Comeback Crowley Narrowly Eclipses Hong, Will Face Tiffany
From drop out to winner in three weeks.
County Executive David Crowley. Photo by Sophie Bolich.
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 30, 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 was also, at least briefly, beset by revelations that he had crude Twitter account 16 years ago. Hong found herself defending her past X (formerly Twitter) posts about ending Thanksgiving and defunding the police in national media appearances.
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.
But a recount may not be in the making. Crowley’s campaign said Hong conceded.
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.
Almost 788,000 votes were recorded in the Democratic gubernatorial race. Both Winnebago and Green counties reported issues with reporting results due to technical issues.
The Crowley campaign released a statement after this article was first published.
“David Crowley is grateful to Wisconsin voters, the volunteers who powered this campaign, and everyone who stepped forward to participate in this primary,” said the campaign. “To Francesca, Kelda, Joel, and every candidate who shared their vision for Wisconsin, thank you. They challenged all of us to think bigger about what our state can become. From day one, this campaign has been about what comes next for Wisconsin: making life more affordable, strengthening our schools, creating good-paying jobs, and making sure opportunity reaches every corner of our state. Now, David is focused on bringing people together, earning the support of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and anyone who believes Wisconsin is at its best when we work together and deliver results. The choice in November has always been clear. We can move Wisconsin forward with leadership focused on solving problems, or we can bring the division and extremism of Tom Tiffany and Donald Trump to Wisconsin. David is ready to get back to work, build a broad coalition, and win in November.”
Crowley, if elected, would be the first Black governor of Wisconsin and is the first Black nominee for governor from a major party in Wisconsin. He would be the only third Black official elected to statewide office, following Barnes and Vel Phillips. Hong would have been the first Asian American nominated for governor.
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Now it is the Dem’s to lose All the have to remember to do is
If you voted for Chris Vote for Crowley If you voted for Susan Vote for Crowley If you voted for Janet Vote for Crowley
Remember These 3 women WON their seat’s on the Wisconsin Supreme Court by good margins
Let’s hope the Hong base re-synergizes with Crowley so that Tiffany can be taken down.
WI is gonna race and beat out being Florida for sucking if a GOP gov gets sent back there.
I’m a Hong supporter. I’m incredibly disappointed. That said, I think Crowley will do a good job. All that’s important now is to BEAT TIFFANY!
Considering the whole picture there is NO REASON to be disappointed. It is about exposing the issues to light of day. Almost 300,000 votes across the bow of the Dems is a shot heard around the world! See where her support (voters) came from and who was Ms Hong 3 months ago?
..The Dems showed themselves to be the Party of everyone young, black, white, asian ,latino, men and women candidates. The Repubs look more and more like Confederates, white men only, supporting plantations, government for the rich..
The most incredible political comeback and election victory in Wisconsin history (at least in my lifetime) right?
The wisconsin voters have to be proud of yesterday’s primary. Primaries are healthy for the party and we come out unified. No recount, we trust the election process. I was one of the first Hong donors and now can proudly say I was one of the first Crowley donors after his victory.
Anywhere to pickup Crowley yard signs?
I think Crowley should have stayed in Milwaukee County. However, I will reluctantly support him because he can not do as much harm to our once great state as Tiffany will.
Time to unite in the fight to protect our state from becoming another tool of the oligarchy destroying our nation. Vote Blue, support Crowley’s run for governor!
The news cycle outran the polls.
I am also very proud of WI voters. It was a great turnout, and I think the message is that we need to look at the political issues going forward differently. I was a Crowley voter who was impressed with and supported Hong as well. PLEASE stick around, Ms Hong; you have a lot to give to us citizens of WI.
Supporters of Francesca Hong are understandably very disappointed. The Democratic Party in this state must do whatever it can to wrap their arms around each and every one of them and bring them into the Crowley tent. Their enthusiasm and energy will be needed to beat back the ever looming darkness of Frump bootlickers like Tiffany, who will promise the world and deliver nothing, just like his orange-faced mentor.
There’s a quote from Bull Durham that I’m reminded of that I would like to reach Hong supporters. It’s “Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes it rains.” While the reference in the movie is about baseball games, it applies to many things in life as well. Yesterday’s results are an example. I don’t want Francesca’s supporters to look at yesterday as a loss for them. Maybe it rained, and maybe it will continue to rain for a few days for them. But eventually the rain will stop – at which point its time to go out there and win. Crowley needs you. Wisconsin needs you. Our nation needs you.
Hopefully everyone who voted for any of the Dem candidates, even if not Crowley, can see the importance of voting for Crowley against Tiffany. Sitting this one out would be a gift to Tiffany and Trump. And as podman said “The Dems showed themselves to be the Party of everyone young, black, white, asian ,latino, men and women candidates.” That is the Wisconsin we fight (and vote) for.
Whomever one supported, we must now strongly stand with Crowley. Remember the motto of the great state of Wisconsin, “Forward.” Not “ Backward” with Tiffany. As written above, “Crowley needs you. Wisconsin needs you. Our nation needs you.” We must defeat Tiffany.
If Crowley loses to Tiffany, remember that it won’t be the fault of Hong supporters. It’ll be the fault of a democratic party leadership who once again fought against the candidate demanded by the people.
It will be because people did not vote like they did not vote for Barnes when he ran for the Senate and we got a choice/charter supporter in Johnson Hummmmmmmm I think they learned but am not sure how bad that turned out BUT then again what is more important ????
I understand why Hong supporters are disappointed . However, she called for unity and I hope her supporters will unite behind the flawed candidate of choice of Evers and the Democratic establishment. The voters of this state do not need a Republican who IMO will do more harm to this once great state than did Scott Walker. I wish Evers would’ve endorsed Brennan. Had he won the primary, the general election would not be such an uphill battle Once again, the Dems gave us a very unfavorable choice, but all voters must unite and vote to defeat Tiffany. We can fight against the status quo after another Democrat is elected as the next WI governor.