Wisconsin's partisan primaries are tomorrow, and if the polls and the Republican-interest advertising are to be believed, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate who identifies as a Democratic Socialist is going to be victorious over three more mainstream Democrats.
Even without the endorsement of Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocaso-Cortez, Francesca Hong (D-Madison) has become the left-wing's darling here. Outside interests have been attacking Hong on television and in social media for weeks; one Republican-affiliated group, however, has been using language that won't scare off any Democrats, calling her "progressive" and "liberal" opposed to Trump's ICE thugs.
Hong has given Republicans plenty of ammunition to use against her in the general election. Before announcing her campaign, she had called for "defunding the police" and shutting down all the state's prisons; she advocated cancelling Thanksgiving because it "celebrat[es] colonialism." Now she is busy backtracking all of that.
The early mainstream favorite, Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez, was obliged to withdraw from the race due to a campaign accounting snafu; Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley had suspended his campaign because of lackluster poll numbers, but rejoined the race when Rodriguez's dropped out, and immediately won the endorsement of retiring Governor Tony Evers in spite of Evers's promise to keep mum about his preferences.
The others still in the race are State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) and former Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Administration Joel Brennan, neither of whom has been able to poll above the margin of error in spite of their bona fides and worthy résimés. Also on the ballot are former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes, who have also dropped out of the race.
Meanwhile, Republican Tom Tiffany faces only token opposition on his side of the ballot, and has flooded the airwaves with feel-good, folksy ads before whoever the Democratic nominee is will have a chance to characterize him as a right-wing Trumpster eager to return Wisconsin to the Scott Walker era of One Party Rule.
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