Mainstream Democrats Pin Hopes on David Crowley’s Reboot Campaign for Governor

County Executive David Crowley at Coggs Center Groundbreaking. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Less than a month before primary day in the race for governor, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said he’d give it a shot — for the second time.

Ten days after suspending his campaign, saying he had no path to victory, Crowley stood in front of a crowd of supporters in Milwaukee to announce a move that would sound far-fetched in most election cycles. But somehow, in the topsy-turvy Democratic primary of 2026, it seemed right at home.

“Allow me to reintroduce myself,” Crowley said.

He was back.

Crowley reentered the race for governor on July 18, a step that had been set in motion by a shocking turn of events that forced Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez to end her candidacy.

Just a week earlier, Rodriguez seemed headed toward frontrunner status, on her way to locking down the mainstream Democratic vote. She’d been endorsed by other Democrats who dropped out of the race — including Crowley.

But, as Rodriguez’s campaign began to collapse around her, Crowley started getting phone calls asking him to jump back in. He rejected them — at first.

“I was not going to get into this race,” he told WPR. “I was done.”

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley speaks at the WisDem Convention as a candidate for governor Sunday, June 14, 2026, at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Crowley said he even got a call from Rodriguez on July 16 and assured her he was still backing her candidacy. But Rodriguez bowed out the next day.

The morning of July 17, Crowley recounted, he wanted to sleep in. Instead, his wife woke him with the news of Rodriguez’s departure. Over the course of a chaotic few hours, he made the decision to restart his campaign, this time with the endorsement of Gov. Tony Evers.

“This election is too important to gamble on,” Crowley told supporters.

But by the standards of any traditional campaign for office, Crowley and his backers are making a high-stakes political bet — one that could affect the direction of the party for years to come.

Crowley has presented himself as a mainstream Democratic alternative to Madison Rep. Francesca Hong, the democratic socialist who has energized liberals but left some Democrats worried she’ll lose a general election.

None of Hong’s Democratic opponents had generated serious momentum by mid-July. But up to that point, Crowley hadn’t either, leaving some observers to question the endgame.

“The strategy is baffling,” said Tommy Vietor, who worked in former President Barack Obama’s administration and now cohosts the liberal podcast “Pod Save America.”

An alternative to a popular democratic socialist

In some ways, the strategy is straightforward: Republicans have made it clear they want Hong to win the primary, believing her progressive brand of politics will scare off the kind of moderate and independent voters that candidates need to win in Wisconsin.

A group affiliated with the Republican Governors’ Association is spending millions of dollars on ads that purport to attack Hong, but may be aimed at helping her. The ads, which are running in Democratic markets, warn that she’ll return Wisconsin to its “progressive roots” — a welcome prospect for many liberal voters.

Crowley, without naming Hong directly, positioned himself as an independent alternative at his campaign relaunch.

“They’re deciding the Democratic nominee that they want to beat in November, y’all. They’re making an investment right now, and this should all be a five-alarm warning sign to all of us,” he said of Republicans. “We cannot allow the GOP to choose the Democratic nominee for governor.”

But if anyone is better positioned to edge out Hong for the party’s nod, it’s never been obvious it should be Crowley.

After Rodriguez left, the primary field still included three other Democratic alternatives: former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Madison state Sen. Kelda Roys and former Evers cabinet secretary Joel Brennan.

Crowley’s initial run for governor lasted nearly 10 months, but he failed to gain much momentum or to build a strong, statewide profile from his county-level position.

The Hail Mary effort by the Evers team to get him back in might give Crowley a boost, said Jessica Taylor, a senior editor at Cook Political Report — but it might not be enough.

“If he didn’t do great the first time around in a crowded field, what’s going to be different in the last couple of weeks?” she said. “It just feels like he’s starting way back on home plate, and (Hong is) already on third base.”

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley speaks during a governor candidate forum Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, at the Cooperage in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

And the 10 days that Crowley took off from the campaign weren’t just a hiccup. On Wednesday, a Dane County court ruled that voters who already cast early ballots can’t recast them because they changed their minds, or because the candidate they voted for dropped out. That means Crowley lost days of early voting that cannot be recovered.

But Crowley argues that his relaunched campaign — this time with Evers’ support and Rodriguez out — has given him a running start. One recent poll put him in second place, nearly tied with Barnes. The latest survey from Marquette University had Crowley placing third, but still in single digits.

Less than two weeks out from the primary, it still appears to be Hong’s race to lose.

“If Hong wins the primary and loses the general, (it’s because) the establishment decided to put in someone else, potentially split the vote with Barnes, and that’s where we ended up,” said Jon Favreau on a recent episode of Pod Saves America. Favreau, like Vietor, worked for Obama.

Evers’ backing key to Crowley’s relaunch

The theory on how this works out for Crowley rests largely on Evers, who remains popular with voters after eight years in office.

On Tuesday, Crowley’s campaign announced it had raised $775,000 since getting back in the race with the governor’s support. Assuming that number is correct, it would far outpace Crowley’s earlier fundraising clip.

Crowley was a state representative when Evers first took office and was elected Milwaukee County executive in 2020.

State Rep. David Crowley, D-Milwaukee, left. Photo courtesy of Rep. Crowley’s legislative website

Crowley played a prominent role in negotiations with Evers and legislative Republicans over a massive rewrite of Wisconsin’s system for funding local governments. The bipartisan shared revenue law cleared the way for Milwaukee County to raise its sales tax, a longtime priority of county leaders.

Evers had previously stayed out of the Democratic primary because he said he wanted to give the candidates the opportunity to make their own cases.

“I also believe that, in a race this close, Wisconsinites deserve to have the perspective of someone who’s done the job,” Evers wrote in a statement on social media. “I’m all in on David Crowley.”

As the campaign winds down, it would appear the feeling is mutual. When the candidates debated Tuesday night, Crowley was the only Democrat to voice support for Evers’ budget surplus deal that failed in the Legislature earlier this year.

Gov. Tony Evers attends the second day of the DNC on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, at the United Center in Chicago, Ill. Angela Major/WPR

Crowley’s opponents have attacked his ‘establishment’ support

If there’s a downside for Crowley, it’s that Evers’ blessing has turned him into the “establishment” candidate, seemingly overnight. Barnes and Brennan have used the label to attack Crowley, suggesting that party leaders — their former boss, in this case — are trying to tell voters what to think.

“You see potentially, in the fall, some risk around what happened when Joe Biden blessed Kamala Harris just 20 minutes after he decided he wasn’t running,” said veteran Democratic strategist Joe Zepecki in an appearance with WISN-TV’s “UpFront.”

“The risk is that this looks like the establishment once again deciding for voters.”

Crowley takes issue with the Harris comparison and the establishment label. He points out that, unlike Harris, his name has been on the ballot the whole time.

While his political service bona fides run deep, nothing was handed to him. He made history when he became the first Black candidate elected Milwaukee county executive. And he said growing up in Milwaukee’s troubled 53206 ZIP code hardly qualifies him for establishment status.

Crowley said he’d rather voters look at his accomplishments in office, like helping to secure county-wide affordable housing and working in a bipartisan fashion in Madison to get more money for Milwaukee.

“I don’t look at myself as the establishment, but … I know that I am established when it comes down to my record,” he said.

The renewed attention on Crowley has also shined a light on things he said in the past.

NBC News reported that Crowley operated a Twitter account, beginning in 2010, that posted crude, sexist and homophobic messages, alongside banal musings about sports, music and working out.

Crowley says that the “Dirt McGirk” account was shared with several friends and that he wasn’t the author of the most troubling tweets, which he condemned.

“I absolutely don’t endorse any of that stuff,” he told WPR.

“I want folks to know that I’m not going to get caught up in these distractions because clearly this was related to me … getting back into this race and starting to gain momentum,” he added.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley speaks about the Milwaukee County Center for Youth at a press conference Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Just weeks ago, when he was perceived as anything but a frontrunner, Crowley frequently faced questions about whether Wisconsin, a state that has only ever elected white men as governor, is ready to elect someone who is Black.

“People always ask me, ‘David, can a Black candidate become governor?’” he said at the state Democratic Party convention in June. “If it’s a candidate with a track record of delivering results and winning, and not just talking about them, yes.”

The fact that Crowley has taken heat for his “establishment” ties has angered some supporters, like Nick Truog, who chairs the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s Black Caucus. Truog posted on social media that Crowley is being held to a double standard.

“Where was all of this outrage when folks kept questioning David Crowley’s ability to win statewide because he was Black or ‘too Milwaukee’?” he wrote. “Or better yet why weren’t you crying ‘establishment’ when insiders, donors, and other organizations weren’t giving him the light of day compared to other candidates with less experience than him?”

Speaking to voters of all backgrounds

Outside of the primary field, even Crowley’s critics say he plays well with others.

Steve Taylor, a Milwaukee County Board supervisor, was vocally critical of how Crowley handled a major slip-up on his watch: when the county benefits administrator let health insurance lapse for tens of thousands of county employees earlier this year. At the time, Taylor said Crowley, who fired the administrator, needed to be more transparent and accountable.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley speaks during a press conference Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Waukesha, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

But in an interview with WPR, Taylor said Crowley is respected by Democrats and Republicans in state government, thanks to how he approaches the job.

“What I tell people,” Taylor said, “is I bet if you went to Madison and you polled every Republican state senator and state rep and said you’re going to get one of these (Democratic candidates) … Who would you choose? I bet Crowley gets 90 percent of the vote.”

Taylor, a conservative, plans to vote for Tiffany, but said he considers Crowley a friend. He respects how Crowley ran the county through challenging times like the COVID-19 pandemic, and his advocacy for more state funding.

“David is a really good person, and he’s very likable,” Taylor said. “He doesn’t play the partisan games.”

WPR is profiling all of the candidates for governor. To read more, visit wpr.org/elections.

Listen to the WPR report

Mainstream Democrats pin hopes on David Crowley’s reboot campaign for governor was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.