Last night Francesca Hong lost by roughly 3,000 votes, 39.4 percent to Crowley’s 39.8, despite all recent polling pointing to momentum behind Hong.
Something moved in the final days, and it was not a late discovery by Democratic primary voters that Hong is a democratic socialist. She had campaigned as one since January. What they saw instead was Hong attempting to stop being one, in public and absolutely failing at it. By the closing week her own voice had become the campaign’s biggest liability. She lost ground every time she opened her mouth, lacked authenticity, and could not get through the easiest questions put to her, which told voters everything about how she would handle the hard ones.
Start with Thanksgiving. In November 2020, days after her election to the Assembly, Hong posted that the holiday should be canceled and “should have done this in 1621,” calling it a celebration of colonialism and “the original superspreader event.”
When the post resurfaced, Hong attempted at least three different answers over nine days. On CNN she offered that gathering around a table “is always a good thing” while adding that Thanksgiving “is also a time that’s incredibly painful for many people in our communities.” Two days later she struggled to tell Politico it was her “favorite holiday” and that she loves it. She told The Hill the post “could” have been made in jest.
A candidate who needs nine days and multiple interviews to say whether she likes a holiday is not going to survive a question about crime, affordability, or any other issue Wisconsinites actually care about.
Hong previously wrote that she supported defunding police as a pathway to abolishing the police. But at the only televised primary debate she said she does not support defunding police, and claimed a governor can’t actually defund the police anyways. In the spin room afterward, reporters rightfully pressed her on what her true opinion was. After a few sentences of word salad, her staff moved her along, leaving another question flip flopped and unanswered.
Front-runners normally gain from attention in the final week, bringing their strongest message to more voters. But Hong lost voters with each appearance she attempted. She was inauthentic and flip flopping for 10 days straight. Instead of reevaluating, her campaign’s response was to keep booking interviews, which produced more flip flops, which produced more clips. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy that undecided voters overwhelmingly supported David Crowley over her.
Hong’s answers turned off voters because every one of them was inauthentic. She first gained momentum for being a fire brand. But in the final weeks she became milquetoast.
The other democratic socialists who have won primaries this cycle did not win by softening. They argued for what they believed, defended their own radical statemnts and made voters meet them there. Hong in the final stretch decided that she needed to sound like someone else and offer answers that were not her true beliefs.
The 3,000 vote difference Tuesday night was the price of nine days spent trying to be someone she’s not.
