(The Center Square) – A new poll shows that Governor J.B. Pritzker’s approval rating has flipped negative for the first time.
The Illinois Policy Institute’s newest Lincoln Poll conducted by M3 Strategies July 15-18 found that 50.2% of likely voters in 2026 view the governor unfavorably and 47.2% view Pritzker favorably.
M3 surveyed 752 individuals and reported a +/- 3.57 percentage point margin of error.
The previous Lincoln Poll in late January showed a slim majority of Illinois voters approving of Pritzker’s job performance.
Illinois Policy Institute Senior Fellow and former Illinois state Rep. Mark Batinick, R-Plainfield, said he would have advised Pritzker not to run for a third term.
“Third terms are often called the third-term curse, number one. Number two, running a general election for governor doesn’t match with running in a far-left Democratic primary for president,” Batinick told The Center Square.
Batinick said he predicted months ago that the governor’s poll numbers would drop.
“The stuff that he’s trying to do to go to the far left to be relevant in the Democratic primary for president is costing him with rank-and-file voters here in Illinois. They’re like, ‘You know what? I’ve got a high property tax bill. I don’t care about Texas legislators. I want you back in Illinois doing the things that matter to us.’ When you look at that poll, taxes was the number one issue,” Batinick said.
Sixty percent of respondents identified taxes as a top issue facing Illinois. State governance was next at 26%, followed by the economy at 25%.
“The fact that he has the gall to talk about [President Donald] Trump’s tariffs, calling them a tax on the working class, that just reminds everybody that [Pritzker] massively raised the gas tax, that our property taxes are number one in the nation,” Batinick said.
According to Illinois Policy, Pritzker has enacted over 50 tax hikes since he took office in 2019.
Crime was fourth among voters’ top issues, followed by education, housing and immigration.
Batinick said it’s possible that 10% of the people who previously voted for Pritzker now support Trump.
“He’s leaned into those things that are giving the Democrats low popularity, right? The extremism of the Democratic Party does not play with the general electorate, and you’re seeing that in his poll numbers. It surprises me not one bit,” Batinick said.
Batinick said M3 Strategies nailed the Chicago mayoral race and other Illinois elections.
“M3’s polling has been extremely accurate in terms of what they’ve released publicly, and often times they’ve been ahead of the curve on things,” Batinick said.
The Democratic Party of Illinois did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
