Riding primary momentum, democratic socialists eye a battleground state breakthrough

After a string of primary successes this month in deep-blue corners of the country, democratic socialists will face a major test of whether their appeal can translate to a battleground state later this summer.

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In Wisconsin, a lengthy list of Democrats are competing to be the next governor, including Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, who serves alongside retiring Gov. Tony Evers , and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who narrowly lost the 2022 Senate race in the state.

But it’s been another candidate — state Rep. Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist — who has unexpectedly seen a surge of momentum in recent weeks in a field that lacks a clear front-runner. Hong has been at the top of the limited public polling ahead of the August primary and placed second this month in a straw poll at the Wisconsin Democratic Party convention.

As the contest enters its final stretch, Hong is seeking to capitalize on victories by democratic socialists and their allies across the country. On Tuesday, three candidates backed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani won House primaries, including two that featured Democratic incumbents. That followed democratic socialist candidates winning the Democratic primary for mayor in Washington, D.C. , and advancing to a runoff in the Los Angeles mayoral race.

“It’s a great day to be a democratic socialist,” Hong posted on X on Wednesday . “Wisconsin is next!”

But those recent democratic socialist wins have all been in mayoral or congressional primaries in solidly Democratic urban centers. The challenge for Hong — who represents liberal Madison in the Legislature and has faced scrutiny for her past calls to defund and abolish the police — is making a similar campaign viable in a statewide primary in one of the most closely divided places politically in the country.

“The socialist label is less scary to people than it used to be, and people are often choosing them as a rejection of the status quo,” said Andrew Mamo, a Democratic strategist who has worked on campaigns in Wisconsin in previous cycles. “And certainly, people’s hopes are up in a way that they haven’t been historically.”

“But the landscape in Wisconsin is different,” he added. “We’re talking about going for a statewide win in a state that [Donald] Trump won twice.”

Hong, a 37-year-old single mother and former restaurant owner, said in an interview with NBC News that her support for policies like universal childcare and healthcare, along with the anti-establishment nature of her campaign, appealed to a broad swath of voters, even in a swing state like Wisconsin.

“We’re able to literally bring folks together to think about how consequential this election is, and to support us,” Hong said. “Working-class people and communities of color — folks who have been underserved — they’re coming out for candidates like Zohran, who are not just inspiring but are running on issues that are deeply personal and impactful in their lives.”

“There are folks in Wisconsin who feel very much the same way — they’re tired, they don’t like what’s been going on,” she continued.

Still, some of the positions critics say make Hong most vulnerable in a general election against Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany persist. Hong has largely stood by her comments about wanting to abolish the police. She also said in May that “my perfect world would be a world without prisons,” according to an audio recording obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel .

Hong told NBC News that “if anyone’s defunding police, it’s been Republicans in the Legislature who have been defunding our local governments and its cities and counties that fund law enforcement.”

Hong’s Democratic rivals have so far avoided directly criticizing her. In an interview with NBC News, Rodriguez referred to electability as a crucial trait for the party’s nominee, but declined to make an issue of Hong being a democratic socialist.

“People are looking to November and making sure that we have the strongest candidate to beat Tom Tiffany, and they’re seeing that that’s what I bring to the table,” said Rodriguez, a nurse who served in the state Assembly before her tenure as Evers’ lieutenant governor. Evers has said he won’t endorse in the primary.

Asked whether Hong had statewide electability issues, Rodriguez replied, “I’m not really worried about Francesca Hong,” adding, “I just think people want the most qualified candidate at the top of the ticket.”

As for Hong’s positions on the police, Rodriguez said that “public safety is important to me” and “there is a role for law enforcement within the state of Wisconsin.”

Reliable public polling in the race has been sparse. A Marquette University Law School survey from March showed Hong with 14% and Barnes with 11%, with no other candidates receiving more than 3%, and 65% saying they were undecided.

An unscientific straw poll this month at the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s convention resulted in Rodriguez finishing first, followed by Hong in second. Barnes finished sixth out of seven candidates.

Other candidates running in the Democratic primary include Joel Brennan, the former Department of Administration secretary; Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley; and state Sen. Kelda Roys. Former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. CEO Missy Hughes dropped out of the race Monday and endorsed Rodriguez.

Democratic strategists warned against drawing any major conclusions from the straw poll, saying it’s notable that Hong had gained footing in a crowded field that includes candidates with stronger name recognition.

Amid the jumbled primary, Wisconsin Democrats also said they can’t afford to lose focus of their overarching goal of not only holding the governorship, but regaining control of both chambers of the Legislature for the first time since 2010 .

“The opportunity to have a trifecta for Democrats after this fall is one that we have to take seriously if we ever want to govern,” said Joe Zepecki, a Milwaukee-based Democratic strategist who last year ran unsuccessfully to be the chair of the state party.

Even though the primary is less than two months away, the race has yet to heat up in earnest. Candidates have yet to attack one another on the airwaves. And in their speeches at the Wisconsin Democratic Party convention , the party’s gubernatorial hopefuls trained their sights on Trump and Tiffany.

During his address to the convention, Barnes focused on affordability, saying Trump was “out of his mind and robbing us blind.” He also alluded to his defeat to GOP Sen. Ron Johnson four years ago, which has led some Democrats to wonder if he deserves another crack at a high-stakes statewide race.

“I think about those 26,000 votes every single day,” Barnes said, referring to his losing margin to Johnson. He recalled receiving a call from former President Barack Obama, telling the crowd that following the loss, “I came through the fire stronger.”

In a statement to NBC News, Barnes campaign spokesperson Cole Wozniak said: “Across the country, voters are rejecting the status quo, and Mandela Barnes is a candidate who has proven he will stand up to billionaires and corporations while building statewide coalitions in Wisconsin.”

Barnes’ 2022 campaign, which was weighed down by attacks over his past positions on the police and ICE, serve as a potential warning sign for Hong this year.

But Hong is choosing to take inspiration from other figures in Wisconsin political history. She has pointed to the fact that Sen. Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist of Vermont, won 71 of 72 counties in the state’s Democratic presidential primary in 2016. And going even further back, she has evoked lawmakers like Robert La Follette, a leading figure in the progressive movement of the early 1900s.

“These folks were called unreasonable, impractical and unelectable,” she said during her state convention speech. “Yet today they’re considered visionaries.”