Why Republicans Shouldn’t Celebrate Socialist Hong’s Defeat in Wisconsin

Following the nailbiter outcome in the Wisconsin Democrat gubernatorial primary on Tuesday, the predominant narrative has been that the narrow defeat of socialist candidate Francesca Hong at the hands of (relatively) moderate candidate David Crowley shows the limits of the progressive surge evident nationwide this year. But both the manner of Hong’s loss and the success of her campaign are troubling signs for Wisconsin and the country.

Crowley, the Milwaukee County Executive, left the race earlier in the year but then re-entered on July 18 with the support of sitting Governor Tony Evers. Establishment Democrats were terrified at the soaring popularity of Hong, a far-left state legislator and card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and backed Crowley to keep her from the nomination.

Hong became most famous nationally for old social media posts calling to “cancel Thanksgiving” as well as various other negative comments about Valentine’s Day, Independence Day, and Halloween. In another post from 2019, Hong described the feeling of being on the verge of an anxiety attack at a Culver’s restaurant because of “old white people” – a seeming impediment to running for governor in a state that is 85 percent white. She also claimed that her half-white son put her “in proximity” to the dreaded “Whiteness.”

The more that people dug up on Hong, the more toxic she became. In education, she said she wants “racial identity and talking about the role of race ubiquitous in school classrooms.” In 2021, she tweeted, “Abolish the Senate.”

Her record as a state legislator included being one of six lawmakers to vote against AB 677, a bill ultimately signed into law by Evers that made it a felony to groom underage children. Her excuse was that such a law would be used to target the LGBTQ community. (Talk about telling on yourself.)

In her gubernatorial campaign, her official policy platform included: taxing the “rich”; universal childcare; “free” school lunches; a minimum wage hike from $7 to $20; repeal of the state’s Right-to-Work laws; a public bank; and a moratorium on building data centers.

Taking all this into account, it’s easy to see why Democrats were terrified of Hong’s candidacy. Wisconsin is not California, New York, or even neighboring Michigan. It is a solidly purple state that went for Trump in 2016 and 2024 and Biden in 2020. It is one of the few remaining states whose U.S. Senate seats are split between one Democrat and one Republican.

Moreover, Democrats believe that a victory in the governor’s race could lead to their first governing trifecta in Wisconsin in more than a decade. Republicans have controlled the state House and Senate since 2011, but the GOP advantage is down to just a few seats in both chambers.

Hong posed a severe threat to that prospect. Her policy record and past statements were so wacky, in fact, that it wasn’t just Governor Evers who opposed her. Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did not endorse her either despite Hong’s actual positions fitting well with theirs.

But Hong appeared headed for the nomination anyway. A Marquette University poll in late July, when Crowley had just reentered the race, showed Hong dominating the field, albeit with a heavy percentage of undecided voters.

Former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, then second, dropped out of the race after a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel report that Barnes “was taking advantage of his role in the party to have sexual encounters with young adult women.” The race was reduced ultimately to a contest between Hong and Crowley.

Polls in the final days of the race showed Hong ahead by as much as 22 points – a seemingly insurmountable lead. The Democrat establishment pulled out all the stops for Crowley, and he won by less than one percent.

So, why didn’t Hong get the same treatment from the DSA and progressive leaders that, say, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani or Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed received?

The answer is that unlike Mamdani or El-Sayed, Hong’s full-throated endorsement of every furthest-left position combined with her cultural cluelessness threatens the Democrat/DSA brand.

Democrat strategist David Axelrod admitted this openly when he came out against her because she would threaten El-Sayed’s fall election. Writing on X, he called her “a font of zany liberal, faculty lounge exotica. But the Rs, hoping to deflect attention from an unpopular @POTUS who hangs from them like an anchor, would surely try and link Abdul and Hong as philosophical kin.”

But Hong and El-Sayed are philosophical kin. Maybe Hong doesn’t now claim to want to abolish the Senate or support “fully abolishing the police and prison system,” but, as a DSA member, her platform calls for those policies – along with abolishing ICE, defunding the Department of War, prosecuting Israeli and U.S. officials for the “Gaza genocide,” “queer liberation,” an end to any restrictions on abortion, and all manner of insane policies.

El-Sayed isn’t formally a member of DSA, but supports most of their goals, including government healthcare. Axelrod and others just don’t want to scare the horses too much by admitting it.

While many Republicans are taking comfort in Hong’s defeat, the large amount of support for such a candidate in purple Wisconsin is, frankly, alarming. So, too, is the way she lost.

Hong conceded defeat Wednesday afternoon, but this was only after yet another episode of election incompetence that smacks of at least the possibility of fraud. Five USB sticks that were supposed to have voting data for about 28,000 ballots in Milwaukee turned out to be completely empty, which led to election officials having to “fix” the data in the middle of the night.

While it might not have been cheating (Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey observes that the “brutal” opposition research did not come from Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, the GOP winner), the incompetence combined with nocturnal dumps overthrowing the runaway leader in the polls is likely to draw suspicion from DSA types as well as everybody else. It’s hard to build trust when close races are so often decided this way in Democrat strongholds.

If there’s a positive lesson for the GOP, it might be to pay attention to the underreported issue which fueled Hong’s rise – opposition to data centers. She hit on frustration with data center construction early and often, and it paid off.

While the economic and environmental impact of data centers is likely overstated by magnitudes, many Americans have a bipartisan aversion to them because of incidents of spiking water and electricity prices – despite their incredible economic potential in rural areas.

A July Time article reports, “A June Reuters poll found that just a third of Americans approve of the pace of data-center construction, and only 14% are comfortable with a data center being built nearby.” In a sign of just how potent this issue is, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced on August 4 that he had “paused new data center projects pending a statewide grid audit.” Abbott isn’t wrong here. Republicans must tread carefully and make sure that they balance economic development with the concerns of local communities.

Hong’s candidacy is over. But there will be more like her – and Republicans can’t count on all of them being such easy targets.