Progressive Wave Hits Wall as Crowley Upsets Hong in Wisconsin
Democratic socialists’ much-anticipated iron-clad grip on the party in Wisconsin dissolved into thin air Tuesday night when David Crowley pulled off a stunning upset, defeating Francesca Hong for the Democratic nomination for governor.
Hong, the democratic socialist who had entered Tuesday as the odds-on front-runner for the Democratic nomination for governor of Wisconsin, was dealt a shocking defeat by a more moderate rival in a race widely watched as a gauge of progressive strength in a key swing state.
Late into Tuesday night, Hong, a chef and state lawmaker who has drawn enthusiastic support from the party’s left flank, found herself overtaken by Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, as six states held primary elections. Hong had entered Tuesday with polls showing her in a very safe double-digit lead. By early Wednesday morning, with 98% of the votes counted, Crowley had pulled off the improbable, defeating Hong by roughly 3,000 votes in one of the night’s biggest surprises.
An apparent glitch in the results of roughly 20,000 Democratic absentee ballots in Milwaukee County also threw a late-night wrench in news outlets’ ability to call the race. Five of nine flash-drive memory sticks holding absentee-election results had the required audit information but not the actual results. The drives then needed to be returned to the central count location to be corrected and brought back to the county courthouse, delaying election results by at least an hour. Election officials attributed the glitch to “human error” and said a wrong button was pushed.
When those Milwaukee absentee votes were counted, they favored Crowley by roughly 5 percentage points – a late surge that ultimately proved decisive in erasing Hong’s once-commanding advantage.
If a Wisconsin candidate is ahead by less than a quarter percentage point, the trailing candidate in such a scenario can demand a recount without being forced to pay for it.
“I know we don’t have the final results right now, but what I do know is that we are ready to keep fighting, and I feel confident,” Hong told supporters Tuesday night. “We are fighting to become once more what Wisconsin has always been – a place where our future is determined not by corporations and billionaires, but a future that’s determined by the working-class people who live here.”
With the result hanging in the balance after midnight, Crowley’s campaign sent supporters home without a comment from the candidate.
GOP gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany spoke to reporters Tuesday night, arguing that “there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the Democratic candidates,” one of which he will face in November.
“You look at two weeks ago when they had their debate – no one, including David Crowley, called out Francesca Hong for some of just the crazy things that she has said, including disparaging Thanksgiving,” Tiffany said.
Hong faced an intense political backlash during the August 2026 primary election for a resurfaced 2020 social media post in which she called to “Cancel Thanksgiving,” labeling it a celebration of colonialism and a “superspreader event.” When questioned on national television, she initially declined to disavow the remark, later walking it back to state that she loves the holiday.
“People are wide awake in Wisconsin to what is being proposed here, and that’s why I think our message of common sense, accountability, affordability that is going to carry the day here in November,” he added.
In South Carolina, President Trump’s grip on his party faced its own test. Trump had pushed Republicans to unite behind Sen. Darline Graham, who took over her late brother Lindsey Graham’s seat after his death a month ago and is now seeking a full six-year term. She advanced in a special election to an Aug. 25 runoff against eight other candidates who also qualified for the race. Graham led the pack with 32.7% of the vote and Rep. Ralph Norman, the hardline conservative vice chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, ended in second place with 24.6%. Rep. Russell Fry came in third with 19.6% and former Gov. Mark Sanford pulled 14.9%.
Trump, returning from Ohio Tuesday night, weighed in on the South Carolina election results and said he was pleased by the results showing Graham in the lead.
“She’s definitely in the run-off, and that’s good – that’s what you want,” he said. “I mean, just so you understand, I like the other people in the race also. They’re all Trumpers. But, you know, I endorsed her. I think she’s great.”
“It’s really in honor of her brother, and she’s really a very smart woman,” he added. “You know, Lindsey loved his sister more than anything else.”
Minnesota, meanwhile, offered another test for the Democratic Party’s left-versus-center divide, this time in the Senate race to succeed retiring Sen. Tina Smith. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the progressive candidate, late Tuesday evening appeared poised to win the Democratic nomination, defeating moderate Rep. Angie Craig in a result that marks another win for the party’s left flank this cycle. Flanagan had the backing of Smith herself, along with progressive figures including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
“They’re desperate to give Trump another ‘yes-sir’ senator to do his bidding … who will say, ‘Yes sir’ to anything Donald Trump wants,” Flanagan told supporters Tuesday night. “We are not going to give them a Republican [Senate] majority, friends. We’re not going to let them flip this seat.”
On the Republican side of that same Senate race, former sportscaster Michele Tafoya won handily, taking roughly 51% of the vote to outdistance retired Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze and former NBA player Royce White. Tafoya, who spent more than a decade covering NFL sidelines for ABC, ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” and later NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” ran as a political outsider pledging to bring “common sense” to Washington if she unseats Smith’s party in November.
“Michele Tafoya knows how to win and has the fight to flip Minnesota this November,” Sen. Tim Scott, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement. “Peggy Flanagan oversaw the worst fraud scandal in modern American history and is now running as one of the most radical socialist Senate candidates on the map. Minnesota is desperate for change and fresh leadership.”
Some moderate Democrats in Wisconsin, a perennial swing state, have expressed unease about Hong’s candidacy, worried she could struggle in a general election. Hong backs abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and raising taxes on individuals earning above $750,000 a year. Crowley, her rival, had the backing of outgoing Gov. Tony Evers.
Speaking to reporters in Madison Tuesday, Hong pointed to her campaign’s grassroots organizing – more than 7,000 volunteers who had knocked on some 130,000 doors, she said – and vowed to keep engaging voters on the issues that matter to them.
Meanwhile, Rep. Tom Tiffany coasted to victory in the Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial primary, giving the GOP the nominee it had expected for months. Tiffany, who represents Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, carries President Trump’s endorsement and the backing of the state Republican Party, which nominated him at its convention in May. He defeated businessman Andy Manske.
Whoever wins the Democratic nomination will face Tiffany in November, in a battleground state Trump carried by a narrow margin in 2024, with both parties viewing the race as pivotal to control of state government. Hong and Crowley led the Democratic field front-runner after a chaotic stretch that saw former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, and former state economic development chief Missy Hughes all drop out, though their names remained on the ballot. State Sen. Kelda Roys and businessman Joel Brennan also stayed in the race through Tuesday.
The Wisconsin results came the same night Minnesota Republicans dealt a setback to President Trump, passing over his preferred candidate in their own gubernatorial primary.
Rep. Lisa Demuth won the Republican nomination for Minnesota governor, beating back businessman Mike Lindell, the My Pillow company founder and Trump-booster the president had endorsed for the race.
Trump made a last-minute push on Lindell’s behalf, posting that his candidate deserved “a BIG WIN.” It wasn’t enough: Demuth pulled ahead of a crowded Republican field vying to replace two-term Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who is not seeking reelection.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Amy Klobuchar cruised to an easy primary win, positioning the four-term senator to run for governor in a state Trump has lost in all three of his presidential campaigns, though never by a wide margin.
Demuth’s win adds to a string of primary results that haven’t gone the way Trump wanted this cycle. The Minnesota governor’s race opened up after Walz, who was the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential nominee in 2024, abruptly ended his reelection bid in January as a massive fraud scandal involving state-administered social services programs drew scrutiny. Walz said at the time he wanted to let others focus on the campaign while he stayed focused on governing, nevertheless expressing confidence that he could have won had he stayed in.
That scandal fueled Republican hopes of flipping the seat, but analysts remain skeptical of the GOP’s odds. The Cook Political Report rates the race solidly Democratic, having moved it out of the “likely” Democratic column earlier this year – a sign of how far Republicans still have to climb even with an open seat in play.
Other results from Tuesday’s primaries:
— A Cabinet connection in Wisconsin: Michael Alfonso, 26, won the Republican nomination to succeed Tiffany in his Wisconsin House seat. Alfonso, who has Trump’s backing, is the son-in-law of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
— A battleground House race takes shape: Two Democrats competed Tuesday for the right to challenge Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a Republican, in a western Wisconsin district expected to be one of the most competitive in the country this November.
— Generational turnover in Connecticut: Rep. John Larson, a 78-year-old Democrat seeking a 15th term, lost his primary to Luke Bronin, the former mayor of Hartford, amid a broader push within the party for older lawmakers to make way for younger candidates.
This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
