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SOCIALIST FRANCESCA HONG ON HER WISCONSIN INSURGENCY  
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Interview by Daniel Denvir
July 8, 2026
Jacobin
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_ Francesca Hong, the democratic socialist candidate for governor in
Wisconsin, discusses organizing beyond Madison and Milwaukee,
confronting the Democratic establishment, and rebuilding working-class
power. _

Wisconsin was the laboratory for Republican Governor Scott Walker’s
antiunion politics. Francesca Hong wants to make it a laboratory for
democratic socialism instead., (Daniel Boczarski / Getty Images)

 

Wisconsin has long served as a proving ground for American politics.
It gave rise to Progressive Era reforms and Milwaukee’s socialist
tradition, but it also became a laboratory for the Right under
Governor Scott Walker, whose assault on organized labor helped reshape
Republican politics nationwide. Today, with economic insecurity,
corporate power, and rural decline fueling widespread dissatisfaction,
the state remains one of the country’s most consequential political
battlegrounds.

State Representative Francesca Hong believes Democrats have misread
that discontent. A chef, small business owner, and democratic
socialist, Hong is running for governor on an unapologetically
working-class platform centered on universal childcare, labor rights,
public education, and confronting corporate influence. Rather than
moderating her politics to appeal to swing voters, she argues that
bold economic populism is the best way to rebuild a durable majority
across Wisconsin’s urban and rural divides.

For Jacobin Radio
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podcast The Dig, host Daniel Denvir sat down with Francesca Hong to
discuss Wisconsin’s political contradictions, the legacy of
Walker’s antiunion agenda, organizing beyond Madison and Milwaukee,
challenging Democratic Party orthodoxy, and why she believes a
democratic socialist campaign can win in one of the nation’s most
closely contested states. You can listen to the episode (which also
features conversations with a number of other left-progressive
electoral challengers) here
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Daniel Denvir

Wisconsin is a swing state. It’s been home to Joseph McCarthy and
Scott Walker, but also home to Milwaukee’s sewer socialists and Russ
Feingold. How would you describe Wisconsin politics and the various
divides — political, social, class, geographic — that shape
those politics across the state?

Francesca Hong

Our politics are manic and beautiful. We are the state with Senators
Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson. But I think Wisconsin ultimately is
where progressivism was born — kindergarten, sewer socialism,
unemployment insurance, environmentalism. I think that we can be a
laboratory for democracy again. And the policies of the Walker era and
Republicans have created divides. I would say they’ve manufactured
urban-rural divides. And we have seen that what happens in Wisconsin
is an indicator for what happens in the rest of the country.

When we saw the loss of manufacturing jobs, with our paper mills and
our General Motors plants, to the growth of data centers and the
defunding of public education, more and more people are realizing that
our values as Wisconsinites who work hard to be able to live a life of
dignity . . . this is being controlled and rigged by forces of
corporate greed, corruption, and politicians who are bought and paid
for. So our campaign is really about bringing working-class people
together to go back to our progressive roots and remind folks across
the state that we have a responsibility to imagine something better.

But we’re finding, whether it’s in Wisconsin Rapids, Beloit,
Superior, Madison, or Milwaukee, that people are tired of the status
quo. They’re tired of corporate greed and life getting so
unaffordable, and they’re ready to be represented by a working-class
champion for working-class people. I think that’s why our campaign
has grown so much momentum. We’re changing hearts and minds. And
it’s hard for Democrats right now, I think, to see how practical our
campaign is, because we’re reaching people that many Democrats have
failed to reach, and that’s working-class folks who don’t want
their lives to be dictated by politics. They just want to get by and
do well.

Daniel Denvir

I feel like when you are a socialist or progressive, left-wing
candidate of any sort, you often have to convince a certain type of
Democratic voter who likes what you have to say, agrees with
everything you have to say, but is gaming out the hypothetical median
voter in the swing state and how they’ll react to you. Are you
encountering that still on the trail?

Francesca Hong

Every single day. I have a T-shirt that says “unelectable,” and
the electability argument is one that comes from a place of fear. And
I think it’s because you are nervous that your neighbor doesn’t
feel the way that you do. We have so many folks who will come up and
talk to me, on the fence, and say, “Look, I am so supportive. I love
your message. I love what you stand for. I love the fight. But my
neighbor saw this interview, and you said, ‘Defund the police,’
and you said, ‘Abolish ICE.’ And the Republicans are gonna attack
you, and can you win in November?”

I think it’s unfortunate that we are nervous, that we don’t think
we share values with our neighbors. Instead of the question of, “If
you win in the primary, I’m going to back you,” it’s: “I’m
nervous to vote for you now because I don’t know if you can win in
the general.” And it speaks to how we are in a scarcity mindset and
not an abundance mindset of how many more of us there are as
working-class people. Populist policies are popular because they serve
more people. And so we’re continuing to fight back. I’d fight
back, but reminding them that I’m the only candidate who has held
over 250 events across the state where we have folks who are
independents, Republicans, young folks, older folks coming out not
only excited and engaged but already hitting the trail with
us,volunteering and organizing across the state. We have over five
thousand people who have signed up to volunteer in our campaign, and
so we’re bringing the organizing infrastructure to ensure that on
August 12, after we win the primary, that we’re bringing
infrastructure ready to go to make sure that we win in November.

Daniel Denvir

How do those conversations go in rural and small-town Wisconsin?

Francesca Hong

It really bothers me when folks in urban areas judge folks in smaller
communities. Rural communities are not a monolith, and I always ask
the question, “What are you most proud of in your community?”
Because people genuinely want folks to see their communities as
special. I’ll talk to voters in smaller communities, and they’re
talking about schools, and they’re talking about data centers, and
they’re pissed about property taxes, and that younger people are
leaving their communities. And the policies that we’re fighting
for — free childcare, fully funding our public schools, fixing our
roads, fighting data centers, putting a moratorium on them — that
engages rural voters especially because right now they’re seeing
these threats popping up and schools are closing. Data centers are
being proposed. People’s taxes are going up, and their wages are
not. And they’re fed up, and they’re frustrated. And they don’t
have any reason to trust politicians. But I’m approaching them and
asking them to believe in something different because I am different.
And I’m going to be a different type of governor who actually shows
up for folks and won’t sell them out.

Daniel Denvir

Arguably, it can be helpful in winning over independents and
Republicans to say, “Yeah, I’m also launching an insurgency
against the Democratic Party establishment. I’m not pleased with the
Democratic Party either.”

Francesca Hong

And it’s been surprising that Democratic donors have been very vocal
about their frustration with the party. We have to do call time, and I
have to reach out to folks who have been engaged with party politics.
And there’s a frustration that there’s still so many people in the
field. There’s a frustration that we, quote-unquote “can’t get
our shit together” to make sure that we have our candidate ready to
go August 12. And instead, we’re holding out on this big primary.
And so I think even among more establishment Democrats, there is a
frustration around why we can’t seem to mobilize and fall in line.
And I remind them that if we haven’t had a candidate like me until
now, that that complacency is, you know, we’ve all contributed to
it. I say all the time that this is a year of the many and not just
the money, and it’s because we have new voters who this will be
voting for the first time in an election — folks who sat out in
2024, people who didn’t come out in the spring election, folks who
are very disillusioned, now excited about actually supporting a
candidate who stands for something.

Dems will say all the time, “We have to stop talking about who
we’re fighting against and [start talking about] what we’re
fighting for,” and then there’s this awkward pause. And we’re
fighting for working-class people to have more economic freedom
because there’s free childcare, there’s paid leave, we’re
funding our schools, we’re fixing our roads, and we’re gonna make
sure that we tax the wealthy, we tax the billionaires, and the
corporations so that we can finally make these investments for
ourselves and our communities.

The infrastructure that we’re building for the Dems is one that’s
more powerful, because it’s with people who have not volunteered for
the Democrats before and who are ready to ensure that there’s a
democratic socialist, a single mom, someone who is actually speaking
to working-class issues right now as a working-class person, as a
renter, someone who has debt, has owned a business, and has seen how
much this state has failed working-class people.

Daniel Denvir

What do the nuts and bolts, the operations of your campaign look like
for organizers who are listening? Are you running a campaign that’s
different from a standard campaign? Obviously, your politics and
policies are different, but is your campaign different? How is it
organized?

In particular, what is it like for Democratic Socialists of America
(DSA), which is such a local chapter–based organization everywhere
in the country, to run a candidate for statewide office like this. I
think you would be the first statewide DSA elected win in the nation,
at least in the modern iteration of DSA.

Francesca Hong

Yes. I’m proud to have the endorsement of my home chapter, Madison
DSA, and then DSA Milwaukee, as well as the DSA chapters across the
state that are growing: Coulee DSA, Rock River DSA, and Northeast DSA,
as well as multiple Young Democratic Socialists of America chapters.
We’ve just built our regional committees and, as I said, over five
thousand people have volunteered.

We have a strong presence in Madison, Milwaukee, and that’s thanks
to the DSA chapters’ already built-in organizing infrastructure. I
think what makes a campaign different is always the people. I wanted
to make sure our campaign team were folks who have the institutional
knowledge of working on statewide campaigns and for the party, as well
as people who haven’t worked on campaigns before, so that we are
bringing in the perspective of folks with not only different lived
experiences and work experiences, but what it’s been like for them
as voters in Wisconsin, not having just been in the funnel.

I’m in that bubble now, having been an elected official for the last
five years, but that means that we have new ideas, that we are
disciplined about being innovative. There is such a lack of creativity
and innovation in politics and government And starting with that in
our campaign, whether it’s with fundraising, going on Twitch
streams, hosting . . . we had Home for the Holidays telethon-style
live stream for our end of month fundraiser where I brought in
different guests; Mike from PA had me back on; and we do ramen
pop-ups. I’m doing a cooking demo fundraiser live stream. We want to
make sure that we’re meeting and engaging new voters and supporters
in different digital spaces as well.

Our last town hall in Wisconsin Rapids was on the front lawn of a
volunteer, and it wasn’t advertised as a home campaign event. I went
in to talk to the community about how they could organize to fight
back against data centers, how to give a strong public testimony at a
city council meeting, how to mobilize and get press involved in the
actions of the organizers.

And so our campaign, from the people to our fundraising, our building,
our organizing infrastructure, and how we show up in communities is
different, because we are focusing on building community first. And I
think That’s really been a superpower for us.

Daniel Denvir

In your early twenties, you joined your parents in the massive 2011
protests at the Wisconsin State Capitol against Act 10, the antiunion
legislation gutting collective bargaining rights for organized labor,
signed by Republican Governor Scott Walker. Act 10 was really, on a
national level, this important opening act in the Tea Party’s war
against organized labor. And then conversely, for the Left, the mass
protests against Act 10 at the Wisconsin State Capitol were really
some of the first major left-wing protests to emerge in the wake of
the financial crisis.

It was, in a sense, anticipating Occupy Wall Street in many ways. I
remember the flood of relief I felt seeing it erupt, because the
financial crisis had been hitting for years at that point, and the
only real response had been from the far right, which was pretty
unpleasant. Looking back, how did Scott Walker mess up Wisconsin? And
how did the experience of coming of age under his governorship shape
your politics and shape what sort of governor you are running to be in
the future?

Francesca Hong

Scott Walker made Wisconsin a petri dish for anti-worker, anti-public,
antidemocratic policies to be tried out and passed in Wisconsin, and
then we saw the American Legislative Exchange Council, and other
right-wing institutions and think tanks like the Heritage Foundation
continue to push for policies that they tried out in Wisconsin first
across other states. My dad is a researcher at the university and my
mom was a public schoolteacher. She’d actually just started her
student teaching when Act 10 happened, To see my parents who had
worked so hard to build a life for my sister and I in a state where
they wanted to be teachers and educators, to see those attacks and
then to come through a Walker area to try to open a business and run a
business and see how much they failed to respond as a government
during COVID, where my son right now is going to a public school where
there is no air conditioning, and the teachers, the special education
assistants, our food nutrition workers are so vastly underpaid with
shitty benefits . . . I think that the governor that I want to be
is one who ensures that Wisconsin is an unapologetic champion for
pro-public, pro-worker, pro-family policies that ensure that everyone
can live a life of dignity.

And because I’m a democratic socialist, that means my principles are
rooted in democracy, in fairness, and in human rights. And I’ve seen
through the Walker years, and even with the Democratic governor —
Governor Evers has been a goalkeeper. But what that has meant is that
so many people have forgotten about our progressive roots, and we have
to reimagine not just undoing the harm of the Walker era but making
sure we have a governor who’s going to ensure that we never come
back to this again, that we put a stake in Act 10, that it’s in our
constitution to be able to collectively bargain and unionize, that we
follow our constitution in fully funding public education.

And we have to have a governor that’s going to meet the urgency of
this time and make sure that working-class people have a government
that’s actually going to deliver, so that they can feel the material
conditions of their lives change and improve. And that’s going to
require someone who comes in not with incrementalism at the forefront,
but with a bold vision to ensure that everyone has their basic needs
met.

_Francesca Hong is a democratic socialist and sitting member of the
Wisconsin State Assembly representing its 76th district. She is
currently running for governor._

_Daniel Denvir is the author of __All-American Nativism_
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host of __The Dig__ on Jacobin Radio._

* Francesca Hong
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* socialist politicians
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* Wisconsin
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* governor primary
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