Miriam Shelef, a physician in Madison, Wis., had a hunch that the polls were off.
Two weekends ago, after researching the candidates in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary for governor, she began canvassing for David Crowley, whose record as the Milwaukee County executive impressed her.
At one house after another in her west side neighborhood, people changed their minds on the spot about supporting other candidates after hearing Dr. Shelef talk about Mr. Crowley’s perceived electability and his work on housing and cutting carbon emissions. One woman gave Dr. Shelef a warm hug, grabbed a Crowley sign and plunked it in her yard.
“I was like, oh my gosh, I think there’s clearly late enthusiasm for him,” Dr. Shelef said. “I was amazed at how popular Crowley was at the doors.”
On Wednesday morning, Wisconsin Democrats woke up to a surprise result, as Mr. Crowley, a moderate who had briefly dropped out of the race, narrowly beat Francesca Hong, a chef and democratic socialist who had led in the polls for months.
With 95 percent of the votes counted, Mr. Crowley edged out Ms. Hong by fewer than 4,000 votes to the relief of the Wisconsin Democratic establishment, which had feared that Ms. Hong would lose in a November matchup with Representative Tom Tiffany, a Republican endorsed by President Trump.
Mr. Crowley’s 11th-hour surge may have been buoyed by the race’s rapidly shifts in its final days, according to interviews with campaign officials, volunteers and voters. Mr. Crowley benefited from Ms. Hong’s missteps on social media and in national TV interviews as she backtracked from comments about hating Thanksgiving and abolishing the police.
He toured the state with Gov. Tony Evers, a popular leader who pulled Mr. Crowley back into the race after he abandoned his campaign last month and endorsed him. Perhaps most crucially, Mr. Crowley captured the notice of a large number of voters who had missed many of the primary’s earlier twists and remained undecided near the end.
In an interview, Mr. Crowley said that traveling with Mr. Evers showed voters that he could “coalesce people across the political spectrum to build the type of coalition needed to win,” he said. “That’s what we’re able to do, and I think that’s how we won this race.”
Election results showed that Mr. Crowley was popular across Wisconsin. He easily beat the other candidates in the Milwaukee region, won a large number of rural counties and even captured 37 percent of the vote to Ms. Hong’s 44 percent in Dane County, a liberal stronghold that was her physical and philosophical home base.
Many voters said they had tuned into the primary only in the last week, missing what had been a bumpy and dramatic campaign throughout the year. When they started paying attention, they said, Mr. Evers’s endorsement helped them decide.
One Crowley voter, Pam McAllister, a 72-year-old retired pharmacist in Verona, Wis., said on Tuesday that she disliked Ms. Hong’s politics. The second-most important reason for voting for Mr. Crowley, she said: “Because Evers endorsed him.”
“Evers’ endorsement gave Crowley attention and voters the encouragement to give Crowley a look,” said Alex Lasry, a prominent Democrat in Wisconsin who supported Mr. Crowley. “Once they did, they saw Crowley was not only part of the next generation of leaders, but also very experienced and the right person to lead Wisconsin forward.”
After touring the state with Mr. Crowley for days, Mr. Evers appeared last weekend to be either resigned or confident. On Saturday night, he headed to a theater in rural Spring Green for some Shakespeare under the stars.
At one point in a soliloquy during “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” an actor made a knowing reference to the perfect lover having little to say — and looked directly to the front row at Mr. Evers, who is not known for his loquaciousness. The audience burst into laughter.
On Wednesday morning, after Mr. Tiffany’s overwhelming primary victory, Republicans hinted that they would frame the general election campaign as a battle against leftist extremism despite Mr. Crowley’s moderate credentials.
“Democrats are moving further and further to the left,” Brian Schimming, the chairman of WisGOP, said in a statement. “This election comes down to the difference between common sense and radicalism.”
Mr. Crowley’s first stop on Wednesday was in Milwaukee, where he was mobbed with hugs from supporters and, in his remarks, promised to leave behind the divisive Democratic primary and focus on Mr. Tiffany.
One Crowley supporter in attendance, Stephanie Johnson, said that she had been drawn to his campaign because of his work for low-income people in Milwaukee, especially the homeless. “You hear everybody talk about the working class, but what about the ones at the bottom?” she said.
Mr. Crowley specifically thanked Ms. Hong, saying that her campaign “reminded people across Wisconsin that there are no long shots when it comes to believing in a better future and fighting to expand opportunity for every family.” They later had breakfast with other Democrats in Madison before television cameras, sharing a meal intended to show unity for the campaign ahead.
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