Francesca Hong’s stunning defeat in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary has triggered a bitter debate on the Left, with some prominent Democrats and activists arguing that the socialist candidate’s loss may ultimately be good for their movement.
Hong, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, entered Tuesday’s primary as the heavy favorite after surging to the top of the field. But Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who reentered the race just weeks before the election with the backing of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, pulled off the upset by roughly 3,000 votes.
The razor-thin loss has exposed a divide within the Left over whether Hong’s campaign represented a missed opportunity for the burgeoning socialist movement or a warning about the limits of its appeal in a battleground state.
“There’s a reason the institutional left mostly stayed away,” one Democratic operative who works with left-wing campaigns told Politico. “The people who made those calls are relieved.”
A donor adviser who works with left-wing candidates similarly described Hong’s loss as “a good thing for the movement,” arguing that the results showed voters may be receptive to left-wing policies, but that candidate quality still matters.
“This is a far better outcome,” the adviser said, arguing that a candidate who avoided some of Hong’s more controversial statements could have won.
The reluctance of the Democratic Party’s most prominent socialist figures to back Hong has become a major source of anger among her supporters.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) declined to endorse Hong despite her commanding poll position, while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also declined to get involved.
Their absence stood in sharp contrast to the national support given to other left-wing candidates this year, including Sanders-backed Minnesota Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed— both won their primaries.
“This movement will fail if we see more letdowns at the critical moment, like we saw in this race,” said Nathan J. Robinson, editor of the leftist magazine Current Affairs. “Especially if AOC wants to be taken seriously as a national leader of the left movement, she needs to actually support the candidates out there who have a chance to notch victories.”
DSA political operative Deep Singh Badhesha similarly argued that the race could have ended differently if Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez had intervened.
“Wisconsin being this close is very frustrating because folks like AOC and Bernie Sanders stayed out,” Badhesha said. “If they just did one rally in Wisconsin for Hong, that would have probably wrapped it up for her.”
But Hong’s defeat was not merely a consequence of a lack of national support. Her campaign was dogged by a series of controversial past statements that gave Democrats concerned about the November general election ample reason to keep their distance.
Hong previously called for Thanksgiving to be canceled, wrote that police “exist to uphold white supremacy” and should be “defund[ed] then abolish[ed],” and made controversial comments about race and American culture. The controversy became particularly damaging in the final weeks of the campaign, as Crowley successfully framed himself as the more electable Democrat in a state where Republicans are eager to reclaim the governor’s mansion.
Even Evers, who ultimately backed Crowley, warned that Hong was putting too much emphasis on controversies surrounding her social media posts.
“I think she’s in a tough place,” Evers said before the election. “She has spent her entire campaign dealing not with the issues, but what’s on the Twitter.”
Hong’s loss also comes amid a broader debate over whether a string of recent Democratic primary victories represents a genuine socialist insurgency or simply a series of candidate-specific successes.
Still, not everyone on the Left views the result as a setback. Hasan Piker, the left-wing streamer who campaigned heavily for Hong, argued Wednesday that the campaign’s ability to generate significant turnout without support from Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez or major establishment Democrats was itself an accomplishment.
“The fact that she was able to, alongside the local DSA chapters, the fact that this campaign was able to bring this much turnout is incredible,” Piker said. “Do not let anybody discourage you.”
For Hong’s most committed supporters, however, the frustration is increasingly directed toward the national leaders who they believe abandoned a candidate who had a genuine chance to win.
For other Democrats on the Left, the lesson is almost the opposite: Hong’s defeat may have prevented a potentially damaging general election campaign and demonstrated that the party’s most radical candidates still face significant limits when they move beyond deep-blue districts and into statewide battlegrounds.
Crowley will now face Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in November, with both parties fighting for control of Wisconsin’s governor’s mansion after Evers announced he would not seek another term.
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