Party figures question Hong’s electability in general election
Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist and Wisconsin state assembly member, enters Tuesday’s Democratic gubernatorial primary as the frontrunner, according to most polls, after a grassroots campaign that has drawn national attention and public skepticism from figures in her own party. Four candidates are vying for the open governor’s seat, with the winner set to face Republican Tom Tiffany in November.
Hong, 37, a chef and former restaurant owner from Madison who was elected to the state assembly in 2020 as its first Asian American member, is running on a progressive platform that includes universal childcare, fully funding the state’s public schools, and a one-year moratorium on datacenter construction. She has said the datacenter moratorium differentiates her from the other Democratic candidates.
“I got into this race because I know that we can win and that Wisconsinites are going to fight for one another and fight to be a part of the change,” Hong told the Guardian, “because they’re tired of people making decisions that don’t improve lives and they’re tired of the status quo.”
The race has drawn national attention in recent weeks. Donald Trump has mocked Hong’s old tweets, including one in which she called for cancelling Thanksgiving, and major figures in her own party have publicly questioned her ability to win a general election. David Axelrod, the Democratic strategist who helped Barack Obama win, has described Hong as “a font of zany liberal, faculty lounge exotica.”
David Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, exited the race and then reentered it, receiving the endorsement of outgoing Democratic Governor Tony Evers. Evers recently said Hong’s campaign was “in a tough place” because she had to spend time dealing with “what’s on the Twitter.” A memo from the Crowley campaign on 5 August suggested polling may be off, pointing to Michigan polls that showed Abdul El-Sayed with a much broader lead than he actually achieved in his Democratic primary win for US Senate last week.
Hong has pointed to Crowley’s change of heart as evidence of panic by party leaders, saying there is a “reluctance to change, and a fear of change” among “a lot of our candidates and some of their consultants.”
Crowley told the Guardian his decision to reenter did not hinge on Evers’ support. “We knew that the stakes were too high for me to sit on the sideline, and that we need the best candidate – not just with executive leadership, but somebody who has a proven track record of getting things done,” he said. “And that’s what voters want. They want someone that they can trust. And that’s why we got back into this race.”
The stakes extend beyond the primary. Whoever wins will face Tom Tiffany, an ardent Trump supporter running unopposed in the Republican primary who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election, which Trump lost. “The Wisconsin governor certifies the presidential election results, and Tom Tiffany was part of a plot to overturn the 2020 results,” said Ben Wikler, the former chair of the Wisconsin Democratic party. “This is a very high-stakes seat that will affect not just the lives of every Wisconsinite, but also potentially the future of American democracy.”
Wikler noted that five of the last seven presidential elections in Wisconsin have come down to less than one percentage point, and that Wisconsin stays “consistently right on the knife’s edge.” Democrats are also angling for a governing trifecta in Wisconsin, trying to win back control of both chambers of the state assembly and keep the governor’s office.
Michael Wagner, the director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s journalism school who researches political communication, said Democrats have increasingly believed the only way to win statewide in swing states is with moderate candidates, but that there’s evidence that’s not true. “Sometimes the party establishment can get too cute with what they worry about,” said Wagner. “But it’s not unreasonable that they’re worried, because in an election in Wisconsin, any one of 20 things could shift 10,000 votes, and that could be it.”
Wagner said Hong’s strongest coalition is among young voters, and that in a place like Wisconsin, where voters are willing to take chances on people who speak directly to the issues, Hong has a good shot at winning both the primary and the general. “That doesn’t mean she’ll win either of them, but she’s got a really good chance,” he added.
Hong often counters the electability question with: “The person who wins the most votes is the most electable. And we are fighting harder than any other campaign to win the most votes.”
On the campaign trail, Hong has emphasized her firm stances. She doesn’t shy away from the democratic socialist label, but noted that the DSA hasn’t endorsed her and stressed that she doesn’t agree with the full DSA platform. She previously said she wanted to defund the police but now says she does not.
“The urgency of this moment requires actually meeting the scale and speed in which these different things have become a problem,” she said. “You see the mass income disparities. You have to meet that with a policy that’s going to fix it permanently. And that’s changing a rigged system.”
On datacenters, Hong said the issue resonates because people feel the most threat to their own control. “Just because I’m team human doesn’t mean I’m anti-AI. I just don’t want it to control us. I think that we get to regulate it,” she said.
Chris Larson, a state senator who recently endorsed Hong, cited her ability to form coalitions at the capitol. “This is where we build hope. This is how we get shit done,” he said during the Riverwest 24 bike race in Milwaukee. “And that for me is what Francesca Hong brings. And if there are folks who are saying that that is too much, I want to be part of the pushback against that.”
Voters on the ground have shown mixed reactions. Terrence Dahmen, a 73-year-old independent who said he ends up voting for Democrats most of the time, was leaning toward Hong because of her datacenter moratorium, calling her “a little more of a socialist, which doesn’t bother me at all” and saying Evers’ intervention in the race “doesn’t smell good.” Robert Edelstein, a 62-year-old who described himself as progressive but isn’t registered with a political party, was concerned that Republicans were boosting Hong. “I’m troubled that it could be someone who can’t win,” he said.
Becky Cooper, Hong’s campaign manager, said digging up tweets from more than five years ago is an attempt to distract from voters’ needs, including affordable healthcare and property tax relief, as well as a “huge waste” of time and energy. “But,” she added, “we’re always working to sharpen language and deliver the message.”
Hong told the Guardian she welcomes national interest in her campaign, but does feel the pressure. “We can’t have a more representative democracy unless we have more folks who are willing to fight the way things have been done,” she said. “Because that’s what’s gotten us here.”