Francesca Hong is the latest DSA candidate to surge. But she is aiming to represent a purple state.

MADISON, Wis. – To understand why Francesca Hong, the 37-year-old democratic socialist who once called for abolishing the police and Thanksgiving, leads the field of Democrats running for the gubernatorial nomination in toss-up Wisconsin, try talking to Judy Stalter, a 79-year-old grandmother who waited patiently alongside her husband and grandson to shake Hong’s hand after a Saturday event in Sheboygan.

It was Stalter’s grandson, 18-year-old Ricky Yinko, who urged Stalter and her husband to come hear Hong.

Stalter, previously undecided in the Democratic primary taking place on Tuesday, was won over.

“What I saw of her tonight, yeah, I’d vote for her,” she said, citing Hong’s “inclusiveness of the people that are really the ones who are making things happen.”

Yinko, who has supported Hong since he “saw her on a YouTube video somewhere,” isn’t sure his grandfather is convinced (“It sounds like he might still be undecided, but we’ll see”). But Yinko isn’t the only young voter who has persuaded older generations to buy into Hong.

Feet away from them, Scott and Lori Stonecipher said their “socialist-leaning” son “opened our eyes” to Hong, for whom they both voted early.

“Her policies are great. We definitely need a change. I don’t think the traditional Democratic Party is the greatest, either,” said Lori.

Hong launched her campaign last year as a little-known state assemblywoman and former chef whose restaurant in Madison, since shuttered, was home to what one local political journalist told MS NOW was the “best ramen in town.”

But Hong has galvanized progressive Democrats across the state, turning her young supporters into evangelists for a candidate whose platform centers on making life more affordable by raising taxes on the wealthy, halting data center development and rejecting super political action committee money.

She is part of a wave of progressive candidates — some, like Hong, who are aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America — that have clinched their primary nods in places from New York to Colorado to Michigan. Many of those nominees, however, are running in relatively blue areas where they are the favorites to win in November. If Hong nabs the gubernatorial nod in Wisconsin, she will be one of the more prominent progressive faces carrying the DSA’s dreams into November in a purple state.

While Hong has distanced herself from the national DSA, whose recent platform called for things like abolishing the Senate and the presidency, she has not shied from using the s-word.

“This is a state with deep progressive roots. … The state where kindergarten was born, the state where environmentalists like Gaylord Nelson showed us what it means to actually take care of our planet and how we have to do that for one another,” she told a group of people in Sheboygan.

“I hear so much right now about how being bold or progressive — these transformative ideas, I’m so tired of people saying that it’s not possible. Our movement, we are going to make that possible. We’re telling those naysayers, that’s bulls—.”

There is a real question, however, of whether Hong may have scared off more moderate voters with her DSA ties and a library of provocative social media posts that make some Democrats worry she would struggle to win a general election.

“I don’t know that she’s going to have any strong pull with the independents, the people in the middle, and Wisconsin is so close. You need the independents in order to win,” 73-year-old Robert Baron said after voting Friday in the Milwaukee suburb of New Berlin. Baron said he cast his ballot for Hong’s opponent, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

“I think we do need more progressive voices. But it’s really important to me that we keep the governorship,” Kathy Gjerde, 64, told MS NOW outside the same polling site.

Marianne Connor, 93, said of Hong, “She kind of scares me. I never saw too much of her to begin with, but what I heard, she wants to cancel Thanksgiving. That’s really too far left.”

Connor was referencing a now-infamous social media post from 2020, in which Hong wrote, “Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621.”

After declining to distance herself from the comment in a CNN interview last week, Hong eventually backtracked in a conversation with Politico, saying of the holiday, “I actually love it.”

Hong has also called for abolishing the police and argued that police “exist to uphold white supremacy.”

‘I’ve evolved’

Hong was already the favorite in the gubernatorial primary before former Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes abruptly dropped out of the Democratic race. But there were rumblings of displeasure from the establishment when outgoing Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, threw his weight behind Crowley.

But the front-runner is being buffeted by a super PAC run by the Republican Governors Association that has spent millions of dollars on television ads highlighting her liberal record. It’s a presumed tactic to increase her appeal to Democratic primary voters so that she wins the nomination and is an easier opponent for Rep. Tom Tiffany, the likely Republican nominee.

Hong dismissed her past remarks as “hot takes” and “bad takes” she made under the stress of running a restaurant during the Covid-19 pandemic, telling reporters Saturday, “I’ve evolved. I’ve learned. I think it’s more dishonest not to learn.”

But the comments, along with her comparative lack of political experience, have made enough Democratic voters hesitant that local observers are questioning the accuracy of recent polling showing Hong with a big lead in the primary. In Wisconsin, the primary is open and allows voters to participate in either party’s race, no matter their affiliation.

“I really don’t” think Hong is up by a large margin, Marcia Steele, chair of the Winnebago County Democratic Party, told MS NOW on Friday. “I really don’t because, I mean, literally today I probably have talked to 15 people that still don’t know who they’re voting for.” 

One of Hong’s naysayers is her nearest competitor in the primary race, Crowley,  who told a crowd in Madison on Sunday, “We need a governor who doesn’t just talk about problems. We need someone who is going to solve them, and that’s what I’ve done my entire life.”

Crowley is basically the establishment choice. But he has run an odyssey of a campaign, having suspended his bid in early July before restarting it after two other candidates dropped out, even canceling a trip to Jamaica to reenter the race. 

Voters noticed.

“I’m like, okay, you say you’re going to do all this and fight, but you couldn’t fight to stay in. He couldn’t stay and try to keep fighting to try to be governor,” 65-year-old Stacy Gottschalk told MS NOW at Hong’s event in Sheboygan.

And while Crowley’s backers cited concerns about Hong’s electability, the candidate himself rarely makes the same argument explicitly.

Crowley did not mention Hong in his Madison speech, and when asked why on Monday, Crowley told MS NOW, “Even though I have opponents, I’m not running against any of these folks.”

“I’m running for the votes of those who call Wisconsin home, and I’m focused on my policies, our supporters, and what we need to do to ultimately defeat Tom Tiffany this November,” he said. “And so I don’t look at any of my opponents with any ill will. I’m focusing on what we need to do to win this campaign.”

Complicating things for Crowley is that other moderate options exist on voters’ ballots: State Sen. Kelda Roys and former Evers administration official Joel Brennan are still in the race, raising the possibility of a fractured vote.

That’s not to mention the voters who would have supported Crowley had they not already cast a ballot for Barnes or Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, who will still be on the ballot.

Mike Connell, 73, stood in line for Crowley’s Madison event, curious to hear the Milwaukee executive’s pitch.

But Connell was not a swayable voter. He had already voted for Rodriguez, while his wife and son had cast a ballot for Barnes, both of whom have since left the race. 

“Our ballots have already been negated,” Connell lamented.

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