Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker warned Republican voters not to cross party lines in Tuesday's Democratic gubernatorial primary, calling DSA-backed candidate Francesca Hong "VERY dangerous", a sign that both parties see the 37-year-old state legislator as a general-election wildcard.
Walker, the state's most recent Republican governor, posted a series of messages on X on Sunday urging GOP voters to stay in their own primary rather than gamble on boosting Hong as a supposedly weaker Democratic nominee. Wisconsin law requires both parties to hold open primaries, meaning any registered voter can choose which party's ballot to cast, a mechanism that has fueled speculation about strategic crossover voting ahead of Tuesday's contest.
The former governor posted on X that the gambit could backfire:
"Crossing over to vote for Francesca Hong is a big risk because she would be VERY dangerous if she was Governor."
In a separate post, Walker endorsed Rep. Tom Tiffany for governor, Will Martin for lieutenant governor, and Eric Toney for attorney general, making clear he wants Republicans focused on their own ticket, not meddling in the other party's race.
Hong, a state representative and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, holds a commanding lead in the five-candidate Democratic primary field. A State Navigate survey of 1,473 likely Democratic primary voters, taken August 3, 6, put her at 44 percent, double the 22 percent earned by her closest rival, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. A Marquette University Law School poll showed a similar gap, with Hong ahead by 22 points, though more than a third of voters remained undecided.
But front-runner status in a Democratic primary and viability in a November general election are two different things in a swing state where statewide races routinely come down to a point or two. The Marquette poll found Hong trailing Tiffany 43 percent to 40 percent in a hypothetical general-election matchup. The RealClearPolitics average puts Tiffany ahead of Hong by 1.7 percentage points.
Walker framed Tiffany's path in bread-and-butter terms:
"It will not be easy, but @TomTiffanyWI can defeat either Hong or Crowley if he stays on message: cutting red tape, limiting spending & lowering property taxes will help push down costs while the radical views of the others will drive up costs."
Outgoing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has tried to rally support behind Crowley, warning that a Hong victory would be "a gift for Republicans in November." Evers called Crowley the "best candidate" to defeat Tiffany. Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who had been polling in second place in an earlier Marquette survey, dropped out of the race, a move that further consolidated Hong's position at the top of the field.
Hong's DSA membership and policy record have drawn scrutiny from the right and wariness from parts of her own party. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the two most prominent democratic socialists in Congress, have both refrained from endorsing her. That silence is notable for a candidate whose Milwaukee DSA chapter said she would advance "our socialist movement to the state level."
Sanders's refusal to back Hong undercuts any argument that she represents the mainstream of even the party's progressive wing. If the senator who ran twice for president on a democratic-socialist platform will not vouch for a DSA candidate in a battleground state, the reluctance speaks for itself.
Hong's legislative record in the Wisconsin Assembly includes proposals for publicly funded grocery stores, a state-owned bank, and race-based grant programs. She supports a $20 minimum wage, free health care, free child care, and a moratorium on data center construction. She has previously called to abolish ICE and defund the police, though her current campaign messaging focuses on affordability, education, and health care.
A string of resurfaced social media posts and interview clips has put Hong on defense in recent weeks. In November 2020, she posted a call to "cancel Thanksgiving," writing that Americans should "stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed indigenous folx and women." In a November 2021 statement, she again called to get rid of the holiday, citing its "colonialist" undertones.
During a CNN appearance last week, Hong initially argued that Thanksgiving "is also a time that's incredibly painful for many people in our communities", then backtracked and claimed she had no interest in abolishing the festival. The reversal tracked a broader pattern: Hong has also denied posting about abolishing the U.S. Senate, even though the post remained publicly visible online.
In a Fox News interview last month that went viral, Hong stood by many pillars of the DSA platform and refused to disavow left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who said in 2019 that "America deserved 9/11." Hong has since insisted she "would not abolish the police," but the gap between her past statements and her current campaign pitch has given Republicans a thick opposition-research file.
Beyond Thanksgiving and policing, Breitbart reported that Hong's social media history includes criticism of Christmas, Valentine's Day, and fireworks. In a February 2022 post, she called Valentine's Day "another day capitalism tells you how to show love" and described restaurant customers as "the worst of humanity."
The Wisconsin contest matters far beyond Madison. Democratic socialists have recently won primaries in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Denver, but those are deep-blue urban strongholds. Wisconsin is a genuine swing state, and the governor elected in November will oversee elections in 2028, a point Neera Tanden of the Center for American Progress emphasized when she noted that "whoever wins the general election will be the person overseeing elections in 2028 and whether people are seated in 2029."
Hong's candidacy fits a broader pattern of far-left insurgents challenging the Democratic establishment across the 2026 primary map. The question is whether a formula that works in safe urban districts can survive contact with a statewide electorate that includes suburban swing voters and rural conservatives.
An AP News analysis framed the race as a test of how far left voters in a battleground state are willing to go. Republican Tom Tiffany has already signaled his general-election message. "This November, the choice is common sense or crazy," Tiffany said.
Walker's warning boils down to a simple calculation: don't assume Hong would be easy to beat. A candidate who supports abolishing police, canceling Thanksgiving, and standing by a streamer who said America deserved 9/11 sounds unelectable on paper. But Wisconsin primaries are open, turnout is unpredictable, and Democratic policy ambitions in Wisconsin already extend well beyond what most voters realize.
A Marquette poll showing more than a third of Democratic primary voters still undecided, combined with a general-election margin of less than two points, means the margin for error is razor-thin on both sides. Hong's 44 percent primary number is strong. Her 40 percent general-election number against Tiffany is not.
Walker wants Republicans to let Democrats make their own choice, and then hold the winner accountable for every "cancel Thanksgiving" post and every refusal to disavow when November arrives. That is the smarter play. Let the other side nominate whoever they want, and keep the powder dry.
When your opponent is busy explaining why she didn't really mean the things she posted, the last thing you should do is get in the way.
