After a national backlash over her previous crusade to cancel Thanksgiving, Wisconsin’s Democratic Socialists of America-backed gubernatorial frontrunner Francesca Hong told Politico on Wednesday—miraculously—that Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday.
In a 2020 post, Hong wrote: “Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621. If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indigenous folx and women so be it.” In another message that year, she urged people, “Please DON’T gather for the colonizer holiday.”
Earlier this week, when pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on whether she still wanted Thanksgiving canceled, Hong refused to give a clear answer. Rather than answer, she recited the progressive catechism about the holiday being ‘incredibly painful’ for some, tossed in a line about ‘evolving views,’ and then tried to distract everyone with her chef credentials.
By midweek, Hong had discovered a newfound affection for Thanksgiving, telling Politico’s Playbook Pod that she ‘actually loves’ the holiday. This sudden change of heart, of course, arrived only after days of relentless criticism and a warning from Obama’s own David Axelrod that Democrats might be ‘cooked’ if answers like hers continued. The interviewer, Irie Sentner, seemed content to give Hong a free pass on her earlier claims, responding with a resistance-free ‘there you have it.’
The Politico appearance itself raised questions about preparation and sincerity. In a video posted to X, Hong paused for a moment when asked what her favorite holiday was before an awkward jump cut landed on her answer,“Thanksgiving.” Hong repeatedly looked down and away from the camera, avoided sustained eye contact, and appeared visibly uncomfortable while delivering the new message. Notably, it took the campaign days to workshop a softer answer and place it with a friendly national outlet that offered no aggressive follow-up on the contradiction.
Surprisingly absent from the interview were any serious follow-ups, such as an examination of how a candidate who brands herself a “single mom” spends the holiday with her in-laws, or why she pushed for canceling the holiday in the first place. Her only admission was that she was a curmudgeon on holidays in general. Those angles went unexplored as Hong was allowed to reframe a holiday she once labeled colonialist worthy of cancellation as the one she now claims to love most.
This whiplash-inducing reversal is par for the course: when past radicalism becomes inconvenient, Hong prefers a carefully workshopped walk-back over honest accountability. In six days, Wisconsin voters get to decide whether they’re buying the new Thanksgiving fan Francesca Hong or remembering the version who called it a colonizer holiday.
