The Democrat Party’s plan to hold the one critical governor’s mansion just fell apart in spectacular fashion.
Their chosen candidate imploded over a financial scandal.
The establishment is in full panic mode, and the moves they’re making to fix it might actually make things worse.
The Collapse Nobody Saw Coming — Until the Ads Stopped Airing
Wisconsin Lt. Governor Sara Rodriguez had what looked like a prime opportunity at a gubernatorial candidate forum in the state’s rural Northwoods to show voters she could unite Democrats, stop a democratic socialist insurgency, and deliver the party unified control of state government for the first time in a generation.
She didn’t show up. Her reserved table sat empty, save for a lone campaign sign.
Rodriguez discovered her campaign had hundreds of thousands of dollars less cash than she thought after campaign ads slated to run did not air because of unpaid invoices. She announced she had fired her campaign manager after discovering contributions had been double counted and expenses were undercounted, leaving her campaign with far less money than she thought.
The end result was that her campaign had about $200,000 cash on hand, considerably less than expected with the August 11 primary less than a month away.
Rodriguez’s troubles emerged when she announced she fired her campaign manager due to “serious mismanagement and inaccuracies in campaign finance filings.” At a press conference, Rodriguez called it a “bump in the road.”
It wasn’t a bump. It was the end of the road.
Rodriguez suspended her campaign after a week of trying to navigate the fallout. “As we have continued to dig into our financial reports, it has become clear that there are issues that would be an ongoing distraction — not just for this campaign, but for the primary and for Wisconsin,” she said.
The Socialist Who Might Actually Win
Rodriguez’s exit didn’t just create a vacancy. It handed momentum to the one candidate the Democrat establishment fears most.
State Representative Francesca Hong is a politician, former chef, and business owner who has represented Wisconsin’s 76th Assembly District since 2021. She is a member of both the Democrat Party and the Democratic Socialists of America.
Hong has not backed away from her calls to defund and abolish the police. She also supports increasing taxes on the wealthy and creating a state-owned bank to help pay for free health care and free child care, a $20 minimum wage, and a moratorium on data center construction.
That’s the platform she wants to run on in a state President Trump carried twice.
Hong’s run for statewide office in a state that President Donald Trump won twice, in 2016 and 2024, is a new test for the movement. And the Democrat establishment is not exactly thrilled about taking it.
Democrat Party officials are concerned that Hong will lose the general election to Republican Tom Tiffany, but also that her winning the primary would lead to a takeover of the party itself by the Democratic Socialists of America.
“Unless the moderate and conservative Dems consolidate, this race is going to be won by Fran,” said Ryan Clancy, a democratic socialist state lawmaker backing Hong’s campaign.
The socialist wing of the party isn’t hiding their confidence. They know the establishment is rattled, and they’re enjoying every minute of it.
The Democratic Socialists of America announced they have surpassed 120,000 members, calling it the largest socialist organization in US history. Hong’s campaign in Wisconsin is their biggest prize yet — a swing state governorship that could legitimize the whole movement nationally. The historical record of socialist governance, wherever it has been tried, is one of economic decline, government dependency, and the slow erosion of the individual freedoms ordinary people depend on. Wisconsin voters in the general election will get to weigh that record against what Hong is selling.
The Establishment Hail Mary That May Not Work Either
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley jumped back into the race for governor in a last-minute attempt to take control of the contest just 24 days before the August primary.
Ten days after telling voters he had no path to victory, Crowley jumped back in, arguing he is the best Democrat candidate to beat likely GOP nominee Tom Tiffany.
Think about that for a second. Ten days ago he said he couldn’t win. Now the party is betting the whole thing on him.
Crowley’s campaign got a boost with an endorsement from Governor Tony Evers, who had previously declined to back a candidate in the Democrat primary.
Evers had repeatedly said over the course of the race that he didn’t plan to back anyone in the primary. He changed his mind the moment his preferred outcome looked like it was slipping away. That’s not principled neutrality — that’s a thumb on the scale dressed up as statesmanship.
Evers said, “David is not only the best candidate to beat Tom Tiffany, he’s the right candidate for the people of Wisconsin,” adding that Crowley had “created thousands of new jobs, cut the county’s local carbon emissions in half, and passed a balanced budget.”
But Crowley’s own record is not exactly pristine. Last December, under his watch, Milwaukee County let a $450 million contract with UnitedHealthcare expire, leaving county employees, retirees, and their dependents without coverage.
Crowley reported he spent more than twice as much as he raised during the first six months of the year before dropping out. He had $315,179 in the bank. That is not the financial profile of a candidate ready to go toe to toe with Tom Tiffany in a statewide general election.
Not everyone in the Democrat field welcomed the move. Barnes’ campaign manager stated, “With just 3 weeks until Election Day and after nearly 70,000 people have voted, this Hail Mary serves no purpose other than playing spoiler.”
The theory of Crowley’s return is that he will unite the party and prevent Hong from advancing, but there is also a clear chance it could divide Hong’s Democratic opponents just enough to ensure she wins the primary.
The Republican Governors Association apparently agrees. The RGA has begun a $3.2 million media buy labeling Hong as “dangerously liberal,” which insiders see as an effort to boost her in the primary by emphasizing Hong’s opposition to Trump’s immigration policies and her vow to take the Democrat Party back to its progressive roots. They want Hong. They think she loses in November. They may be right.
Tiffany Watches the Chaos From a Comfortable Distance
While Democrats cycle through candidates like a revolving door, Trump-endorsed Republican Representative Tom Tiffany has been quietly building a war chest.
“Our grassroots campaign is reaching all 72 counties because the demand for common-sense leadership has never been stronger,” said Tiffany.
Whoever wins the Democrat nomination appears poised to face Tiffany, who carries President Trump’s endorsement, in the general election. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has rated the open governor’s race in battleground Wisconsin as a toss-up.
A toss-up with a candidate who has $10 million raised and a unified party behind him. The Democrats have a fractured field, a socialist frontrunner their own establishment is trying to stop, a recycled candidate who admitted three weeks ago he couldn’t win, and nearly 70,000 ballots already cast before Crowley even got back in the race.
Tiffany posted that “Governor Evers and Democrat insiders are scrambling because they know Barnes and Hong are too radical for Wisconsin.”
That about sums it up. The Wisconsin Democrat Party’s primary is not a contest of ideas at this point. It is a desperate attempt by party insiders to override the will of their own voters and install a candidate they can control — because the candidate their voters actually want terrifies them. Socialism has a track record. It has been tried. It has failed, every time, in every country where it has taken root, producing shortages, dependency, and the slow death of the middle class. Wisconsin voters in November will have a clear choice between that path and the America First agenda that has already delivered results for working families. The only question is whether Democrat insiders can stop their own base from forcing that choice on them first.
The 2026 Wisconsin gubernatorial election is scheduled to take place on November 3, 2026. Incumbent Democratic Governor Tony Evers declined to seek re-election to a third term. Primary elections will be held on August 11, 2026.
Sources: Politico, Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Examiner, WisPolitics, The Hill, Associated Press, Breitbart News, PBS NewsHour, Cap Times, Fox 11 Online, Spectrum News 1