Here are the key words in the local coverage of last night’s primary election in Wisconsin: shocking, stunning, surreal, an “unheard of comeback”, a political Hail Mary.
And none of them are exaggerations.
The vote was close, but the verdict unmistakable: DSA candidate Francesca Hong — she of “cancel Thanksgiving” fame — was defeated by her normie challenger, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, despite her having led in polls by double digits.
In other words…
Wisconsin Democrats stared into the electoral abyss and decided, on second thought, they would rather actually win elections than take a chance on what David Axelrod memorably called “zany liberal, faculty lounge exotica.” (It was also a bad night for crazy in Minnesota, where My Pillow Guy Mike Lindell went down to defeat in the GOP primary, despite being endorsed by Donald Trump.)
A Hong victory would have been a luxurious gift to MAGA, and Republicans devoutly wished for — indeed, even funded and encouraged — her victory. But now the race in Wisconsin is re-set; instead of an endless series of ads about defundingpoliceabolishingprisonsproximitytowhitenessandcancelingThanksgiving, the campaign is back to being a referendum on Trumpism and all its feculent failures.
Republicans who could not contain their glee at Hong’s rise, now find themselves stuck with an election-denialist Trumpist toady, in a year in which Trump’s poll numbers are cratering. (Although, as I mentioned on Morning Joe today, the race will still be close, because it always is in Wisconsin.)
Happy Wednesday. (And, for once, I mean that unironically.)
The surreal part of what happened in Wisconsin: Crowley had dropped out of the governor’s race on July 8 after polling in single digits. He planned to go on vacation, but got back into the race on July 18, and become the Great Normie Hope. Incumbent Governor Tony Evers backed him and campaigned aggressively on his behalf, stressing Hong’s unelectability. Somehow, Crowley managed to snatch victory from the jaws of what looked like an epic Democratic clusterfuq.
As expected, Hong won the progressive bastion of Dane County, but Crowley ran well throughout the state, winning not only Milwaukee, but most of the state’s rural counties and swing suburban counties. Via the NYT:
As usual, the result in Wisconsin has national implications. An easy win for Republican Tom Tiffany would likely have given the GOP full control of state government (both the governorship and legislature) and would have put an election-denier in charge of certifying the 2028 presidential election. More immediately, Hong’s defeat blunts the much-hyped momentum of the democratic socialist insurgency (about which you know I will have a lot more to say).1
Here is this morning’s Drudge Report:
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As the sprint to November begins, notes the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "Crowley will have to introduce himself to “an electorate that doesn’t know him well.” A recent statewide poll found that 2/3 of Democratic voters didn’t know him well enough to have an opinion about the man who could become the state’s first African-American governor. (For his background, check out this NYT article: “What to Know About David Crowley, the Democratic Candidate for Wisconsin Governor” - The New York Times)
He has said he was evicted three times as a child. Mr. Crowley, who grew up on Milwaukee’s North Side, has leaned into his personal history. Both of his parents struggled with addiction and mental health challenges, according to his campaign. He has said his childhood inspired him to become a community organizer and later a state lawmaker. Even as a child, his family nicknamed him Governor, he has said.
“I wanted to feed my aunt, my grandmother, my uncles, take out the garbage and do the dishes,” he told The Capital Times of Madison. “I wanted to serve my family before I actually sat down and started eating. And so they used to call me ‘Governor.’”
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Finally, a bit of barely relevant trivia: Crowley has been Milwaukee County Executive since 2020. For a brief time in the late 1980s, I worked in the county executive’s office as “special assistant” — my first and last foray into government work.
Meanwhile…
Nepo-baby advances: “Sean Duffy’s Son-In-Law Michael Alfonso, Backed By Trump, Wins GOP Primary In Wisconsin”
Centrist Democrat wins primary in Wisconsin’s swingiest district: “Rebecca Cooke Wins Democratic Primary for Key Wisconsin House Seat” - The New York Times
Rebecca Cooke will face Representative Derrick Van Orden in a general election rematch of their 2024 race. Credit...Tim Evans/Reuters And your morning palate-cleanser of absurdity: “Trump-Backed Mike Lindell Refuses To Concede Governor’s Race, Alleges Voting Anomalies.”
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Finally…
Trump desperately tries to explain why he left staffers, officials, and members of press as decoys on Air Force One, while he scurried off in a catering cart. Sophia Kinzinger reminds us that her husband, Adam, “once described Trump as the kind of man who would wear women's clothing to get onto a lifeboat on the Titanic. Man, was he right!”
Fiscal conservatism, amirite? “Trump administration set to spend at least $900 million on White House construction.”
Instead of securing money directly from Congress, the records show, the administration has pieced together funding from other agencies and private donors and directed it to a little-known account that typically holds a few million dollars for routine maintenance of the executive mansion.
Confidential contracts and related planning documents indicate that the administration plans to use money in that account for White House “modernization projects” — the administration’s term for President Donald Trump’s planned overhaul of the property, at the center of which is a gilded East Wing ballroom.
Together, the records reveal in the greatest detail yet how the Trump administration has sidestepped Congress and shielded visibility into what would become the most expensive overhaul of the White House in more than 80 years.
“Nothing bad can happen.” Trump upends vaccine schedule including splitting up MMR shot
We can’t say we were not warned. “Trump declines to rule out declaring a national security emergency to control the 2026 election” | CNN Politics
In the interview, Wayne Allyn Root of Real America’s Voice pitched such a scenario to Trump. He suggested it as an alternative, given the Senate has failed to pass Trump’s coveted elections bill, known as the “SAVE America Act.”
“If they never get the SAVE America Act done, you have the right to declare a national security emergency for elections,” Root said. He added that “if you declare a national security emergency as the president of the United States, they can’t challenge it. It can only be overturned by a two-thirds vote by both houses of Congress. So if you do this in the next month, we will get photo ID, proof of citizenship (for voter registration) and a limit to mail-in ballots.”
It’s at this point that Trump cut Root off and coyly suggested such an option was indeed in play.
“Let me just say that stranger things have happened, OK?” Trump said. “I’ll leave it at that.”
Wednesday dogs
Somewhere, Pete is smiling.
After hot DSA summer comes the fall.
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.
While progressive Peggy Flanagan cruised by 20 points in Minnesota’s Senate primary, and last week the further left Abdul El-Sayed squeaked through his Senate race in Michigan, Hong, the furthest left of the three, received no major national support and fell short.
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.
I have rarely gone into a political race undecided but, because I'm a liberal lefty, I was leaning toward Hong. Your final words about the baggage she would bring in November, the abyss we'd be falling into, was enough for me to change direction and vote for Crowley. I was surprised and delighted to read the headlines this morning and I need you to know that what you do, what you say, matters.
This is exactly why we need open primaries. We could lessen the extremes on both ends of the political spectrum and get better candidates.
It's important to note that the DSA footprint in American politics incredibly small. MAGA just wants to paint anyone who isn't a MAGA cultist as an extremist. Fact is, they are the poison in American politics and we need to vote them all out of office.