Wisconsin Democrats reject socialism—but barely

The socialist craze sweeping the Democratic Party hit resistance in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial primary this past Tuesday, bucking a trend evident in its neighboring states of Michigan and Minnesota.

It was an unusually topsy-turvy election. The sitting lieutenant governor, an establishment liberal, was forced from the race after a campaign finance scandal. Her predecessor as lieutenant governor, a more liberal-leaning Democrat, dropped out unexpectedly after being wounded by heretofore hidden reports of picking up women at Democratic Party events. David Crowley, another establishment liberal serving as Milwaukee County Executive, suspended his flailing campaign only to reenter the race after the unexpected shakeup. He then secured the endorsement of sitting Gov. Tony Evers, a conventional Democrat whose eight years in office were mostly a yawn.

Crowley, Evers, and the national party threw everything they had into stopping the dominant candidacy of Francesca Hong, a state representative from the People’s Republic of Madison. A card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, with a firm 40 percent position atop the polling of the six- or seven-way race, Hong was poised to become a Midwestern gubernatorial version of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Operatives exhumed her tweets bashing Thanksgiving as a colonizers’ holiday and saying she was triggered by a Christmas tree. Even worse, the Asian American legislator said that she was “on the verge of an anxiety attack” for being surrounded by “too many old white people who didn’t think we speak english” on a visit to custard heaven—Culver’s. (For readers outside the Midwest, think of a demeaning tweet about Chick-fil-A or In-n-Out Burger.) That didn’t go over well in Wisconsin.

Those were just her hot takes on holidays and fast-food joints. Far more worrisome were her policy positions: abolish ICE, defund the police, tax the rich, and end school choice.

Republican politicos were salivating at her potential nomination, which gave the best shot for U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany to take back the state house for the GOP.

It was not to be. As Hong’s laundry list of crazy comments dominated national cable news for the final two weeks before the election, virtually every single undecided Democratic primary voter broke for Crowley. Her socialist segment stuck with her to the end, but it wasn’t quite enough: she lost 39.8 percent to 39.3, a margin of fewer than 4,000 votes, with the rest going to a smattering of also-ran candidates.

On the one hand, her loss should not be a surprise. A statewide campaign fueled by college kids and their hippie professors can only get one so far. At the same time, it’s disconcerting that 40 percent of Democrats are enthusiastic DSA-style socialists in a state as otherwise sane as Wisconsin. But everyday union workers, white-collar working women, and the party’s African American base in Milwaukee were not up for someone so radical.

At the same time, Crowley’s upset victory over Hong bucks a trend evident in Wisconsin’s neighbors to the east and west. In Michigan, Democrats chose as their U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, riding high on endorsements from Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In Minnesota, meanwhile, the same gang backed leftist Peggy Flanagan. She took Tuesday’s primary election for an open U.S. Senate seat over moderate Angie Smith, “delivering progressives another major victory in the party’s ideological war” according to Politico.

It may be the case that purple Wisconsin, the swingiest of swing states, simply was not ready for the full-on socialism that can find a home in a few congressional districts on the coasts. Michigan Democrats may rue their alternate choice, as a post surfaces wherein El-Sayed lambasts “the toxic masculinity at the heart of America’s most popular sport,” football, and gets caught on camera saying, “I hate Mackinac so much,” insulting a much-loved region of Michigan.

We are fewer than 100 days from the midterm elections at this point. Republicans face strong headwinds from President Trump’s sagging polling numbers and frustration over affordability and the continuing conflict in Iran. They’re helped in Congress by certain redistricting changes in the House and a helpful set of seats up this cycle in the Senate. But the Republicans’ greatest saving grace may be the willingness of the other party to overreach by choosing actual socialists as Democratic nominees. It just didn’t happen in Wisconsin.