{"id":1759,"date":"2026-06-25T16:13:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T16:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=1759"},"modified":"2026-06-25T16:13:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T16:13:41","slug":"riding-primary-momentum-democratic-socialists-eye-a-battleground-state-breakthrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=1759","title":{"rendered":"Riding primary momentum, democratic socialists eye a battleground state breakthrough"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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. <\/p>\n

Read more Supreme Court rules for Trump on asylum claims at the border<\/a><\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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But it\u2019s been another candidate \u2014 state Rep. Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great day to be a democratic socialist,\u201d Hong posted on X on Wednesday. \u201cWisconsin is next!\u201d<\/p>\n

But those recent democratic socialist wins have all been in mayoral or congressional primaries in solidly Democratic urban centers. The challenge for Hong \u2014 who represents liberal Madison in the Legislature and has faced scrutiny for her past calls to defund and abolish the police \u2014 is making a similar campaign viable in a statewide primary in one of the most closely divided places politically in the country.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe 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,\u201d said Andrew Mamo, a Democratic strategist who has worked on campaigns in Wisconsin in previous cycles. \u201cAnd certainly, people\u2019s hopes are up in a way that they haven\u2019t been historically.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the landscape in Wisconsin is different,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about going for a statewide win in a state that [Donald] Trump won twice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re able to literally bring folks together to think about how consequential this election is, and to support us,\u201d Hong said. \u201cWorking-class people and communities of color \u2014 folks who have been underserved \u2014 they\u2019re 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are folks in Wisconsin who feel very much the same way \u2014 they\u2019re tired, they don\u2019t like what\u2019s been going on,\u201d she continued. <\/p>\n

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 \u201cmy perfect world would be a world without prisons,\u201d according to an audio recording obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.<\/p>\n

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Hong told NBC News that \u201cif anyone\u2019s defunding police, it\u2019s been Republicans in the Legislature who have been defunding our local governments and its cities and counties that fund law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hong\u2019s 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\u2019s nominee, but declined to make an issue of Hong being a democratic socialist. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are looking to November and making sure that we have the strongest candidate to beat Tom Tiffany, and they\u2019re seeing that that\u2019s what I bring to the table,\u201d said Rodriguez, a nurse who served in the state Assembly before her tenure as Evers\u2019 lieutenant governor. Evers has said he won\u2019t endorse in the primary. <\/p>\n

Asked whether Hong had statewide electability issues, Rodriguez replied, \u201cI\u2019m not really worried about Francesca Hong,\u201d adding, \u201cI just think people want the most qualified candidate at the top of the ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more David Vander Meer, former Vegas youth pastor charged in wife\u2019s murder, dies before court appearance<\/a><\/p>\n

As for Hong\u2019s positions on the police, Rodriguez said that \u201cpublic safety is important to me\u201d and \u201cthere is a role for law enforcement within the state of Wisconsin.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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An unscientific straw poll this month at the Wisconsin Democratic Party\u2019s convention resulted in Rodriguez finishing first, followed by Hong in second. Barnes finished sixth out of seven candidates. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Democratic strategists warned against drawing any major conclusions from the straw poll, saying it\u2019s notable that Hong had gained footing in a crowded field that includes candidates with stronger name recognition. <\/p>\n

Amid the jumbled primary, Wisconsin Democrats also said they can\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunity to have a trifecta for Democrats after this fall is one that we have to take seriously if we ever want to govern,\u201d said Joe Zepecki, a Milwaukee-based Democratic strategist who last year ran unsuccessfully to be the chair of the state party.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s gubernatorial hopefuls trained their sights on Trump and Tiffany.<\/p>\n

During his address to the convention, Barnes focused on affordability, saying Trump was \u201cout of his mind and robbing us blind.\u201d 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. <\/p>\n

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\u201cI think about those 26,000 votes every single day,\u201d 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, \u201cI came through the fire stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement to NBC News, Barnes campaign spokesperson Cole Wozniak said: \u201cAcross 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnes\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese folks were called unreasonable, impractical and unelectable,\u201d she said during her state convention speech. \u201cYet today they\u2019re considered visionaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Graphic: The U.K. is in a new era of leadership turnover<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-election"],"yoast_head":"\nRiding primary momentum, democratic socialists eye a battleground state breakthrough - Trusted Moving Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=1759\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Riding primary momentum, democratic socialists eye a battleground state breakthrough - 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