Democrat Francesca Hong released her first statement on Wednesday following her upset defeat in the Wisconsin governor primary.
Released on social media, Hong congratulated her opponent, David Crowley, while pledging to support him in the general election against Republican Tom Tiffany.
“The last 11 months have been one of the greatest joys of my life. Traveling the state, meeting people in churches and dive bars and bike races and dance parties and in their homes, and hearing about what matters most to them informed every decision we made on the trail,” she said. It will continue to inform the work we do— and ask our supporters to do— moving forward.”
“This campaign was not about getting one person into office. It is about building a movement for permanent affordability and a government that puts working people first,” she continued. “Our movement is strong, and the work isn’t done. I am overwhelmingly proud of our team and the work they have done to achieve that goal. Congratulations to David Crowley and his team. I fully support him and look forward to working with him to defeat Congressman Tiffany in November.”
David Crowley’s victory over Francesca Hong blindsided pollsters, most of whom had her winning by wide margins going into election day. Here’s how Forbes described the situation on Wednesday:
In a Marquette Law poll taken July 22-27, Hong led with 38% support, followed by Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes with 16% and Crowley, the Milwaukee County Executive, with 7%.
The poll was taken three days before Barnes dropped out of the race on July 30 and less than a week after Crowley re-entered the race on July 18 after dropping out for 10 days.
In an earlier Marquette poll taken July 8-16, when Crowley was out of the race, Hong led with 26% support, followed by Barnes with 15% and Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, who dropped out of the race on July 17, with 11%.
Other commentators noted that David Crowley, the more moderate Democrat, showed that socialist candidates can be beaten.
“For weeks establishment Democrats have been pushing back against the narrative of the Democratic Socialists of America and what I call extreme progressivism, desperate to distance themselves from slogans like ‘defund the police’ and ‘abolish ICE,’ and candidates who attended pro-Palestinian rallies,” noted Susan Del Percio at MSNOW.
“With Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley’s narrow win over state Rep. Francesca Hong, a member of the DSA, in the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary, it looks like that pushback has worked — but only to a degree,” she added.
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