State Rep. Francesca Hong posted a video message Thursday declaring that, as governor, she would never cut public safety and instead would “deliver it,” a clear pivot from her repeated past calls to “defund then abolish” police departments.
The statement landed the same day we here at The Heartland Post exclusively reported that Hong, in an October 31, 2025, appearance on the Resistance Radio podcast, pledged to deploy the Wisconsin National Guard to arrest ICE agents operating inside the state.
“I don’t want us to continue to rely on law enforcement, but if the National Guard has to be out here arresting ICE agents, you have to meet state-sanctioned violence with, you know, parts of the state sometimes,” Hong said on the podcast.
Hong has long embraced anti-police rhetoric. In 2020, she wrote on X that she supported “defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police.”
In 2021, she added, “police exist to uphold white supremacy. Defund, then abolish. Reform can’t be an option.”
When CNN KFile pressed her about whether she still held those views, Hong did not renounce them. She said she envisions “a world where public safety is not synonymous with law enforcement” and emphasized the need to build “systems of care.”
Her recent video post on X came amid scrutiny of her abolitionist history and her National Guard comments, which constitutional scholars say would violate the Supremacy Clause by attempting to interfere with federal law enforcement. Many would call her proposal an attempt at insurrection.
Hong, the leading Democrat candidate for governor and a self-described socialist, has repeatedly labeled ICE agents “enforcers of fascism” and pushed legislation to block local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. She has framed resistance to ICE as a moral imperative, even as federal authorities prepare expanded enforcement under the current administration.
Thursday’s message was classic damage control. After years of championing the most radical elements of the “defund” movement and now floating the use of state military force against federal officers, Hong is suddenly assuring voters she supports “public safety.” The timing leaves little doubt that the clarification was forced by political necessity rather than genuine evolution.
Wisconsin voters have seen this pattern before. Progressive experiments with reduced policing and sanctuary policies produced measurable spikes in crime and disorder in cities that tried them. Hong’s record and recent statements suggest she remains committed to that failed worldview, even as she tries to soften the edges for a general election audience.
The Heartland Post report also detailed Hong’s broader resistance agenda, including past calls to dismantle ICE entirely and her participation in protests featuring chants equating the agency with the KKK. Her campaign has leaned heavily into socialist identity politics and “community care” alternatives to traditional law enforcement.
For a state that has watched Minneapolis-style policies produce chaos just across the border, Hong’s forced flip-flop offers little reassurance. Her core positions, from abolishing the police to turning the National Guard into an anti-ICE force, remain on her X account. Thursday’s video does not undo them.
