Politics
Socialism’s next test: swing states
In the crowded Democratic field running to replace Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, there’s a surprising frontrunner for a battleground state: a democratic-socialist line cook who has called to abolish the police.
Francesca Hong, a 37-year-old restaurant owner and single mother who became the state’s first Asian-American assembly member in 2021, has surged to the lead in several early polls after launching a long-shot bid on a deeply progressive platform.
Hong is part of an array of lefty candidates with working-class credentials running in competitive states and districts up and down the ballot in this year’s midterm elections — a crop emboldened by the popularity of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a turn toward economic populism amid widespread cost-of-living concerns.
Abdul El-Sayed is running from the left of Haley Stevens and Mallory McMorrow in the competitive Michigan Senate primary. Zach Wahls, who is backed by Elizabeth Warren, is locked in a tight contest against the Chuck Schumer-supported Josh Turek for Iowa’s Senate nomination. In Colorado’s 8th District, where Dems see a flip opportunity, Manny Rutinel is running against the more moderate Shannon Bird. And last month, Graham Platner got a boost when Schumer-endorsed Maine Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the race to oust GOP Sen. Susan Collins.
Establishment Democrats worry that these figures — whose platforms play well among primary voters but could bite them in a general election — might spoil the midterms at a time when the party has the wind at its back, desperate to claw its way out of the wilderness and still weary of the “woke” allegations that Republicans effectively wielded against Kamala Harris. “If Democrats hope to beat Republican incumbents in red and purple districts, then they cannot run candidates who are far outside the mainstream of their district,” the center-left think tank Third Way wrote in a memo published last month.
Hong says the party establishment just lacks imagination.
“I think they’re underestimating voters,” Hong said in an interview. “I think that has always been a problem for the Democratic Party — that we are not listening to how they are feeling.”
Her platform includes free child care, a $20 minimum wage and a full moratorium on data center construction. She is an outspoken critic of the Israeli government and helped lead Wisconsin’s “uninstructed” pressure campaign on the Biden administration’s posture toward Gaza. She’s faced backlash for past calls to “abolish” the police. And she has suggested as governor she would call the state National Guard to arrest federal ICE agents.
But Hong doesn’t think her far-left politics would pose a risk in a general election. “The liability is having someone who is the establishment and wants to maintain the status quo,” she said.
There’s still months to go before the Aug. 11 primary to decide who will face off against Tom Tiffany, the presumed GOP nominee endorsed by President Donald Trump. Still, Hong is leading early polls among nine Democratic candidates — making her an unusual frontrunner to lead a state Trump narrowly won in 2024.
Wisconsin has a deep history of socialism, including three socialist mayors of Milwaukee between 1910 and 1960. The state boasts one of the Senate’s most conservative members, Sen. Ron Johnson, but also one of its most progressive, Sen. Tammy Baldwin. And progressive Democrats in Wisconsin are quick to point out that Sanders, the country’s democratic-socialist standard-bearer, won 71 out of Wisconsin’s 72 counties in 2016.
Hong isn’t just running on a different platform than her competitors — she is also running “the most non-traditional race,” said Gordon Hintz, who served in the Wisconsin state assembly with Hong when he was Democratic minority leader. While other candidates have been more reserved so far, Hong spent — and surged — early on to boost her name recognition. Hong’s campaign says it has about 3,000 active volunteers and has already organized 250 events across the state, with an additional 230 planned for the coming months.
“She has shown up, she’s the only candidate currently who has built any infrastructure down in Rock County,” said Jim White, who leads Rock County Democrats. “She’s the only person who has active canvassers, has people showing up at events, at meetings, she’s the only one who seems to have increasing infrastructure to do outreach to voters, and that’s been something that I think we’ve all really noticed.”
But it’s still an uphill battle for Hong — especially in the fundraising fight. Mandela Barnes, the former lieutenant governor and failed Senate nominee is polling in second place and has raised more than $2 million. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has brought in more than $850,000. Hong has raised about $635,000, according to Wisconsin campaign finance records.
Hong said she is focusing on turning one-time donors into recurring donors and has leaned on nontraditional fundraising tactics, like streaming. She has appeared with the progressive Twitch streamer Mike from PA and with Mercury Stardust, a TikToker with more than 2.6 million followers who describes herself as “The Trans Handy Ma’am.” Next month, Hong is planning to stream a DJ set and a cooking demo on Twitch, according to her campaign.
Both White and Hintz noted they still have not decided who they’ll vote for in the primary. But they both guessed part of Hong’s appeal to voters — particularly those who are young and politically disengaged — was because she is “fun.” Hong is, for example, known to host fundraisers at karaoke bars.
Her go-to song? “I Will Survive.”
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Politics
It might take ‘a lightning bolt from God’ to get these Senate Democratic hopefuls to bow for independents
Democrats vying for a pair of deep-red Senate seats are facing increasingly desperate calls from within their party to step aside for more promising independent candidates.
But they say they won’t drop out — unless there’s divine intervention.
Democrats Alani Bankhead of Montana and Julian Beaudion of South Dakota both told Blue Light News they have no plans to exit the race, despite pressure from national — and even some state — Democrats to step aside. Numerouspolls, coupled with strongerfundraising and campaign operations, show independents Seth Bodnar and Brian Bengs have a stronger — if still muddied — path to victory in November.
If the Democrats stay on the ballot, it will be almost impossible to claw these seats away from Republicans in Mountain West states that President Donald Trump dominated in 2024.
“I’m a person of faith. If a lightning bolt from God struck me and was like, ‘Alani, get out of the race,’ sure,” Bankhead told Blue Light News when asked if anything would change her mind. Otherwise, she said there’s “absolutely nothing.”
Beaudion has a similar resolve: “To be clear, we are not considering dropping out of the race,” he told Blue Light News.
By digging in, the Democrats could imperil their party’s hopes of regaining Senate control in an already uphill cycle. There’s broad agreement across the many factions of the Democratic Party that a crowded race relinquishes any hope of victory. Bengs has argued that Beaudion remaining on the ballot jeopardizes his chance of winning this fall against GOP Sen. Mike Rounds. Bodnar has maintained he has a viable path either way, and he could be helped out if the Libertarian candidate in the race pulls votes from Republican Kurt Alme.
The deadline to withdraw in South Dakota is Tuesday, and Montana’s is shortly after, on Aug. 10. Democrats across the ideological spectrum in Washington and their home states are calling on Bankhead and Beaudion to step down to help their party bank-shot a Senate majority, with the idea that a victorious independent candidate could caucus with a future Democratic majority — or at least not party up with Republicans.
“The math is inescapable. If it’s impossible for a Democrat to win, it is vital that the Democrats step aside and give the independent at least a shot of beating the Republican,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way. “Beating the MAGA Republicans is priorities one, two and three. Who we beat them with is pretty far down the list.”
Democrats have already had some luck setting up one-on-one independent vs. Republican matchups in other Trump-won states. The Democratic candidate in Nebraska withdrew to pave the way for independent Dan Osborn — though an ongoing court case from a Democratic anti-abortion pastor could complicate things. And Idaho’s Democratic nominee recently dropped out in favor of independent Todd Achilles.
“Knowing that your campaign is not gonna break through, and just being able to recognize that is probably the hardest thing of all,” Achilles said of Democrat David Roth’s decision to step down. “I do appreciate what David did in Idaho.”
Bankhead and Beaudion insist they can win, even despite the headwinds. Bankhead expects to ride the anti-incumbency and pro-outsider wave into office, and Beaudion credits his relationships with voters throughout the state.
“Nobody ever knows what’s actually going to happen in an election,” Bankhead said. “The people decide on November 3.”
But Idaho and Nebraska Democrats reached a conclusion that Bankhead and Beaudion did not: The party’s brand is so tarnished in their states that the “D” label on the ballot line provides no viable path to victory.
“I am a professional partisan Democrat, and I have every incentive to be on the Democrat’s side here,” said Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge 21st Century, an opposition-research firm. “But ultimately, the priority is to take the Senate majority away from Republicans. In some states, that path is very difficult to impossible for a Democrat. In those cases, it is both strategically and morally correct to take the path that is most likely to achieve the goal we’re going for.”
Faiz Shakir, a longtime adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), did not go as far as to call for Bankhead and Beaudion to step aside. But he agreed that there’s real opportunity for independents who aren’t stuck with the Democratic brand’s baggage.
“Being someone who’s not associated with the two-party system right now helps you greatly in many parts of this country, particularly those that have much more rural and conservative tendencies,” said Shakir. “There’s frustration and anger with Trump, and there’s not as much of a love and appreciation for the Democratic Party.”
Shakir also said that competitive races in these red areas — even if the independents can’t pull off a win — could force Republicans to pull much-needed resources out of battleground races in order to defend their turf.
But he also offered a warning to his party: Talking too much about the independents’ strong fundraising and establishment backing risks tying them to the “donor class” and turning them “into a worse version of what people assumed of a Democrat.”
“You gotta give them the space to be both independent in mind and in spirit,” he said. “The argument for them is truly that they are building a movement in the state that people are hungry for, and that in the support of those people, they’re finding resonance. And that would be the argument for a Democrat to step aside.”
Republicans, meanwhile, are working to paint the independents and Democrats as one and the same. They’re also trying to elevate the Democrats in an attempt to stop the independents from gaining more traction: Trump on social media attacked Bankhead in July, ignoring Bodnar entirely.
“Democrat-backed independents all support the same socialist policies and middle-class tax hikes that made Democrats toxic across the country,” Joanna Rodriguez, the communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement. “Republicans will defeat them in November.”
The inside calls for Beaudion and Bankhead to step aside aren’t just coming from Washington. Many local Democrats in Montana and South Dakota have said publicly they should not continue their campaigns. Nancy Keenan, the former executive director of the Montana Democratic Party who has endorsed Bodnar, wrote in a June op-ed that “there is not a viable path for a Democratic victory in this race.”
Bennett, the Third Way co-founder, went further, saying if Democrats fail to flip the Senate in November, the blame would lie at the hands of Bankhead and Beaudion.
“If we fumble away a majority because these no hope candidates are too vain to get out of the race, that’ll be a political calamity,” he said. “These people need to understand that they will become pariahs.”
Bankhead doesn’t see it that way.
“I’m not swayed by it because I’m not here for power and money,” she said. “It’s still the old, rich D.C. powerful political circles that are trying to keep more progressive candidates out of the fight so they can maintain the status quo.”
FCC chair Brendan Carr on Trump, free speech and his threats against broadcasters
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Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and his team are discussing dropping out of the crowded Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The conversations come as Democratic officials in the state brace for damaging media reports about Barnes expected to hit in the coming hours. Barnes and his team have been on calls Thursday to discuss how to proceed, according to the people, granted anonymity to share private details.
The primary had become increasingly messy as more moderate leaning Democrats like Barnes have tried to stave off Democratic socialist Francesca Hong’s rise, worried her victory could boost presumed Republican nominee Tom Tiffany. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ endorsement of David Crowley — who reentered the race in the final stretch — further complicated the moderate coalition.
A spokesperson for Barnes’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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