In an upset that has shaken expectations across the U.S. Democratic Party, centrist candidate David Crowley has claimed a narrow victory in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, ending a months-long winning streak for progressive and left-wing candidates across the nation.
With nearly all ballots counted in the Midwestern U.S. state, early Wednesday projections from CBS News – the BBC’s data partner – confirm Crowley, the Milwaukee County chief executive officer, edged out democratic socialist challenger Francesca Hong, a sitting Wisconsin state assemblywoman. The result defied widespread expert predictions: political pundits across the country had widely expected Hong to extend the left’s undefeated primary run, which had already left national Democratic leadership in Washington scrambling to adjust to a shifting party base.
Crowley’s path to the nomination was anything but conventional. Just one month before the primary, he briefly dropped out of the crowded race to endorse a rival candidate, only to re-enter the contest shortly after with the public backing of incumbent Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers. In a post-election statement shared on X Wednesday morning, Crowley struck an optimistic, unifying tone, saying, “It’s time to get to work for the people of Wisconsin.” He outlined his core policy priorities as bringing down cost of living for working families, strengthening public K-12 and higher education institutions, creating accessible high-wage jobs, and expanding economic opportunity to every region of the state, from rural communities to urban centers.
This November, Crowley will go head-to-head against Republican nominee Tom Tiffany, a sitting U.S. Congressman who cruised to an easy primary victory earlier this week and holds the public endorsement of former President Donald Trump. Like Crowley, Tiffany has centered his campaign on affordability issues, running on a conservative platform that includes across-the-board tax cuts, expanded support for Wisconsin’s agricultural sector, and targeted reforms to the U.S. healthcare system. The Wisconsin gubernatorial race is widely expected to be one of the most competitive contests on the ballot this fall, as part of national midterm elections that will determine control of the entire U.S. House of Representatives and one-third of the U.S. Senate, shaping the trajectory of national policy for the next two years.
Hong, a former chef and single mother who was positioned to become the first democratic socialist to lead Wisconsin, entered election day as the perceived frontrunner in the crowded Democratic primary field. But her campaign faced sustained scrutiny over past controversial remarks, including comments on police department funding and the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, portions of which she later retracted. Notably, two of the nation’s most high-profile progressive leaders – Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – declined to endorse Hong, breaking their pattern of backing insurgent left-wing candidates in crowded primaries. By early Wednesday, AP News confirmed Hong had formally conceded the race to Crowley, with her campaign manager releasing a statement saying she remained “proud of the race we ran.”
The upset win for Crowley brings a halt to what had become a consistent winning streak for left-wing and democratic socialist-aligned candidates in Democratic primaries across the country this election cycle. Backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), these candidates have run on dual platforms: opposing the core policy goals of the Republican Party, while also challenging the centrist status quo that has dominated national Democratic leadership in Washington in recent years. Many have also centered their campaigns on calls to cut or eliminate U.S. military funding for Israel amid its ongoing military operation in Gaza, a position that has resonated with a growing share of Democratic primary voters.
Just one week before the Wisconsin primary, Abdul El-Sayed, a prominent progressive, scored an upset win over centrist incumbent Congresswoman Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary. In June, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a progressive Democrat, endorsed three progressive challengers for U.S. House seats in the state, all three of whom won their primaries. Those wins included unseating two sitting Democratic lawmakers and defeating the hand-picked successor of a retiring centrist congresswoman.
In addition to the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary, contests were held across Wisconsin and neighboring Minnesota on Tuesday. In a separate development out of South Carolina, Darline Graham Nordone advanced to a late-August Republican primary runoff for a special U.S. Senate election, called following the recent death of her brother, longtime incumbent Senator Lindsey Graham. Nordone will face Democratic candidate Annie Andrews in the general election to fill the remaining term of the vacant seat.