Five Takeaways From Francesca Hong’s Near-Win in Wisconsin
Francesca Hong’s campaign both showed the potential that exists for the socialist left in purple states and what the Left needs to do to reach it.
It’s clear that Francesca Hong’s campaign made big mistakes that leftists should analyze seriously. But her achievements were also impressive and indicate that the space for socialist politics, even outside of major cities like New York, is massive. (Talia Sprague / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Francesca Hong, the democratic socialist running in the Democratic primary for the Wisconsin governor’s race, lost last night in an extremely close election. She came within half a percentage point of beating David Crowley, the executive of Milwaukee County. Preelection polling showed Hong with a commanding lead, and many assumed she would coast to victory. As such, her result is being spun as a hard defeat for the socialist left.
The truth is more complicated. Hong accomplished a great deal in her campaign, and even her loss contains valuable lessons for future attempts.
1. Horse-Race Polling Warps the Narrative
Perhaps the biggest lesson from this race is that a focus on the horse-race polling makes for bad politics. Since serious polling for this race began, Hong held a solid lead. She led current Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez by 10 points even before Rodriguez had to drop out because of campaign finance mishaps. Crowley, who ultimately won, hadn’t come within 20 points of Hong since March. Because of this, Hong’s victory was widely viewed as all but inevitable.
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