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 one another during their 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 onstage took a direct swing at polling front-runner Francesca Hong, a state representative from Madison and 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. Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes jabbed Milwaukee County Executive David 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, he 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, former secretary of the Department of Administration, expressed near-total agreement on a variety 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.”

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 she reiterated 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 about 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,” she said.

And during a part of the debate focused on the fatal shooting of a Madison man by a police officer last week — which led to protests and demands for accountability — Hong backed off from her previous statements supporting cutting funding for police departments.

Asked whether she would sign a bill or a budget that cut 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 among 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, he said, “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 Senate race in Wisconsin, at times attempted to make an electability argument, touting himself as the “only person onstage who’s actually won statewide.”

In his closing statement, Barnes pointed to a Marquette University Law School poll last week that showed him beating Tiffany in a hypothetical matchup. He also said the “establishment was trying to rig this election” for their preferred candidate while noting that Republicans were meddling in the Democratic primary to boost the person they want to face in November. While he did not name them, those lines were in reference to Crowley and Hong, respectively.

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, Crowley was also asked whether voters should trust his judgment after NBC News reported last week on the existence of a years-old social media account registered to him 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 he nodded to his endorsement from Evers and “labor unions and leaders all across this state who believe in my leadership.”