--- title: Moderate David Crowley Beats Former Frontrunner, Socialist Francesca Hong, in Primary for Wisconsin Governor description: Moderates scored a win in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary as David Crowley bested democratic socialist Francesca Hong. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/08/12/wisconsin-democratic-gubernatorial-primary-result-hong-crowley/ author: Chantelle Lee article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-08-12T08:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-12T14:56:57.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Crowley Beats Hong in Democratic Primary for Wisconsin Governor og:description: Moderates scored a win in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary as David Crowley bested democratic socialist Francesca Hong. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/08/12/wisconsin-democratic-gubernatorial-primary-result-hong-crowley/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30b74def8fa58b3e/6a7c26c62378b229d13f7305/GettyImages-2289948183.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: GettyImages-2289948183.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Crowley Beats Hong in Democratic Primary for Wisconsin Governor twitter:description: Moderates scored a win in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary as David Crowley bested democratic socialist Francesca Hong. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30b74def8fa58b3e/6a7c26c62378b229d13f7305/GettyImages-2289948183.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # David Crowley Beats Former Frontrunner Francesca Hong in Democratic Primary for Wisconsin Governor by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Aug 12, 2026 8:00 AM UTC  Democratic Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate David Crowley greets supporters at a campaign rally in Milwaukee on Aug. 10, 2026. Democratic Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate David Crowley greets supporters at a campaign rally in Milwaukee on Aug. 10, 2026.Scott Olson—Getty Images by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Aug 12, 2026 8:00 AM UTC Milwaukee County Executive [David Crowley](https://time.com/article/2026/08/10/wisconsin-governor-primary-tuesday-francesca-hong-david-crowley/) won the Democratic primary race for Wisconsin’s governorship, toppling his [Democratic socialist](https://time.com/article/2026/06/18/what-is-a-democratic-socialist-mamdani-lewis-george-bernie-sanders-aoc/) opponent, Francesca Hong, who had surged in the polls leading up to Tuesday. What turned out to be a razor-thin contest wasn’t called by the [_Associated Press_](https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/wisconsin-primary-results-governor/) until early Wednesday morning, after a delay in tabulating votes from Milwaukee. Earlier in the night, Hong had urged her supporters to unite behind the eventual winner for the November general election against the Republican nominee, Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is [backed](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-endorses-republican-rep-tom-tiffany-in-wisconsins-open-race-for-governor) by President [Donald Trump](https://time.com/tag/donald-trump/). “No matter who’s on this ballot, y’all, we are going to fight to win for one another,” Hong said. In the end, Crowley took 39.8% of the vote, per the _Associated Press_, as compared to Hong's 39.3%. **Read More:** [_What Is a Democratic Socialist?_](https://time.com/article/2026/06/18/what-is-a-democratic-socialist-mamdani-lewis-george-bernie-sanders-aoc/)  Democratic socialist Francesca Hong during a primary election night watch party in Madison as the primary race remained too close to call on Aug. 11, 2026. Talia Sprague—Bloomberg/Getty Images ## Ballot chaos, Hong's controversy, and what comes next in the battleground state After the popular Gov. Tony Evers [announced](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/24/tony-evers-wisconsin-2026-00474526) last year that he wouldn’t run for re-election, the state’s [Lieutenant Governor](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/25/wisconsin-lt-gov-sara-rodriguez-launches-gubernatorial-bid-00476581) and [former Lieutenant Governor](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/us/politics/wisconsin-governor-mandela-barnes.html) entered the race. But both dropped out amid separate controversies, leaving four candidates in the running: Crowley, Hong, former Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Administration Joel Brennan, and state Sen. Kelda Roys. Hong and Crowley were widely considered to be the top two contenders in the race, with Brennan and Roys polling in single digits leading up to Tuesday. **Read More:** [_Lindell Refuses to Concede to Demuth in Minnesota Governor Primary_](https://time.com/article/2026/08/12/minnesota-governor-republican-primary-election-result-demuth-lindell-qualls/) Crowley, who is the first Black executive of Milwaukee County and the youngest person to serve in the role, was the fledgling hope of Democratic leaders in the Wisconsin primary race. National Democrats had voiced concerns that his main opponent, Hong, wouldn’t be able to garner enough votes to defeat the Republican nominee in November. Hong has generated controversy in recent months, including for past social media posts in which she called for abolishing the police and ending Thanksgiving for “celebrating colonialism”—both of which she has since walked back. Crowley, meanwhile, was [backed](https://www.crowleyforwi.com/endorsements) by prominent members of his party in the state, including Evers and Rep. Gwen Moore. Crowley now heads into what is expected to be a close battle over which party will get to lead [the purple state of Wisconsin](https://time.com/7093734/wisconsin-purple-state-history/); the [Cook Political Report](https://www.cookpolitical.com/ratings/governor-race-ratings) ranks the state’s gubernatorial race as a “toss up.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/08/12/wisconsin-democratic-gubernatorial-primary-result-hong-crowley/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/08/12/wisconsin-democratic-gubernatorial-primary-result-hong-crowley/"},"headline":"David Crowley Beats Former Frontrunner Francesca Hong in Democratic Primary for Wisconsin Governor","datePublished":"2026-08-12T08:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-12T14:56:57.000Z","description":"Moderates scored a win in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary as David Crowley bested democratic socialist Francesca Hong.","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/08/12/wisconsin-democratic-gubernatorial-primary-result-hong-crowley/","keywords":["elections","Wisconsin","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30b74def8fa58b3e/6a7c26c62378b229d13f7305/GettyImages-2289948183.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chantelle Lee","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30b74def8fa58b3e/6a7c26c62378b229d13f7305/GettyImages-2289948183.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GettyImages-2289948183.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Scott Olson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/elections/","name":"elections"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/08/12/wisconsin-democratic-gubernatorial-primary-result-hong-crowley/","name":"David Crowley Beats Former Frontrunner Francesca Hong in Democratic Primary for Wisconsin Governor"}}]}] ```