Richard Bock
Francesca Hong
Hong on Zohran Mamdani's victory: 'It gives me a lot of hope.'
People around the country stayed up late on Election Night to watch the victory speech of New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, an immigrant, Muslim and democratic socialist, who dispatched political veteran and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong was watching from 1,000 miles away.
“It gives me a lot of hope. I've moved from being nauseously optimistic to cautiously optimistic,” says Hong, who has served in the state Assembly as a Democrat since 2021.
Like Mamdani, Hong identifies as both “a democratic socialist and a Democrat.”
“A government should be a force of good, and it should be for the public. This is why [our campaign calls for] funding our public schools, investing in child care,” she says. Democratic socialism, she says, “is ultimately about meeting people's needs, ensuring that they have what they need, ensuring they have what they need to care for themselves.”
Adds Hong: “It's less about labels and more about delivering for working class people.”
Democratic socialism is a broad label, but adherents typically support stronger government involvement in some economic sectors and bolstering social safety nets. In recent years, democratic socialism has gained broader popularity through progressive politicians like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani.
Hong embraces the same anti-establishment, affordability-focused message in her campaign platform that propelled Mamdani to a commanding victory. She pledges to enact universal childcare and guaranteed paid leave, which are supported by a majority of state residents. Polling from the Marquette Law School Poll on Oct. 29 found 77% of state residents support guaranteed paid leave. A June report from UW-Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty found 77% of residents at least “somewhat” support increased state investments in childcare.
Hong has also taken a page out of Mamdani’s media strategy. A Sept. 17 campaign announcement video features Hong walking through a hectic kitchen, speaking of the need to build a Wisconsin “where we share the table” as workers chop vegetables and oil sizzles on the stove. It’s the same upbeat energy and slice of working-class life that, in his viral campaign videos on social media, helped Mamdani win the nation’s attention.
“We’ll be doing a lot more direct to camera,” she says. “What's more important, though, is bringing everyday people who are doing work in their communities and helping others into the campaign…I'm really looking forward to using our platform as a way to share other people's stories, how we are grappling in this moment, what folks are doing in the community to care for one another.”
Hong notes, with some pride, that her campaign already has more than 700 volunteers statewide. But Wisconsin is not New York City. The state’s politics are decidedly purple — President Donald Trump won the 2024 election in Wisconsin by approximately 30,000 votes — and for many voters, particularly those in suburban or rural areas, the mere mention of socialism will be a turnoff.
Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll, says that the group does not have much recent data on voters’ perceptions of democratic socialism, but Hong is the leading candidate among Democratic voters who identify as “very liberal.”
The Poll most recently gauged voters’ perceptions of “socialism” in 2019, he says. On a 0-100 “unfavorable to favorable scale,” Democratic voters ranked socialism at 57 points, indicating mild favor. Among all registered voters, that number dropped to 38 points, indicating a mild dislike.
“That is old data, so current ‘democratic socialists’ may be seen differently than ‘socialists’ were seen in 2019,” Franklin adds.
Hong thinks a democratic socialist candidate can win in Wisconsin.
“I think folks are curious and want to engage, and they don't see me as an establishment politician or an elite,” she says. “And I'm not.”
The Democratic primary, with seven declared candidates, is crowded. Hong came out on top in the October Marquette Law School Poll survey, with 6% of Democratic voters saying they would choose her in the primary. She was followed by Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez (4%), Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley (3%) and state Sen. Kelda Roys (3%).
This early in the race, those results carry limited significance; 81% of Democrats surveyed said they were undecided. On the Republican side, 23% of prospective voters said they would vote for U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the clear frontrunner. He was trailed by Washington County Executive Joshua Schoemann (6%), the only other declared GOP candidate.
The mayoral results in New York City and in other high profile races across the country show that the top issue in Wisconsin will be “affordability,” former Republican Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen said on a Nov. 7 episode of WisOpinion’s The Insiders.
“It will be pocketbook issues in 2026 that determine the election here in Wisconsin,” Jensen said.
That could bode well for Hong, who has centered her campaign around the issue of affordability. Hong says she plans to work for everyone and deliver policies that assist working-class voters; she views her background in the restaurant and hospitality business as an asset that makes her more relatable.
While the label “democratic socialist” might put off some voters, Hong says she isn’t running a campaign focused on labels.
“If we're talking labels and we're talking stats, the Democratic Party as well is not the hottest brand right now,” she says. “This is about the issues. It's about childcare, education, wages, healthcare, housing and food.”
Tenets of democratic socialism have resonated with young voters, in particular. A Nov. 1 Axios-Generation Lab poll found 67% college students view “socialism” positively or neutrally, while only 40% view “capitalism” positively or neutrally.
Some young people say Hong’s platform sets her apart from her competition.
“Fran’s message to working class voters, especially in a crowded field of [seven candidates] — if you have one socialist, you're going to stand out,” Bobby Gronert, a 19-year-old UW-Madison sophomore, said at a Nov. 4 watch party for Mamdani hosted by UW-Madison’s branch of the Young Democratic Socialists of America. “I think that we'll see a lot of working class voters resonate with someone different than everyone else.”
Hong, who launched her campaign for governor in September, says her favorite campaign moment, so far, came in Ripon. At a park picnic meet-and-greet in late September, Hong met with an “18-19 year old voter” who drove all the way from Sheboygan — an hour east — to connect with the campaign.
She also met “what I'm assuming is the only socialist from Brandon, Wisconsin.”
“It was just a meet and greet, but I think that showed that we're doing something differently. We're going to be able to bring people together who may not have ever engaged in a campaign before, or are just curious, and there's not enough curiosity in politics.”
She also enjoyed wading into a cranberry bog at another campaign stop.
“Fucking magical moment to walk into a cranberry bog and throw those cranberries in the air.”
[Noe Goldhaber contributed reporting to this article.]
