Crowley to face Republican Tom Tiffany in November general election
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley narrowly won Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary Tuesday, defeating Democratic socialist Francesca Hong in one of the most closely watched Democratic primaries of the year despite polls that had consistently shown Hong with a double-digit lead.
Hong, a dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America who represents one of Wisconsin’s most liberal state-assembly districts, campaigned on Medicare for All, taxpayer-funded child care, taxing the wealthy and the elimination of all college debt. She had also called for a pause in new construction of data centers. Her campaign drew national attention but also public skepticism from within her own party over her electability in a general election.
Crowley’s victory, which came after a late endorsement from Gov. Tony Evers, sets up a November general election against Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany. Tiffany, a Trump ally and member of the House Freedom Caucus, voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results, which Trump lost. The Wisconsin seat is open because Evers, a two-term governor, is not seeking a third term.
In neighboring Michigan, the progressive movement had a similar close call. Abdul El-Sayed eked out a primary win over centrist Rep. Haley Stevens by a single percentage point, despite polls that had shown him with a much broader lead. Democratic strategists said El-Sayed had succeeded in rejecting the Democratic socialist label — he is not a member of the group and has spoken on the campaign trail about being a capitalist — and had forcefully walked back some of his past controversial statements.
In Minnesota, progressives had a clearer night. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan defeated Rep. Angie Craig in the state’s Democratic Senate primary, securing the endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The three races exposed a demographic split within the Democratic Party. Hong averaged an eight-percentage-point lead over Crowley across five Wisconsin counties with University of Wisconsin System campuses; El-Sayed won seven Michigan counties with college towns by an almost 22-percentage-point margin; and Flanagan led Craig by more than 30 percentage points across six Minnesota counties with college towns. Moderates, by contrast, found their strongest support among non-college-educated white voters — the same demographic where Crowley, Stevens and Craig outperformed their progressive opponents.
“The Midwest is not Manhattan,” said Charles Franklin, director of a Wisconsin statewide poll conducted by Marquette Law School. “There are limits here.” Franklin added that Wisconsin and Michigan showed “the very progressive elements in the party have a stronger position than we have previously seen.”
Electability concerns shaped late decisions in Wisconsin. Anne Steele, a Madison resident who voted for Crowley on Tuesday, said she backed him because “he has the best chance of winning.” “This is too much of an important election and I thought that David had a better chance over Hong, just because of his experience and Evers supporting him,” Steele said.
Franklin said Evers is viewed favorably by roughly 9 in 10 Democratic voters in the state, making his late endorsement of Crowley likely “really influential” in what he described as an election that saw “phenomenal turnout” for a primary. Both Wisconsin and Michigan reported stronger-than-average turnout, a sign Democratic voters were engaged.
Hong’s past social-media activity complicated her campaign. She once called for canceling Thanksgiving, describing it as a “colonizer holiday,” and walked that back only in the final weeks of the race. Kristian Ramos, a Democratic strategist, said Hong “struggled” to show she had the competency to do the job, particularly given how she handled the social-media scrutiny. Notably, two of the most prominent progressive figures in the party — Rep. Alexandra Ocasio Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders — endorsed El-Sayed in Michigan but declined to endorse Hong.
Crowley, who serves as the chief executive officer of the state’s largest county, said Wednesday that voters had backed “someone who had some level of executive experience, who’s been able to govern as well as can build bridges across the urban, suburban and rural divide.”
Both Crowley and Hong attended a unity breakfast Wednesday in suburban Madison with top Wisconsin Democrats, a show of party cohesion less than three months before the general election. Crowley sought to minimize the perception of division. “We created this narrative that was establishment versus progressives, and I think that narrative is not doing us any real justice right now because the primary is over, and our job is to focus on, you know, how we coalesce the big tent that we’re under,” he said.
Tiffany’s campaign was already moving to tie Crowley to Hong. “There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between these Democrat candidates, and David Crowley proved my point when he admitted there aren’t many policy differences between him and a socialist,” Tiffany said in a statement.
Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist, said Republicans — who had preferred to run against Hong in the general election — may have been overly successful in painting her as too far to the left. “There were plenty of people that saw her as a fighter, but I think more people were a little bit too worried about her comments and how those would be weaponized against her in the general election, and people did not want to take the chance to leave Wisconsin in the hands of a crazy like Tiffany,” Cardona said.
MSI previously reported Hong’s lead entering Tuesday’s primary and the public questions about her electability from within her own party — the polling position and party skepticism Hong was unable to overcome on primary day.