Crowley Narrowly Eclipses Hong, Will Face Tiffany

David Crowley won a shocker Tuesday.

The Milwaukee County executive narrowly edged out Rep. Francesca Hong to win the Democratic nomination for governor. With votes still outstanding in one smaller Republican-leaning county and a scattering of other locations, Crowley was beating Hong 39.88% to 39.38%, a margin of nearly 4,000 votes.

He will now face Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany in a November general election that is likely to be the most expensive gubernatorial race in state history.

Crowley’s victory was so unlikely that at one point he had even dropped out of the race.

For several months, the seven-person Democratic primary looked like Hong’s to lose. The Madison-based Democratic Socialist was polling in the lead, a surprise given her limited name recognition when she declared for the race, but results showed the majority of voters remained undecided. Subsequent polls showed her support continued to grow.

Crowley was the second candidate to drop out of the race, having peaked at 6% in polling before departing in early July. He endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, only for Rodriguez’s campaign to implode amid irregularities in financial reports and the termination of her campaign manager.

The county executive then returned to the race, with a key ally: Gov. Tony Evers.

Evers endorsed Crowley on July 18 and in the last two weeks has barnstormed the state with Crowley. The two-term governor, 74, was also openly critical of Hong.

Crowley’s campaign was further boosted by former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes dropping out. Once viewed as the frontrunner, his campaign failed to develop a ground game and on July 31 he dropped out, citing that there was no path to win and that he was focused on helping the Democratic nominee defeat Tiffany. A controversial article about his romantic life also was published.

A final Marquette University Law School poll, for which data collection ended July 27, had Hong with 38% of the vote, Barnes with 16% and Crowley with 7%.

Crowley promoted himself as the only candidate with elected executive experience. But Hong supporters attempted to label Crowley an “establishment” candidate, a label his supporters, including Congresswoman Gwen Moore, attempted to refute with his history of growing up in the state’s most impoverished ZIP code.

Crowley, 40, previously served in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 2017 to 2020. He was elected county executive in 2020.

Hong, 37, addressed supporters at her Madison party before Milwaukee’s absentee reports were released.

“Wisconsin, we have built something that will change politics forever. The work we have done will be remembered forever. I know we don’t have the final results right now. But what I do know is that we are ready to keep fighting,” said Hong.

Both Crowley and Hong’s parties ended before the Milwaukee absentee results made the winner clear.

Crowley won Milwaukee County with 43.04% of the vote compared to Hong’s 41.46%. Results were delayed at least an hour due to a delay with the City of Milwaukee reporting its absentee ballot results. Crowley outperformed Hong on absentees. He won Milwaukee County by about 2,400 votes.

Hong won Dane County, her home county, with 44% to Crowley’s 36.7%.

Kelda Roys came in third place with 7.5%, Joel Brennan with 4.7%, Rodriguez with 4.1%, Barnes with 4.1% and Missy Hughes with 0.4%. Only Roys, of Madison, and Brennan, of Milwaukee, remained in the race until the end with Hong and Crowley.

State law allows a recount if the margin is less than 1%. If it is less than 0.25%, the government pays. If it is greater than 0.25% but less than 1%, the campaign must pay. Campaigns can request recounts in specific counties.

State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski will run as Crowley’s lieutenant governor. David Varnam, the former mayor of Lancaster, will run with Tiffany after beating Will Martin in a primary. In Wisconsin, lieutenant governor candidates are not selected by the gubernatorial candidate, but declare to run on their own and are paired up after the primary.