Wisconsin Democrat Francesca Hong is attempting to recalibrate her campaign messaging ahead of the August 11 gubernatorial primary. The 37-year-old state legislator, who identifies as a democratic socialist, currently leads a crowded field in a critical swing state. Her candidacy serves as a significant indicator of the current reach and influence of the progressive movement within the 2026 Democratic primaries.
The controversy stems from a November 16, 2020, social media post that Hong has since deleted. In that post, she argued that the nation should abandon the annual Thanksgiving holiday, characterizing the event as “celebrating colonialism” and noting that the diseases introduced by European settlers “killed [indigenous] people.” These past comments resurfaced recently, forcing the candidate to address them directly as she seeks to broaden her appeal to a wider electorate.
During an August 7 interview with, Hong clarified her current stance, emphasizing that she has no intention of eliminating the holiday if elected governor. As a professional chef, she expressed a personal fondness for the traditions associated with the day. “There’s nothing more magical than being in a cranberry marsh, and cranberry stuffing is one of my absolute favorite dishes to make,” she stated. “I’m not going to cancel Thanksgiving,” she added, attempting to move past the digital footprint of her previous remarks.
Hong’s campaign has faced additional scrutiny following a CNN interview where she left the door open to the possibility of canceling the holiday. This incident, combined with the unearthing of other past social media posts—including criticisms of Valentine’s Day, expressions of discomfort around White people, and support for abolishing the police—has provided ammunition for her political opponents. These revelations have created a challenging environment for the front-runner as she navigates the national spotlight.
David Crowley, a fellow Democrat also vying for the Wisconsin gubernatorial nomination, has been vocal in his criticism of Hong’s readiness for the office. “She’s not ready for prime time, and the fact that she’s been asked very simple questions and the way that she’s responding to those questions makes the news even more should cause all of us to pause,” Crowley remarked. His critique reflects a broader concern among establishment Democrats regarding the electability of candidates who hold more radical ideological positions.
The Republican opposition is also capitalizing on the situation. Some GOP figures have framed the contest in stark ideological terms. “It makes it easier to contrast [because] we’re not right versus left or Republican versus Democrat, we’re literally capitalist versus communist ‒ and that’s terrifying,” one Republican strategist noted. The party is eager to leverage these controversies to influence voters in the upcoming November general election.
Voters in Wisconsin are expressing mixed reactions to the unfolding drama. Blake Vanniel, a 28-year-old from Madison, supports Hong primarily as a vote “against the establishment,” suggesting that the Democratic Party is in need of a generational shift. “The primary season is for when you’re supposed to duke it out with your inner party and have those fights, but I think it’s pretty clear what voters want,” Vanniel said.
Conversely, other voters remain skeptical of the progressive platform. Tom Kapper, 61, of Madison, expressed concern regarding the general election viability of candidates like Hong. “I think the mainstream candidates have a better chance of beating Republicans,” Kapper said. “I personally am more progressive and lean that direction, but I think, in the current climate, they would have a hard time coming in the general election.”
In her discussion with, Hong argued that Americans are seeking a “new type of politics.” She suggested that the political climate, influenced by the return of Donald Trump and his use of executive authority, has energized a new segment of the electorate. “Progressives have presented not only an alternative, but the fact that hey, maybe it’s time we do something different,” she explained, maintaining that her focus remains on delivering policies that improve the lives of everyday citizens.
The candidate has also sought to distance herself from certain aspects of the national Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) platform, specifically regarding the abolition of prisons and law enforcement. While she remains a member of the local Madison DSA chapter, she has clarified her views on public safety. “I think when someone is unsafe for community, that removing them from community is a practical and sensible approach,” she stated, attempting to soften the perception of her policy positions.
Hong’s efforts to pivot away from her more controversial past statements arrive at a critical moment for democratic socialists nationwide. While the movement has seen successes in liberal strongholds like New York City, Denver, and Washington, D.C., these victories have invited increased scrutiny. As the movement gains prominence, candidates are finding that their past digital activity and ideological stances are subject to intense examination by both the media and their political rivals.
As the August 11 primary approaches, the focus remains on whether Hong can successfully navigate these challenges and consolidate her lead. Her campaign is betting that voters will prioritize her current policy proposals over the controversies generated by her past social media activity. Whether this strategy will prove effective in a swing state remains one of the most significant questions of the 2026 election cycle, as both parties prepare for the final push toward the general election.
7 interview with, she made clear that, if elected, getting rid of the fall feast isn’t on her to-do list.
Amid President Donald Trump ‘s growing unpopularity, Republican candidates on the Badger State ballot say that a controversial Democratic nominee at the top of the other side of the ticket would give the GOP a helpful boost.
Derrick Van Orden, R-Wisconsin, who is seeking reelection in a toss-up district, told.
In a roughly 25-minute interview with, Hong said Americans are looking for a “new type of politics” and that her campaign’s success in the polls is related to a larger frustration with the country’s current economic woes.
14, 2022, post on X, Hong said she missed working in a restaurant every day, “except on VDay,” before launching into a criticism of the holiday’s capitalist underpinnings.
“As if we weren’t invisible enough to those who don’t recognize the emotional [and] physical labor of service work, the worst of humanity comes out from folks ‘celebrating’ on another day capitalism tells you how to show love,” she said.
Hong described being “on the verge of a anxiety attack” at a restaurant in a July 2, 2019, social media post due to the number of “old white people who didn’t think we spoke English.”
Senate ‒ is receiving sharper scrutiny.
Among the calls for “building a new society from the ground up” were expanding voting rights to include all permanent residents, publicly financing elections and expanding access to social services such as Medicare.
Senate, which Republicans have spotlighted as too radical for average Americans.
Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in a July 27 post on X in response to a Fox News interview with Megan Romer, a DSA cochair.
Megan Novak, state director for Americans for Prosperity, a conservative-leaning advocacy group, said Wisconsin’s race for governor will be close no matter the contenders.
She said Hong has trekked off a political cliff in the state, which Trump won by less than one percentage point in 2024.
“People are concerned about the future for their kids, and if we have a candidate who now has spent what four or five days flip-flopping on whether or not she likes Thanksgiving, it just shows that voters are not going to be able to trust her on the issues that they care most deeply about,” Novak said.
Conservative activists were already pummeling Hong by attacking her own plans, which include upending the nation’s first taxpayer-funded private school voucher program that began in Milwaukee in 1990.
Roughly 30,000 students are enrolled in schools using a voucher, according to state officials, a system both Crowley and Tiffany oppose changing.
“That’s tens of thousands of children across the state, especially in Milwaukee where thousands of mostly Black and Hispanic children would be ripped out of their school overnight,” Novak said.
Peter Dreier, a political science professor at Occidental College who is considered one of the foremost experts on socialism, said Hong is being thrust onto a much larger stage and she’s made some “rookie errors” in presenting herself.
“There’s a difference between movements and campaigns,” he said.
“Sometimes those two things are in conflict,” he added.
“The movement part gets people excited, enthusiastic…
In general, democratic socialism is defined as a belief that the economy should be democratically run for the benefit of the public.
But opponents commonly connect it to communism, an authoritarian system associated with brutal regimes such as the Soviet Union and Cuba that believes the working class should take control through violent revolution.
On its website, DSA describes it as a “system where ordinary people have a real voice” in workplaces and neighborhoods.
But a July Reuters/Ipsos poll found just 23% of Americans said they understand the policies and positions of democratic socialists extremely or very well.
Only 21% of Democrats and Democratic leaning voters said the same.
He said it appears Hong is “running to be famous,” and that she isn’t as politically gifted as other contenders, such as El-Sayed, running in 2026.
“They’re on a learning curve when it comes to messaging, but also that curve is on the side of a mountain because it’s out of the mainstream,” Sellers, a South Carolina native, told.
“We’re talking about health care and we’re talking about affordability,” he added.
But abolishing the police, banning Thanksgiving, them things ‒ we don’t talk about those things in South Carolina.”
For Democrats concerned that Hong will cough up the Badger State’s gubernatorial seat, their gaze is turning toward Crowley, Milwaukee County’s first Black executive, who is considered her most viable foe.
Crowley reentered the race last month with a powerful ally ‒ term-limited Gov.
He said part of the reason for jumping back in the race was Hong’s stumbles.
He has minimized policy differences with Hong, instead focusing on how too much is at stake in this election to be “caught up in distractions and talking about past Twitter statements.”
The 40-year-old former state lawmaker has raked in union endorsements while pushing back against characterizations that he’s part of the party establishment, calling that description “a slur” in recent interviews.
“When I hear that term, it frustrates me because I have worked my entire life not to be placed in a box and continue to protect those who grew up in the same circumstances as me,” Crowley, whose parents struggled with substance abuse, told.
Hong has held a double-digit lead in statewide polling of the field, but a sizable 34% of Democratic voters remained undecided in the most recent Marquette University Law School poll.
The Crowley campaign is sprinting across the state making appeals to Democrats still on the fence, and they’ve mocked Hong’s previous comments about Thanksgiving, saying in an Aug.
6 statement that she “cannot talk turkey without reversing herself” in interviews.
At a busy early voting site on Madison’s north side, even some of Hong’s supporters bristled at some of her controversial positions.
“I do wish she would tone it down a little bit, but I’m not opposed to the things she says,” Chad Norquist, 48, a maintenance mechanic from Madison, told the Network.
Hong’s lead appears all but insurmountable, according to the Marquette poll and an internal survey released this week by Crowley’s campaign that showed Hong leading by 20 percentage points.
Among the voters polled, those over age 60 were less likely to support Hong, whose most passionate supporters are younger, between 18 and 29.
Blake Vanniel, 28, of Madison, said that’s, in part, because he has a negative view of the Democratic Party, which he suggested needs a fresh generation of contenders.
“They want politicians that are actually going to fight for the working people and not be beholden to the same corporate interests that fund the other side and fund all the horrible stuff.”
Most voters interviewed by the Network heading into the Aug.