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Wisconsin voters will decide on Tuesday whether to nominate a democratic socialist for the state’s highest office in the latest test of an anti-establishment wave among Democratic primary voters.
Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist state lawmaker, emerged as the frontrunner in a four-way race to succeed Tony Evers, the Democratic governor who is not seeking another term.
Evers threw his support behind David Crowley, the Milwaukee country executive. Crowley previously left the race, before reentering it on 18 July.
Crowley and Evers toured the state in the last two weeks, centering his campaign around electability, saying Crowley was more poised to win a general election in a swing state like Wisconsin than Hong.
Eyes turned to the Wisconsin governor’s race after Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic primary for US Senate in Michigan last week in the most recent example of a progressive beating out a moderate. Next door, Minnesota voters have also been weighing a US Senate primary between a moderate and a progressive.
After a wave of wins of progressives and democratic socialists in solidly blue parts of the country, the midwest primaries centered more on electability concerns given the close nature of statewide races there.
While some saw Crowley’s reentry as evidence that the establishment was working to derail Hong’s campaign, Crowley balked at the idea that he was part of the establishment.
Hong, meanwhile, saw her past comments – including a tweet that said to cancel Thanksgiving, and previous support for defunding the police – scrutinized by journalists and attacked by Republicans, led by Donald Trump, as more national attention turned to Wisconsin’s primary.
Marquette University Law School surveyed the Democratic primary in late July, after Crowley reentered, and found Hong leading the pack, though a sizable chunk of voters were still undecided at that time.
The race had rearranged itself multiple times in the weeks leading up to 11 August, landing at four candidates: Hong, Crowley, the state senator Kelda Roys, and the former state administration department head Joel Brennan. A previous top contender, Sara Rodriguez, left the race after campaign finance irregularities, after which Crowley reentered the race. Mandela Barnes, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in 2022, dropped out on 31 July.
Hong, a chef and former restaurant owner from Madison, was first elected to the state assembly in 2020. She ran on a platform that included childcare for all, free school meals and a one-year moratorium on new datacenter construction. She said voters throughout the state have pushed back against the political establishment and want candidates who will advocate for changes that materially improve their lives.
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“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,” she previously 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 winner will face Tom Tiffany, a Republican congressman and ardent Trump supporter who ran unopposed in the Republican primary. He voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election, which Trump lost.
Tiffany’s role in the 2020 election highlighted the importance of keeping the governor’s office for Democrats. Democrats also hope to win both chambers of the state legislature to install a governing trifecta and enact their agenda.
Elsewhere in Wisconsin, voters in the western part of the state will decide which Democratic contender will face Republican Derrick Van Orden in the third congressional district, a key pickup opportunity for Democrats.
Rebecca Cooke, a “blue dog” Democrat who previously ran for the seat in 2022 and 2024, has seen national support for her campaign against Emily Berge, a former Eau Claire city council president.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee endorsed Cooke, which angered some local Democrats who saw it as interfering in a primary. Berge’s momentum, amid a wave of anti-establishment sentiment, had other national groups spending to boost Cooke, who they believe is most poised to win the district.
