or rural districts, the polling presents a strategic challenge, as outright opposition may put them at odds with a majority of voters in their own regions.
The polling makes clear that religious freedom and emergency authority remain live political issues in Wisconsin, not relics of the pandemic. Voter support for limiting government power during emergencies suggests that the COVID era reshaped how many Wisconsinites think about executive authority, constitutional protections, and the role of the courts. These attitudes appear to have solidified into a broader skepticism of open-ended emergency powers, particularly when fundamental rights are involved.
Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, the proposed amendment has the potential to become a defining issue in legislative races and statewide campaigns. For voters, it represents a direct opportunity to set constitutional limits on government action during crises. For candidates, the issue creates a clear fault line between those willing to revisit pandemic-era governance and those inclined to defend expansive executive authority. How campaigns choose to engage with that divide could influence turnout, coalition-building, and issue framing across Wisconsin’s next election cycles.