Wisconsin Democrats handed their party’s socialist wing a significant defeat Tuesday as Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley narrowly beat state Rep. Francesca Hong for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
The closely watched contest was about more than two candidates trying to become Wisconsin’s next governor. It became another test of the ideological fight unfolding inside the Democratic Party, where establishment candidates and democratic socialists have been battling over just how far left the party should travel.
This time, the establishment survived.
Decision Desk HQ projected Crowley as the winner early Wednesday morning. Crowley, who had the endorsement of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, was leading Hong by slightly more than 3,000 votes when the race was called.
That was a remarkably close finish considering public polling reportedly had Hong leading by double digits before Election Day. Apparently, polls remain perfectly capable of providing Americans with election-night surprises. Some political traditions never die.
Hong, a Madison-area state representative and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, had attracted national attention as another potential victory for the Democratic Party’s increasingly influential socialist faction.
Instead, Wisconsin Democratic voters chose Crowley, giving the party’s more conventional wing a badly needed victory after several recent primary disappointments.
“The results are a far cry from the double-digit lead public polling suggested Hong held, underscoring that Democratic voters are even more divided than previously thought over their candidates and the direction of the party,” The Hill reported.
That division has become increasingly difficult for Democrats to ignore.
Just one week earlier, far-left candidate Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated the more moderate Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary. A Hong victory in neighboring Wisconsin would have added considerably more momentum to progressives hoping to pull Democratic candidates further left heading into November.
Instead, Crowley stopped that momentum, at least temporarily.
Fox News described the result as “a high-profile setback” for the Democratic left in its continuing fight with the party’s center-left establishment.
The Wisconsin result also illustrates why sweeping declarations about either faction controlling the Democratic Party remain premature. Progressive candidates can win significant races, as Michigan demonstrated, while establishment Democrats can still fight back successfully, as Crowley demonstrated Tuesday.
For Republicans, that internal Democratic struggle presents both an opportunity and a warning.
A Democratic Party fighting over socialism, government spending and the proper ideological direction of its candidates gives Republicans plenty of material heading into the general election. But Wisconsin remains one of America’s premier battleground states, where statewide races can be decided by painfully narrow margins. Republicans cannot simply assume Democratic infighting will do their campaigning for them.
Crowley’s victory means Wisconsin Democrats will enter the gubernatorial general election with a candidate more closely aligned with the party establishment rather than a self-described democratic socialist.
For Democrats worried that candidates associated with the socialist left could become liabilities in competitive states, Crowley’s win will undoubtedly come as a relief.
But relief is not the same thing as resolving the party’s larger identity crisis.
Hong came remarkably close to winning, despite ultimately falling short. Combine that performance with progressive victories elsewhere, and the message is difficult to miss: the Democratic establishment may have won Wisconsin’s gubernatorial primary, but its battle with the party’s socialist wing is nowhere near finished.
Wisconsin voters simply gave the establishment another round.
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