Democratic socialists have scored surprising wins in several mayoral and congressional races across the country.
But a swing-state governorship is a different story. In fact, there’s never been a socialist governor in any state in all of American history.
Francesca Hong is trying to make that happen in Wisconsin. A 37-year old former chef and restaurant owner, Hong first ran for office in 2020, when her industry was in crisis due to the pandemic, and won election to the state assembly. After six years there, she’s running for governor.
The primary is on August 11 and, so far, the state’s Democratic establishment has failed to consolidate around one opponent to stop her. (The leading contenders appear to be former lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes and current lieutenant governor Sara Rodriguez.)
Republicans in the state appear to be hoping they’ll face Hong in the general election. One GOP-tied Super PAC is spending $2 million to air ads that heavily feature Hong before the primary. And her past comments on policing — “Defund then abolish. Reform can’t be an option,” she tweeted in 2021 – will give them some ammunition.
Yet, when I reviewed Hong’s platform, I was struck by its relative pragmatism, especially compared to the grander goals often put forward by socialists running from Congress who have fewer budget and political constraints than governors. Many of her top goals, like expanding access to child care and pushing back on data centers, have been adopted by Democratic leaders elsewhere.
Hong doesn’t see it that way, exactly. “Incrementalism is irresponsible,” she told me. “Pushing for the middle or the moderate has not yielded us the wins that we need.”
But as she acknowledged, many of her ambitions will depend on whether non-socialist Democrats manage to win enough state legislative seats to topple a 16-year GOP majority, and, then, what they’d be willing to pass.
I spoke with Hong about how she thinks about being a socialist, about how she hopes to govern differently from traditional Democrats, and about how she’d work to use the powers of the governor to advance some of her more controversial causes like police abolition (which she’s said is still “a very long term vision”). Our conversation, which has been condensed and edited, is below.
Would a socialist governor do things differently?
If you win this governor’s race, you’ll be the first socialist governor in United States history. How should we think about what that means? And how would you govern differently from more traditional Democrats, like your state’s current governor?
I think it means that the people are ready for power to answer to them — ready for a new type of politics. The same plays and players, the policies that we have enacted in the past, have gotten us here. With the struggles with affordability, with the climate crisis, all these different existential crises that are happening — folks are pragmatically demanding a new type of government.
And as a democratic socialist, I plan to govern by ensuring that every policy is focused on bringing more democratic control into our economy and making it work for working class people.
So, let’s drill down into the office of the governor itself. I’ve covered a lot of races with different socialists or left candidates around the country. There are a lot of bold sweeping promises that are made in congressional races.
But, as governor, you’re going to actually have to balance the budget. You’ll have to deal with the legislature. As you were shaping your campaign agenda and your platform, how did you think about these constraints?
Incrementalism is irresponsible. I’m a community organizer. This is a grassroots powered campaign. We have volunteers and supporters who are talking to their neighbors right now about the importance of winning a trifecta and flipping the legislature in both the senate and the assembly — that the work to govern begins now.
And I think that I’ve built relationships with Republicans and many of my Democratic colleagues, who disagree with me on different issues when it comes to more democratic-socialist-centered policies. The executive has a responsibility to work collaboratively with the legislature, make the decisions in determining when to use executive order, but also be willing to govern unafraid and wield the full power of the executive.
How is Francesca Hong’s platform different from a typical Democrat’s?
So, tell me about some of your top priorities on that front — both what might be able to be done with the executive power of the governor itself and also other things that you would probably need a legislative majority for.
Public education. There is no strong democracy without strong public education.
And so, here in Wisconsin, we’ve been defunding public education under the Republican legislature for the last 16 years. Fully funding public education, to me, means ensuring public dollars stay in public schools, phasing out the voucher program; reimbursing special education at 90 percent; and moving to “two-thirds,” an equitable funding formula [in which two-thirds of public school funding is paid for by the state government].
We have to fund local governments adequately. So many essential programs and services that our local governments provide have been compromised because the state has been hoarding our state dollars and resources and not giving their fair share back to local governments.
And for executive order, I think it’s important to look at what can be done in the calling for special sessions — to bring the legislature in to take up high priority items like a moratorium on AI data centers. We’ve pledged that within the first hundred days, we’d like to see a special session for passing common sense gun safety legislation.
These are bills that Democrats have introduced, that are ready to go. We need that majority to enact them with the swiftness that we need.
A lot of what I see in your platform — public school funding, taxing the rich, child care programs similar to that in states like New Mexico, gun safety — these are definitely strong progressive proposals. But they don’t seem to me inherently different from what Democrats are advocating elsewhere in other states and from what your rivals in this primary are advocating.
What would be the biggest contrast issues where you would be really offering something different, or going further?
When it comes to health care, I have not seen my opponents or heard about their plans to lower health care prices, to look at how our corporate hospitals are taxed here in the state.
How to prevent private equity and take on monopoly by investing in our attorney general’s office — it is the regulation piece of taking on corporate control and corruption that we have not seen very many specifics about from my opponents.
And we are the only campaign to support — and I’ve introduced the legislation — calling for a moratorium on the construction of hyperscale AI data centers.
Data centers and local control
Talk to me about the data center issue, because it’s becoming so important in so many places around the country. What did you see, what did you hear that led you to take this stance and decide that this is what the state needs?
We’re hearing from communities across the state — whether it’s Wisconsin Rapids or Menominee, Beloit, Janesville — that people don’t want to be controlled by big tech and developers. They feel like we’re selling out our natural resources, that we already have rising utility bills, and we’re risking sending those energy costs even higher.
And the reason the moratorium is the most practical and responsible legislation is the scale and speed in which these data center proposals are popping up across the state and the resources that our local governments lack.
We cannot govern by promise. We cannot go into deals with developers where taxpayers could potentially be on the hook. We cannot afford to be Foxconned again.
We need communities that have a say. We want there to be long-term investment in local economies, and we don’t have the enforceable mechanisms in place to hold polluters and developers accountable so that taxpayers aren’t on the hook.
So, would the goal be to permanently put a halt to this because AI is bad? Or is it more that the goal is to come up with frameworks, a consensus of some kind that can allow maybe certain data center construction that makes sense in certain areas to proceed?
This is very much about local control, with the statewide enforcement mechanisms to protect natural resources, rate payers, and make sure that our local communities have the strongest negotiation tools that they need, should this be something the community decides they want to move forward with.
Israel and Gaza
So, let’s shift gears and talk about another issue that has been really common in these contested primaries around the country, which is Israel and Gaza.
You were part of the “Uncommitted” movement in 2024 to try to pressure Joe Biden to change course on Gaza. You’ve been pretty clear in describing it as a crucial moral cause, a moral test. If you win the governorship, what would be your major priorities as governor on this issue?
Protest is free speech and direct democracy. And right now, we have an anti-BDS [boycott, divestment, and sanctions] law on the books that we’ve had legislation we’ve introduced to repeal, so that the state is not interfering in the right to protest.
We have passed the IHRA definition of antisemitism: the IHRA legislation, here in our state, that was quite controversial. I would be looking at potentially repealing that legislation.
In continuing to make sure communities, all communities, regardless of faith, feel safe, it’s imperative that the executive use their microphone — the governor has one of the largest microphones in the state — to ensure that Wisconsin is not a place that will tolerate hate and discrimination of any kind.
And I think, oftentimes, the genocide in Gaza has led to a lot of very painful conversations. And I want folks to know that feeling safe and the right to practice faiths is something that is of utmost priority to me and a future Hong administration.
Francesca Hong’s political history
Tell me about how you got into politics, because it’s a very unusual trajectory. You were a chef, you co-owned a restaurant, what inspired you to actually make the leap and say, “I’m going to run for office”?
This was COVID in 2020. And seeing a failure in our state legislature, and responding to a pandemic that was hurting — and so many communities. I think, it wasn’t one moment, it was a combination of grief, frustration, and wanting new leadership and representation.
I was asked multiple times to run. They say you have to ask a woman six times before she’ll run for office.
Who was asking you?
Actually, a couple of fellow chefs. Not a lot of folks who were involved in local politics. But I found out that some of my regulars were actually Republican staffers and folks who worked in the Capitol, because my restaurant was right next to the Capitol.
But I think in times of chaos and crisis, there’s opportunity for change and a desire for change.
I think our community was ready for a foul-mouthed, cussing at [longtime GOP speaker of the Wisconsin assembly] Robin Vos restaurant worker who just wanted to make sure people were fed during the pandemic, too.
What would you say you’ve learned from the legislature? You’ve been there six years, and it’s been Republican-controlled the whole time, so you’ve been in the minority.
I’ve learned being a service industry worker serves you very well in politics. Whether it’s from work ethic — I didn’t go to culinary school, and so when I was line cooking and working my way up to becoming a chef, I had to outhustle everyone. I also learned the importance of working on a team in high-stress situations.
I learned that relationships and information are currency, that you have to be persistent in building these relationships. Did I have beers with Republicans at the bar to talk about economic development? I absolutely did. I also talk to Republicans on the assembly floor. And I passed bipartisan legislation. A lot of folks are surprised that a Madison lib was able to move a bill. It was a bill that would require K-12 public schools to teach Asian American history.
Crime and policing
Of course, the other thing going on in 2020 to 2021 was the racial reckoning and talk of police reform. You came out pretty strong on that, saying things like: “Defund then abolish. Reform can’t be an option.”
Some on the left have disavowed those views, but you told CNN earlier this year that this is still “a very long term vision.”
As governor, you’d have influence over the state patrol, prison administration, and pardon power. What sort of things would you do differently with those tools when it comes to criminal justice?
To be tough on crime, we must be tough on causes.
To be serious about public safety requires community investment in our public schools and mental health resources and decriminalizing.
We criminalize poverty. The safest communities in Wisconsin are ones where the people have good jobs with benefits; there are great public parks, community centers; people have housing; there’s not food insecurity; there are lots of grocery stores.
So, building in these investments, but also having a more efficient pardon process. Our governor has a relatively efficient pardon process, he also just reinstated commutation.
We have some of the highest incarceration rates in the country when it comes to incarcerating Black and brown folks. And our prison system is currently — to folks who are incarcerated, many of the conditions are unsafe and inhumane.
And the cost to this state in both human lives, but also in terms of it costs more to incarcerate an individual in our state than it does for a year’s tuition at UW Madison.
There are practical, common sense reforms that we can do within the state budget and through standalone legislation when it comes to the carceral system, community investments, in ending juvenile life sentencing. We still try juveniles as adults in our state.
So, moving to ensure we have safer communities. Everyone has a right to feel safe. I plan to address all of that comprehensively. And if anyone has been defunding police, it is Robin Vos and the Republicans who have hollowed out our local governments of their funding and shared revenue for the last 16 years.
Can Francesca Hong win?
What do you say to the people who are concerned that you’ve taken positions that are too far left to win and that the party would be better off with a more traditional choice as the nominee?
If you talk to Trump voters, independents, democratic socialists, new voters, the issues and the solutions are more important than the labels.
We’re in a moment right now where there is a working class reckoning, of people feeling like they’re getting screwed — working multiple jobs and still putting bills on hold or not being able to pay them.
This is not left-right. This is about building working-class people power, and the issues are top down.
I think that pushing for the middle or the moderate has not yielded us the wins that we need.
We’re going to need to pass the most comprehensive legislation that will materially improve the people’s lives, in order for folks to look up and say, “Hey, Dems are in power and some good things happen.” Maybe then they’ll want to vote for them again.
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