A messy lesson for the post-woke left

Francesca Hong during an election night watch party at Atwood Music Hall in Madison, Wisconsin, on August 11, 2026. | Talia Sprague/Bloomberg via Getty Images This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day.

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Wisconsin won’t be the very first state to get a socialist governor, after all.

In Tuesday’s gubernatorial primary, Democrats there narrowly selected David Crowley, a moderate county executive, over the democratic socialist and reformed Thanksgiving-hater Francesca Hong.

This contest was widely seen as a test of the progressive movement’s strength beyond deep-blue cities…and a bit of a mess.

Two candidates dropped out amid scandal just weeks before the election.

Crowley himself suspended his campaign and endorsed another candidate, only to reenter the race with less than a month left.

That teed up a chaotic, last-minute showdown between establishment Democrats and the party’s upstart left-wing contingent.

That contingent was expected to win in Wisconsin, where Hong campaigned on practical issues like universal childcare, free school meals, and opposition to new data centers.

But she also struggled to explain controversial positions that she staked out at the height of the pandemic — positions that both pro-Crowley groups and Republicans pilloried in well-funded attack ads.

The furor certainly riled up Wisconsin Democrats: They turned out in huge numbers on Tuesday.

And while Hong performed well in Madison and other liberal strongholds, voters in both Milwaukee and most rural counties went for Crowley.

Go a little deeper View Link The Wisconsin primary was weird and messy, so I wouldn’t generalize its results too much.

But there’s little doubt that Hong suffered from her association with “Woke 1” — a strain of early-2020s social justice activism that many on the left now want to disavow.