Francesca Hong’s loss in the Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary isn’t being celebrated by election analyst Seth Keshel. In fact, he seems a bit annoyed that the GOP didn’t adhere to messaging discipline. On paper, Hong was the easier candidate. I still think she couldn’t be overlooked, as ‘candidate x is crazy’ isn’t enough to derail candidacies as it was in the past: Maine nominated a Democrat with a Nazi tattoo.
Perhaps it was more about Hong being unable to counter her terrible social media posts, the establishment already cool toward her before the nutty bars rolled out, and the all-around abandonment of her that led to this SLIM defeat she endured on Tuesday. She only lost by 3,211 votes, even with this blitzkrieg against her. Imagine if the state had a closed primary and Hong clinched some national endorsements — it could be a different story. Abdul El-Sayed won in Michigan, and he’s cut from the same cloth.
The democratic socialists are, at least, not going away or unfazed by this setback, which is good. But Keshel knows the long game, and sees the DSA being a huge part of why the GOP can run roughshod over the Democrats if we keep some of the powder dry. Hong’s defeat and AES’ slim victory suggest that this brand may not play well in the Midwest. He feels Democrats know this, which is why many were praying for a Hong loss, but we decided to go ‘Dresden firebombing’ on Hong when we could’ve allowed her to win, sort of like what the GOP was planning to do with Platner. He quoted Napoleon: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
He pointed to Tom Tiffany, the GOP gubernatorial candidate, as an example of eschewing these words of wisdom.
Republicans dropping so much ordnance on Hong for the past few months created enough fear within the Democrat operation to elevate an alternative candidate - just as we saw with Haley Stevens in Michigan and as we saw with the Oystergruppenfuhrer, Graham Platner, getting run off the stage in Maine never to be heard from again.
[…]
In January, @FrancescaHongWI was endorsed by the Wisconsin Electoral Socialists for her “commitment to police and prison abolition.”
— Tom Tiffany (@TomTiffanyWI) August 9, 2026
She completed a questionnaire and interview to earn the endorsement.
This isn’t from six years ago. It’s her position THIS YEAR, and it’s CRAZY. https://t.co/VCoKFKbcneTom - what are you doing? Did you want to face someone who will run on the title of “Executive of Milwaukee County” when a similar blowhard almost beat Ron Johnson for a Senate seat in a Republican favorable year? Look around the right-wing commentary sphere and you’ll see as much Hong content as we did when AOC was a new thing back in 2018.
So scary!
So radical!
What is happening to America?
The Democrats know their DSA wing is going to destroy the party brand forever. I’m not even kidding you, the Democrats may literally go extinct if the DSA takes over the direction of the party as the Tea Party and (later) the MAGA movement did. Like out-of-business erased from Wikipedia kind of extinct.
STOP being so afraid of these whackjobs in the DSA. Look at the stats - this woman was favored by over 20 points in polling and the betting markets considered her a near-lock, and she lost to a guy with very little name recognition nationally because of mail-in ballot games and the efforts of Republicans who benefited greatly from her campaign. The Democrats know the DSA brand can’t win in the Midwest, and they are running out of options to stop what has become a runaway train.
That’s why they need moronic Republicans to blow it all up for them, as they did in Maine with Platner’s disastrous losing campaign, and as they almost did in Michigan, where Mike Rogers is now the favorite for a seat the GOP has no business winning in a Trump midterm.
As is often the case, the GOP does well to blow up its own chances. That's not to say this race is over, but perhaps an easy layup was missed.
I can’t even begin to quantify how stupid Republicans are for dropping so many bombs on Hong before she was nominated. She gave the GOP a guaranteed gubernatorial win to move past eight years of Tony Evers.
— Seth Keshel (@RealSKeshel) August 12, 2026
Evers has been the only governor of WI since America had major concerns… https://t.co/Q78FdELd8F
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