In the final days before Wisconsin Democrats choose their nominee for governor, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has been crisscrossing the state alongside Gov. Tony Evers in a last-ditch attempt to stop Democratic socialist Francesca Hong.
There is just one problem: Nobody seems particularly interested in David Crowley.
What was supposed to be a closing-week blitz designed to resuscitate Crowley’s campaign has increasingly looked like a Tony Evers farewell tour — one final opportunity for the two-term governor to take center stage, soak in the applause and say goodbye to the Democratic voters who carried him to victory twice.
And perhaps say goodbye to the Democratic Party as he knows it.
At campaign stops across Wisconsin, Crowley has often looked less like the man seeking to replace Evers and more like his running mate for a hypothetical third term.
The crowds seem to notice, with the voters far more interested in hearing from the outgoing Governor than the man Evers has picked to succeed him.
During a recent stop in Sheboygan, supporters enthusiastically broke into chants of “Tony! Tony!” A Crowley staffer’s attempt to get a “David! David!” chant going never really caught on.
It was an awkward moment that perfectly captured the state of Crowley’s campaign.
Even Evers’ comments have generated more attention than anything the candidate himself has said. At an Appleton rally, Evers was asked whether Hong could defeat Republican Tom Tiffany in November.
“Probably not,” Evers responded.
At the Wisconsin State Fair, and again during an appearance on “UpFront,” it was Evers — not Crowley — who seemed to do most of the talking.
That might be understandable considering how Crowley arrived here.
Crowley initially dropped out of the governor’s race and endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, seemingly consolidating the Democratic establishment behind her campaign. Then Rodriguez’s campaign imploded amid a stunning financial scandal after discovering it had far less money available than campaign officials apparently believed.
Suddenly, Democrats needed another candidate.
Crowley jumped back into the race, this time armed with Evers’ endorsement and the hope that the governor’s political operation could breathe life into a campaign that had already failed to catch fire once.
It hasn’t worked. Instead, the Democratic primary has increasingly become a referendum on Hong and the ascendant socialist wing of the party.
Hong and democratic socialism have dominated state and even national headlines as the Madison lawmaker has surged ahead. Crowley’s own internal polling reportedly showed Hong leading him by 18 points. A State Navigate poll showed Hong with roughly a 2-to-1 advantage over Crowley — including a lead in Milwaukee County, where Crowley is the county executive.
The Democratic establishment’s Hail Mary appears to be falling well short of the goal line.
There is an alternate version of this primary where things look much different. Had Evers endorsed Crowley months ago, it may have been enough to clear the field for a head-to-head matchup with Hong. Had Crowley never dropped out in the first place, the establishment’s efforts to rally around him feel more organic and less desperate. Had Crowley, Rodriguez, Mandela Barnes or anyone else bothered to seriously prosecute the mountain of opposition research available on Hong before she became the frontrunner, perhaps Democrats would not now be staring at the possibility of nominating a democratic socialist for governor.
But Democrats don’t get to run that race. They get this one. And it’s the one that they deserve.
And in this one, Crowley is scrambling across Wisconsin in the final days of the campaign, standing in the shadow of a governor whose endorsement arrived only after Crowley’s first campaign had already collapsed.
The Democratic establishment finally realized what was happening. It finally rallied around a candidate. It finally decided Francesca Hong represented a genuine threat to its control of the party as well as a potential political liability heading into November.
But they realized this far too late.
David Crowley wanted the closing scene of this primary to show him commanding the stage, ready to take up the mantle as Wisconsin’s next governor. Instead, he has become a supporting actor in his own story — standing in the background as Tony Evers takes one final bow before the voters who elected him twice.
What was supposed to be Crowley’s introduction as the future of the Democratic Party has instead become a farewell tour for its past.
