Everyone’s Talking About Francesca Hong

Francesca Hong. Photo from Wisconsin State Representative Francesca Hong’s Facebook page.

Last week the New York Times did a story on democratic socialist Francesca Hong’s campaign for Wisconsin governor. This came on the heels of stories about her by NBC and, of all publications, the Times of India, along with state media coverage of the controversy over Hong’s appearance on two livestreams by rabble-rousing hosts.

I doubt anyone expected Hong would be leading the pack in this campaign by May with 14% of the vote in the last Marquette poll. Nor that she would be generating more media coverage than any of the other five Democratic candidates, just five weeks before the election.

The Times story, with a headline asking “Can Socialism Appeal in a Swing State?” was very positive, following Hong on the campaign trail, including at Musky Fest in Hayward in the state’s far northwest. (“Musky is a nickname for muskellunge, a freshwater fish,” the story helpfully explained.)

“Ms. Hong would be the first democratic socialist governor in U.S. history,” the story noted. Nationally there have been a number of socialists winning primaries, as many Democratic voters seek fighters who will oppose President Donald Trump’s policies and champion economic justice.

Hong fits the bill: She was the only Democratic candidate at a forum last month to support a one-year moratorium on the construction of Big Tech data centers, a plan she calls “Control-Alt-Delete,” while former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, “a Democrat and another leading contender, has now also called for a pause until regulations are in place,” the story noted. Other candidates have also called for more regulations.

But while that stand exemplifies Hong’s hard-hitting style, she “terrifies some Democrats, who think that moderate and conservative Wisconsinites will roundly reject a socialist” in the general election, the Times wrote.

In the past Hong has called for abolishing the police and legalizing prostitution, stands that Republicans will turn into attack ads, Democrats fear. And last week she stepped into another controversy. Media reports noted that Hong joined the livestreams of two well-known leftist provocateurs: Michael Beyer, who has more than 100,000 followers on Twitch, and Hasan Piker, who has some 3 million.

Piker has said America “deserved” the September 11 attacks and that reports of sexual violence during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israelis “don’t matter” to his broader understanding of the conflict, while Beyer has called Jews a “constructed” and “demonic” ethnicity.

The Times of India, which is the second-largest English-language selling daily in the world, reported on July 1 that Hong was “in the middle of a political firestorm” for her appearance, and quoted two candidates for governor, Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany and Democrat and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, questioning Hong’s judgment. Tiffany said it proved the Democratic Party “embraces extremism.”

But the July 2 Wisconsin Public Radio story had the most explosive quote: Ann Jacobs, the Democratic chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, tweeted that Hong was “willing to sell out the Jews of Wisconsin for a few bucks.”

It was more than a few bucks. Hong raised about $92,000 for those appearances. Democratic insiders had predicted that her grassroots campaign may run out of money. Her average donation on her last campaign finance report in January was just $69 per donor. This was a much quicker payday.

A spokesperson for Hong’s campaign defended her appearances on the shows, condemning antisemitism among “all forms of dehumanization” and adding that “appearing on a podcast or livestream is not an endorsement of every statement a host has ever made.”

Meanwhile, the Journal Sentinel for the second week in a row ran a story raising questions about campaign contributions that Lt. Gov. and Democratic candidate for governor Sara Rodriguez has accepted. The first story was triggered by criticism of her by Barnes. Was this one shopped by Barnes as well? His campaign won’t comment, and the story suggested another possible source: it had a quote from the Wisconsin Governors Association condemning Rodriguez, saying “She treats Wisconsin voters like fools.”

The story told us that Rodriguez promised not to take corporate contributions in her run for governor and hasn’t. But back before she entered the race, while serving as lieutenant governor she did. The story doesn’t tell us how much money she raised this way or if even one dollar of it was put into her campaign account for governor.

As Urban Milwaukee’s Jeramey Jannene reported in January, reviewing the only campaign finance report released by candidates to date, her financing looked more democratic than all but the very grassroots campaign of Hong. Rodriguez was second-lowest among the candidates in the percentage of her funds (34%) coming from big or max donors. She raised $639,157 from 2,095 unique donors, with an average donation of $309. No, this information was not included in the JS story.

Whatever triggered the newspaper’s second negative story on Rodriguez in little more than a week, it has become part of a new dynamic in the Democratic campaign for governor. “The general mood right now is that Mandela and Sara are battling to be the candidate that people consolidate around to make sure Fran does not win,” says a Democratic consultant.

The battle within the battle was set off after Rodriguez released an internal poll showing the race is being led by three candidates, with Barnes at 26%, Hong at 22% and Rodriguez at 15%. Democrats who’ve seen other internal polls told me the numbers looked pretty accurate. That battle is about to heat up: the Rodriguez campaign has just announced a $1 million media campaign to promote her candidacy, which would be the biggest effort so far by any candidate.

Yesterday a new poll was released by a little-known outfit, Wedgewood Polls, sponsored by the “Isthmus Political Report,” which showed Hong in the lead among likely Democratic voters, with 30%, followed by Barnes (28%) and Rodriguez (19%). It also showed that all three candidates ran three to four percentage points ahead of Tiffany in a head-to-head matchup.

Wedgewood Polls calls itself “an independent public-opinion research firm,” but its results were first reported by the conservative Republican website the McIver Institute. As for the Isthmus Political Report, it’s a black hole. There is no information about it online, which is suspicious.

Wisconsin Republican Chairman Brian Schimming has said that for Republicans Hong would be the best opponent. But the Tiffany campaign had previously released an alleged consultant memo saying it was most worried about running against Hong — which the Journal Sentinel embarrassed itself by publishing. A poll showing Hong now at 30% could help convince Democrats who doubt her electability that she is running away with the race.

So far no Wisconsin publication has jumped on the poll, but Newsweek has reported on it. Without further identification of its sponsor, the poll is suspect.