Francesca Hong, a Wisconsin state assemblywoman and democratic socialist, outlasted two more prominent Democrats but still faces several others in the Democratic primary for governor on Tuesday.
Here are five things to know about Ms. Hong, a chef and former small business owner from Madison.
1. She ran as a populist focused on economic issues. Ms. Hong, the child of Korean immigrants, is a single mother and renter who once owned her own ramen restaurant. This year, she was sued over unpaid credit card debt, and has argued such working-class challenges make her well-equipped to understand and improve the lives of Wisconsinites.
2. She canvassed the state to court independents and Republicans. An unapologetic democratic socialist, Ms. Hong has argued that her left-wing beliefs — such as free health care and a pause on data center construction — will resonate across the aisle. She has crisscrossed Wisconsin, including its more conservative swaths, betting that she can convert skeptics in the battleground state.
3. She outlasted more mainstream rivals, including the current lieutenant governor and a past one. Ms. Hong emerged as a front-runner on the strength of her message and campaign organization, but she became the favorite in part because others face-planted. The campaigns of both Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes imploded in recent weeks, leaving David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive who briefly dropped out and then re-entered the race this summer, as her most significant rival still in the contest.
4. She faced criticism for her past left-wing social media posts. For months, Ms. Hong faced attacks for previous tweets calling for abolishing the police. She has distanced herself from those posts. More recently, critics have also unearthed old posts where she took aim at various holidays, suggesting that Thanksgiving is a “colonizer holiday,” that Halloween is “not my thing” and that Valentine’s Day brings out “the worst of humanity.”
5. Establishment Democrats fear her nomination could hand the race to the G.O.P. Ms. Hong has backed away from her old positions and broken with the Democratic Socialists of America on several policies. But many Democrats still worry that her left-wing views could prove to be easy fodder for Republicans in a competitive race in November, potentially vaulting Representative Tom Tiffany, the presumptive G.O.P. nominee, into the governor’s mansion. The party establishment has scrambled to oppose Ms. Hong in the primary’s final days, with Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, campaigning for Mr. Crowley.
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