Francesca Hong won’t be Wisconsin’s next governor. She was primed to win the Democrat primary in a landslide — the betting markets said so. And then she lost by a mere 3,211 votes or 0.4 percent. It was a squeaker for David Crowley, who can also be beaten, but Hong was the better general election match-up, though this is now an academic exercise.
What is real is the simmering tensions within the progressive left. Some are enraged, while others are breathing sighs of relief, as many viewed Hong as unelectable. When some of the most hardcore Democrats in the state and Bernie Sanders refuse to endorse, you know something is up. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also treated this race as if it resided in Chernobyl.
There are now pivots galore regarding Hong’s fall: that it shouldn’t be seen as a referendum on the broader movement; that there is appetite for progressive ideas, but candidate quality matters; and that there is a difference between progressive and democratic socialism, with the former winning out this week (via Politico):
Democratic socialist Francesca Hong’s stunning loss in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary Tuesday night revealed limits to the far left’s power — and is undercutting the narrative of an emerging insurgency.
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For a movement that had been riding high off a string of primary victories this cycle, including the Democratic Socialists of America’s recent wins in New York and Colorado, the deflating Wisconsin result led to an immediate round of finger-pointing on the far left. Some dyed-in-the-wool democratic socialists blamed fellow travelers who didn’t join the effort to boost Hong. More institutional-leaning progressives argued that she was a fatally flawed candidate with a long string of gaffes — and that her loss shouldn’t be read as a referendum on the broader movement.
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“There’s a reason the institutional left mostly stayed away,” said a Democratic operative who works on progressive campaigns and was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “The people who made those calls are relieved.”
Hong’s surprise flop drew attention on the left away from their biggest win of the night, where the Sanders-backed Flanagan — a solid progressive but not a democratic socialist — easily defeated moderate Rep. Angie Craig in the Minnesota Senate primary. A progressive won a primary in the seat to replace Craig, while the Sanders-backed Rebecca Cooke won a primary for Wisconsin’s swingy 3rd District.
One donor adviser who works with progressive candidates around the country said Hong’s loss is a “good thing for the movement,” because it shows there is voter appetite for progressive ideas — but that candidate quality still matters, especially in a battleground.
“This is a far better outcome, and says that it is so close that a progressive who doesn’t say the dumbest shit in the world, [like] Thanksgiving should not exist, would have won,” the donor adviser said.
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Some in the movement looked to downplay Hong’s showing as more of a stumble than a turning point, noting that a first-time statewide candidate came within a few thousand votes of sitting Gov. Tony Evers’ hand-picked favorite in a battleground state.
There’s also a discussion about DSA and its ceiling — can it sustain itself nationally? Right now, the affordability talking point is masking a host of whack-job policy positions. That cannot go on forever. At some point, abolishing police and prisons will creep up, as it did on NBC 4 LA recently, and it did not go well.
So, yes, the far left crashed into a wall, but like the walking dead, they’ll come back. They haven’t gone away.