Who is Francesca Hong, the Socialist candidate in Wisconsin?

Following the narrow victory of the socialist Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan last week, another candidate from the left wing of the Democratic Party is seeking a clear victory. She is Francesca Hong, 37, of Asian-American descent, who is the favourite to win the Democratic primary for the governorship of Wisconsin.

A chef, former restaurant owner and single mother, Hong makes no secret of describing herself as a socialist, although she states that she does not fully subscribe to the platform of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the organisation to which New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, also belongs. Elected to the State Assembly in 2020, as a member of the Assembly she has sponsored bills to ensure children receive healthy meals in school canteens and to curb the abuses of power by ICE, the anti-immigration agency that has become a symbol of Trump’s second term. She is in favour of the outright abolition of the agency, as stated in a social media post in January, in which she asserts that “abolishing ICE is not radical, it is good policy”. During the election campaign, she put forward two concrete proposals: free public healthcare for children and a one-year moratorium on the construction of new data centres. She does not consider herself opposed to the use and development of artificial intelligence, but asserts that, compared to the current approach, more regulation is needed.

But the debate has shifted elsewhere during the campaign. In fact, old tweets by the candidate have resurfaced in recent weeks. She wrote that the police exist solely to maintain white supremacy, that she does not like Halloween, nor the fireworks on 4 July, US Independence Day, and that Valentine’s Day brings out the worst in humanity, being a day when ‘capitalism tells you how you must show love’. But, above all, she wrote that she wanted to abolish Thanksgiving. The candidate has since backtracked on all these ideas: her campaign has stated that those tweets were written at the height of the ‘woke’ movement, in early 2020, and Hong has said that ideas evolve over time, although she reiterated that Thanksgiving, however important, can be painful for many people in the community.

The Republicans are rallying behind her, so much so that they have spent a whopping $3.5 million on adverts portraying her as a true progressive. Furthermore, they have also attacked her deputy campaign manager, Renee Faust – a champion of sex workers’ rights – for having an account on the well-known adult content platform OnlyFans. Centrist Democrats, on the other hand, have rallied behind her opponent, Milwaukee County President David Crowley, who is also backed by the outgoing governor, Tony Evers. They are hoping that the polls, which show Hong leading by more than 20 percentage points, are wrong – as happened last week in Michigan, when the progressive El-Sayed won by less than one percentage point against the centrist MP Haley Stevens.

The most prominent progressives in this campaign have distanced themselves: Elizabeth Warren said she did not know the candidate, Sanders stated that he would not officially endorse her, and the same was true of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They say they are focused on their congressional races and are not getting involved in state campaigns. In reality, they are likely afraid that the candidate might spring some unpleasant surprises, as already happened in Maine when all the progressives had thrown their weight behind Graham Platner, only to have to withdraw their support following allegations of sexual assault.

Many fear that Hong, even if he were to win the primaries by a clear margin, would put the party in a difficult position in November: in a state that has twice voted for Donald Trump, more moderate candidates might be needed. However, this does not appear to be the choice made by the Republicans either, who are fielding MP Tom Tiffany, a fervent Trump supporter who sought to overturn the 2020 election result by voting against the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. Moreover, even the two senators representing the state – Democrat Tammy Baldwin and Republican Ron Johnson – do not come from the centrist wings of their respective parties. Despite this, according to Governor Tony Evers, Hong’s old posts make her a candidate who is unlikely to be competitive in November.