Meet Wisconsin Democrats' new socialist front-runner for governor

Wisconsin's gubernatorial race just gave voters a preview of what the modern Democratic Party looks like once the "electability" wing gets out of the way: a democratic socialist front-runner sharing a stage with Hasan Piker and Ilhan Omar, promising the crowd that Wisconsin will never elect a Republican again.

On Sunday, Francesca Hong took the stage at South Milwaukee High School with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Hasan Piker — the Twitch streamer who has previously said that America "deserved 9/11."

'Wisconsin doesn't need Mao-inspired Chinese communism.'

None of that stopped the crowd from giving Piker a standing ovation at the rally.

Piker livestreamed the whole event, called Wisconsin the birthplace of the American socialist movement "long before Zohran [Mamdani] and Bernie Sanders," and promised that "a Republican will never be elected in this state ever again, once our movement is done."

Asked if campaigning with a figure like Piker is a liability, Hong said the real risk is "not building the broadest coalition possible."

Hong is a two-term state representative out of Madison, a former chef, and — by her own admission — a dues-paying, card-carrying DSA member, sitting on the Assembly's Socialist Caucus.

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Joshua Lott/Getty Images

Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), a four-term congressman and the Republican front-runner for governor, has made Hong's socialist tendencies the spine of his campaign.

Last month, Tiffany posted a response to Piker praising Mao Zedong: "Mao Zedong was responsible for the deaths of at least 40 million people. Wisconsin doesn't need Mao-inspired Chinese communism."

In another post prior to the rally, Tiffany attacked Hong’s apparent agreement with the DSA platform: "Does she want to abolish the police? Yep. Does she want to abolish prisons? Absolutely. Did she call for abolishing the U.S. Senate? Yes. Socialism is knocking on Wisconsin's door. This November, we slam it shut."

Though Hong has since distanced herself from the DSA outright, telling voters she doesn't support "the full platform of the national DSA," she signaled her support in late June for a number of socialist positions on Piker's stream, where he rattled off a rapid-fire menu — repealing Act 10, abolishing ICE, public grocery stores, legalizing marijuana, a free Palestine, and many of the DSA’s priorities.

Hong said yes to essentially all of it, even tentatively backing a statue to be built of former Governor Scott Walker (R) solely for people to deface.

The "abolish the Senate" line has become the flash point of the race, largely due to how she has handled it.

She posted exactly that in February 2021, and as of Tuesday morning, the tweet is still live — yet her campaign told Fox News it "doesn't exist," saying, "Rep. Hong has never called for abolishing the U.S. Senate. Tiffany cannot produce a single statement where she did, because it doesn't exist."

Days later, Fox News’ Dana Perino asked Hong directly if there was anything on the Piker list she now disavows. Hong responded "no." When pressed on the "abolish the Senate" line, she walked it back, calling it "nonsensical and non-practical at this time."

She has since softened her stance on defunding police "as a first step towards abolishing" it, now arguing that "people can evolve."

"She has spoken about police and prison abolition in the past as an aspirational goal, but it is not her current position, and it's not something she will pursue as governor," Hong’s communications director, Allison Geyer, told Fox. "She does not support replacing the presidency with the Supreme Court. Eliminating national borders isn't her position either, and it's not even part of the official DSA platform."

In another notable but since-deleted tweet from 2020, Hong wrote, "Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621."

And in a 2019 post, ironically filled with typos, she described leaving a Culver's restaurant early, "on the verge of a [sic] anxiety attack...to [sic] many old white people who didn't think we spoke english [sic]."

Hong’s campaign account said that she stands by it — and that the restaurant's fries "leave much to be desired."

There's also a more personal chapter that has resurfaced as a talking point about Hong's fitness for office. In a 2023 magazine profile, Hong spoke candidly about a mental health crisis at 18 — a breakdown, self-harm, a week-long psychiatric hospitalization, and a later bipolar diagnosis after SSRIs and a lithium overdose.

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Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez (D), viewed by many as the more electable option, dropped out in mid-July after problems surfaced about her campaign finance reports in which her fundraising was allegedly inflated by as much as $200,000.

Republicans cleared their field earlier. Bill Berrien, a manufacturer running on "family values," dropped out last September after it surfaced that he had allegedly been following sexually explicit accounts online, including a nonbinary porn performer.

That left Tiffany as the clear front-runner — and notably, he isn't running as a MAGA culture warrior despite boasting one of the most conservative voting records in Congress, leaning instead into a “folksy" identity of Packers and old-fashioned Wisconsin.

The polling shows why Democrats should be nervous. A Marquette Law School poll from late July had Hong at 38% in the field, Barnes, who dropped out last Thursday, at 16%, Crowley at 7% — more than 20 points ahead with a huge chunk still undecided — and Cook Political Report rated the race a toss-up.

Betting markets have swung hard toward Tiffany in the general: odds now have Hong at 57%, down 25 points since April, against Tiffany at 46%, up 34 points.

The Wisconsin primary election is August 11, with absentee voting under way and no way to change a ballot once cast.

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