Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley will officially re-enter the governor’s race at a rally in downtown Milwaukee Saturday morning, capping a wild week that saw a campaign finance scandal end Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez’s run and a frantic dash to stop socialist Francesca Hong from running away with the party’s nomination.
Crowley had dropped out of the race last week and endorsed Rodriguez, calling her the strongest candidate in the field and urging other candidates to follow his lead and consolidate votes behind a single candidate who could stop Hong’s socialist insurgency.
Democratic Party officials are concerned that Hong will lose the general election to Republican Tom Tiffany, but also that her winning the primary would lead to a takeover of the party itself by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). The DSA has racked up a series of primary wins in New York and Colorado and a DSA candidate leading a Democratic ticket in a swing state like Wisconsin would be the party’s biggest victory this year.
Hong has had all of the momentum in the race for months, and nearly all public polling has showed her or former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes leading the field. Democrat insiders made it clear since the start of the campaign that they did not want Barnes, who lost the 2022 U.S. Senate race to Sen. Ron Johnson, to represent them again.
The party had started to coalesce around Rodriguez, but a Sunday night announcement that she had fired her campaign manager for filing false finance reports led to a chaotic and embarrassing week that exposed her utter incompetence and ultimately forced her from the race Friday morning.
Gov. Tony Evers, who pointedly refused to endorse either of his lieutenant governors (Barnes and Rodriuguez) is expected to endorse Crowley either in a video message or live at his event on Saturday.
