Democrat establishment strikes back as socialist candidate downed in battleground primary
MADISON, Wis — The left wing suffered a high-profile setback on Tuesday at the hands of the center-left establishment in their ongoing battle for the ideological future of the party.
Seven days after far-left candidate Abdul El-Sayed narrowly edged out more moderate Rep. Haley Stevens in battleground Michigan's Democratic Senate primary, state Rep. Francesca Hong on Tuesday was upset in her bid to capture the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Wisconsin, another crucial swing state.
Hong, a state lawmaker from Madison, Wisconsin and a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member, was defeated by Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the Associated Press reports.
Crowley will face off in the general election against likely Republican nominee Rep. Tom Tiffany, a hard-right House Freedom Caucus member who is backed by President Donald Trump. The race is considered a top flip opportunity for the GOP.
Crowley was heavily backed by retiring Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, with both warning that a Hong primary victory could jeopardize Democratic control of the governor's office.
The governor's race in Wisconsin opened after Evers announced he would not seek a third term. With Evers stepping aside, the race offered Democrats their first opportunity in 16 years to choose a nominee without an incumbent governor on the ballot.
The primary was closely watched as an early test of whether Wisconsin Democrats favored the party's progressive wing or its establishment, with the winner advancing to a high-stakes general election in one of the nation's premier battleground states.
Hong, a 37-year-old former chef and single mother, was backed by top nationally known progressives, including Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ro Khanna of California, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender. But Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a longtime champion of the left, last week said he didn't plan on endorsing Hong, arguing that he was not familiar enough with her campaign or the race.
Hong is running on a platform that includes guaranteed paid leave, boosting the state's minimum wage from $7.25 to $20 per hour, and a one-year moratorium in Wisconsin on building AI data centers. Hong has faced scrutiny over years-old social media posts calling for defunding and abolishing the police. But she says she no longer supports cutting police budgets or abolishing police departments.
"I'm not defunding the police, not abolishing police. I am serious about public safety," Hong emphasized on Saturday as she took questions from voters.
Hong also made national headlines over the past two weeks for a resurfaced social media post from 2020 where she argued that the country should "cancel Thanksgiving" in order to "stop celebrating colonialism."
Hong walked back her Thanksgiving comments, amid backlash, and now says that Thanksgiving is her "favorite holiday."
On her resurfaced tweets, Hong told reporters on Saturday that she has "evolved" and "learned."
Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, two of the major contenders for the Democratic nomination, exited the race this summer. And Crowley, who earlier suspended his campaign and backed Rodriguez, re-entered the contest.
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Crowley was backed by Evers, who joined him on the campaign trail in the closing stretch leading up to the primary.
There was a growing number of more moderate Democrats concerned that if Hong captured the gubernatorial nomination, it would give Tiffany a big boost in his bid to flip the governor's office.
A Wisconsin-based Democratic strategist who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely argued that with Hong at the top of the ticket, "it will hurt Democrats down ballot, in key congressional and legislative races" in the Midwestern battleground
Meanwhile, pro-GOP super PACs, including one aligned with the Republican Governors Association, shelled out millions of dollars to boost Hong in the primary, because they view her as the weakest Democratic candidate.
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In a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the primary, Tiffany pointed to his expected general election showdown with Hong and said his state would be "the firewall… We’ll be the place that stops socialism."
Asked about electability concerns, Hong told Fox News on Sunday that "this election belongs to the voters. We let the voters decide. The candidate that's the most electable is the one that earns the most votes. So we're focused on meeting voters up until Election Day, until the polls close."