Francesca Hong avoids attacks as Wisconsin Democrats meet for an amicable governor debate

The five Democratic candidates for governor in Wisconsin almost entirely refrained from lobbing attacks at each other during their first and only debate Tuesday night, even as the volatile race enters its final two weeks. With early voting underway ahead of the high-stakes Aug. 11 primary — and with a huge chunk of Democratic voters still undecided — no one on stage took even a semblance of a swing at polling frontrunner Francesca Hong, a state representative from Madison and a democratic socialist, despite growing concerns from some in the party about her viability in a general election. The only tense moment of the hourlong debate came between Hong’s top two rivals for the nomination. Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes jabbed Milwaukee County Executive Crowley for re-entering the race this month with outgoing Gov. Tony Evers’ endorsement after Lt Gov. Sara Rodriguez abruptly dropped out. “It’s been mentioned that the county executive had his campaign resurrected by special interests in a dark room with people with their thumb on the scale,” Barnes said. “Things will always be the same with that sort of leadership. We should be asking for more.” Crowley didn’t directly respond, but at another moment said that, “I was actually born into struggle” and that “I’m not here to protect the establishment.” Otherwise, the three candidates, along with state Sen. Kelda Roys and Joel Brennan, the former Department of Administration secretary, expressed near-total agreement on a litany of issues, including lowering property taxes, scaling back a school voucher program and taxing people earning more than $1 million annually. Not even Hong’s affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of America emerged as a point of controversy from her competitors, even as Democrats have increasingly expressed fear that she would be too far to the left to defeat Rep. Tom Tiffany, the likely Republican nominee, in November in the swing state. Hong has faced criticism over the course of the campaign for her past calls to defund and abolish the police and her opinion that a “perfect world would be a world without prisons.” But asked about those comments by the debate moderators Tuesday, as well as whether she agreed with other controversial positions touted by the national DSA, Hong softened her stance. “I do not support the full platform of the national DSA, and I am not endorsed by DSA national. What democratic socialism is, is a form of government that puts working class people first,” she said, before reiterating her support for stronger public education funding, taxing the rich and investing in universal childcare and affordable housing. “I am looking forward to helping the Democrats become the big tent party that they’ve aimed to be for many years,” she added. At another point, during a discussion on whether wealthy Wisconsinites would flee the state if they were taxed more, Hong expressed hope that they too could benefit from her proposed policies. “We can improve the quality of life for millionaires and ensure that they too will be able to live, work, and thrive here in our state,” Hong said. And during a section of the debate they focused on the fatal shooting of a Madison man by a police officer last week — which led to protests and demands for accountability — Hong notably backed off from her prior statements supporting cutting funding for police departments. Asked whether she would sign a bill or budget that cuts funding police funding, Hong, who just last week dubbed the shooting an “execution,” replied, “No.” “The governor cannot defund police, and I’m not here to govern by slogan. I’m here to make sure that I am the governor that is most serious about public safety, she said. It was one of several areas of agreement between the candidates. Barnes said “we should all be very disturbed by what we saw in those images, what we saw in the video, and we should fight as hard as we possibly can, as a state, as a people, as a society, to make sure that never happens again — but that, “of course, I would not sign a budget that reduced funding” for police. Crowley said that “it’s extremely important that we have transparency” but that “we cannot defund the police.” Meanwhile, Barnes, the former lieutenant governor who narrowly lost the 2022 U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin touted himself as the “only person on state who’s actually won statewide. Crowley tried to differentiate himself by arguing that none of his Democratic opponents “have actually run local government” like he has. At the start of the debate, he was also asked if voters should trust his judgment after NBC News reported last week on the existence of a years-old social media account registered to Crowley that featured incendiary posts about women and race, along with derogatory LGBTQ references. “I’m here to deliver real results for Wisconsinites all over our state,” Crowley said, before nodding to his endorsement from Evers and “labor unions and leaders all across this state who believe in my leadership.”