What Wisconsin Primary Fight Means for 8 Democrats

Wisconsin State Capitol. Photo by Dave Reid.

It was a painful-to-watch Democratic primary for governor, but Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley finally and narrowly defeated Rep. Francesca Hong. It’s Crowley versus Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany for the governor’s job on Nov. 3.

Where did the primary leave eight major Democratic players?

Gov. Tony Evers: With a job approval rating of 51%, Evers’ endorsement of Crowley and barnstorming the state with him in the days before the primary are why he is the Democratic nominee. Many Democrats who told Marquette University pollsters they were undecided in late July ended up taking Evers’ “vote Crowley” advice. It was a legacy win for the retiring governor.

David Crowley: The first political lightning struck Crowley on July 18, when he got Evers’ endorsement one month after quitting the race following single-digit ratings in polls. Will political lightning hit him again on Nov. 3, when he could become the state’s first Black governor? Even if he doesn’t win, at age 40 “Comeback” Crowley has a future in Wisconsin politics.

Francesca Hong: The campaign of the progressive Madison assemblywoman and Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong quietly wired the state, connecting angry and frustrated young voters who want the government to play a greater role in their lives. Media coverage examined how that worked, until the focus shifted to her past social media posts. Still, Hong got more than 310,000 votes — 85,000 more than Evers did when he won the 2018 primary. That makes her and her wired constituency players in the future.

Mandela Barnes: Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes ended his campaign for governor on July 30. Although it could be the third strike in his political career, he is only 39.

After winning an Assembly seat from Milwaukee in 2012, he lost a 2016 primary challenge to then-state Sen. Lena Taylor. Barnes easily won the August 2018 primary for lieutenant governor and then became Evers’ first-term governing partner and the first Black person to hold that office. In 2022, he narrowly lost a U.S. Senate campaign to Republican Ron Johnson.

Barnes’ surprising exit from the governor’s race, which came after a Marquette University Law School poll showed him trailing Hong, may have raised more questions than it answered.

Sara Rodriguez: Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor had served two years in the Assembly when she won a primary and became Evers’ running mate in 2022. But Rodriguez wonders what might have been if her campaign manager had not double-counted and otherwise mismanaged donations.

Rodriguez, who dropped out of the campaign on July 16, must rebuild any future political career, since questions still remain about her failure to pick a competent campaign manager. There will undoubtedly be concerns about her ability to choose competent staff in future leadership positions.

Sen. Kelda Roys: Like Barnes, the Madison Democrat also lost her third bid for higher office. After serving four years in the Assembly, she lost a primary for the Madison-area seat in the U.S. House in 2012 and lost in the 2018 Democratic primary for governor, getting 13% of the vote.

But there may be a silver lining in the loss for Roys, whose four-year Senate term isn’t up until 2028. If Democrats win control of the state Senate, Roys is in line to be co-chair of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee, which Republicans have controlled since 2012.

Missy Hughes: The former CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation was a moderate in the early seven-candidate stage of the campaign for the Democratic nomination but was also the first to drop out of the race.

The business contacts Hughes had made running the state’s job agency did not translate into any political base. Weren’t many of those executives she posed for grip-and-grin photos with actually Republicans? The former Organic Valley executive will gladly return to the private sector.

Joel Brennan: Evers’ first secretary of the state Department of Administration and a former top adviser to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Brennan thought his administrative pedigree and metro-Milwaukee business connections would impress Democratic voters.

But Brennan was one of three Milwaukee County Democrats running for governor, and the only one who had not been elected to anything. His campaign pitch of overseeing government for the first Evers administration and being able to broker deals with Republicans didn’t resonate.

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com