Francesca Hong, running for governor of Wisconsin, focuses campaign on affordability, Israel

JTA — Meet Wisconsin’s Mamdani.

Francesca Hong is running for governor of Wisconsin, emphasizing affordability and opposition to US support for Israel.

Her message is one the Republican Governors Association hopes to boost ahead of the Democratic primary next month: The opposing party unveiled an ad on Thursday dubbing her “too liberal” for Wisconsin. The ad is set to run in liberal parts of the state.

The Republican calculus appears to be to make her appealing to a restive Democratic base that, in a number of races nationwide, has turned against the party establishment. That, in turn, could deliver the nomination to an unabashed left-winger who would likely lose in a crucial swing state.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani may take Manhattan, the thinking goes, but his policies would curdle cheese in Wisconsin.

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Hong is a single mother and a former chef whose political recipe for appealing to voters has vaulted her to the front of the state’s crowded Democratic primary, bringing another democratic socialist within striking distance of victory.

“I’m State Representative Francesca Hong. I’m a service worker, community organizer, and a mom. I work for a living, always have, still do,” Hong said in a video announcing her candidacy as she wore an apron and strolled through a kitchen she had previously worked in. “Five years ago, my community sent me to the Capitol. The system is rigged. I’m running for governor to fix it.”

Hong’s campaign has centered on affordability issues, including housing, education and childcare. It highlights her personal story as the child of South Korean immigrants.

Her closest competitor is former Lieutenant Gov. Mandela Barnes. Another candidate aligned with the more centrist Democratic establishment, Lieutenant Gov. Sara Rodriguez, dropped out of the race on Friday, facing a funding shortfall.

Francesca Hong speaks at a rally on June 8, 2021, in Madison, Wisconsin. (Andy Manis/Getty Images for Green New Deal Network/AFP)

It is Hong’s record on Israel and antisemitism that has drawn scrutiny from some Wisconsin Jews. During her campaign, Hong has taken a more sharply critical stance towards Israel while maintaining that support for Palestinian rights should not be conflated with antisemitism. She has also said that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide.

Jeremy Tunis, the co-chair of the community relations committee of the Jewish Federation of Madison, said Hong has aligned herself with an ascendant wave of democratic socialist candidates who have gained ground in races across the country, including in New York, Pennsylvania and Colorado.

“In my view, she is trying to leverage the current far-left progressive zeitgeist that has swept through certain areas, namely in New York with Zohran Mamdani,” said Tunis, who explained that his personal views do not represent those of the federation.

For other Jews in the state, Hong’s bid for the Democratic nomination sparked concern about how she might fare in the November general election against presumptive Republican nominee Tom Tiffany.

“She’s probably the least electable of the candidates running,” Marc Herstand, a 74-year-old Jewish Madison resident, said. “Wisconsin is a purple state, very purple, and democratic socialism is not going to go over well outside of the liberal communities of Madison, Milwaukee, and … in some of the other cities.”

Tunis said Hong’s broader political record, including previous calls to defund the police, could make her a difficult Democratic nominee in a divided state.

“There’s probably an appetite for it in a lot of places, but … I feel strongly that she would be among the weakest general election candidates for a variety of reasons, not just her stances on issues surrounding antisemitism and anti-Zionism,” Tunis said. “She’s taken a lot of fairly controversial positions that, for a 50-50 state, I think, would not serve well in the general election.”

The most recent polling on the Democratic gubernatorial primary, conducted earlier this month, had Hong leading with 30 percent of the votes ahead of former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, at 28%. Another poll in March had Hong with 14% and Barnes with 11%.

The July poll, conducted by Wedgewood Polls, also found that Hong led with 47% of the vote against Tiffany at 44% when tested for the November general election.

Herstand, who is a member of the Jewish Democrats caucus at the Wisconsin Democratic State Convention, said that while he believed Tiffany was “tremendously worse” than Hong, he was concerned about how her potential nomination would play out among the state’s Jews.

“It’s going to chill Jewish support if she gets the nomination,” Herstand said. “Will they hold their nose and vote for her? Yeah. Will they work actively for her? Probably not. Will she need every Democrat to work actively for her to win? Yep.”

Speaking to fellow progressives at a virtual rally Monday night, Hong framed her campaign as a test of the left’s growing political power.

“Workers are reclaiming our power, and this is an opportunity to ensure that the rest of politics across our country, I believe, can change when we win here in Wisconsin,” Hong said. “Because they say, as goes Wisconsin, as goes the country.” She did not speak about Israel or antisemitism during the rally.

Other candidates took shots at the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC and Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, and some attendees at the online rally sent messages in the chat questioning her pro-Palestinian bona fides in light of her silence on the issue. “Is she really a Zionist?” asked one attendee, while another wrote, “She owns AIPAC.”

Hong has spurned AIPAC support, though the group largely spends in federal elections and has not historically endorsed in state races.

“It’s going to chill Jewish support if she gets the nomination.W ill they hold their nose and vote for her? Yeah. Will they work actively for her? Probably not. Will she need every Democrat to work actively for her to win? Yep.”

Earlier this month, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Hong was now apologizing for a December 2023 call to the Madison police to report a vandalized Israeli flag, out of concern that the incident was “highly antisemitic” and urging that it be investigated as a hate crime.

Earlier this month, asked to explain her calls to police, she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that it was an action “I regret deeply.”

“Three years ago, there was a piece of protest art at the encampments in Madison, which was photographed and posted to social media,” Hong said in a statement. “My constituents reported they felt threatened and alerted me to the social post, but the image was cropped and incomplete to misrepresent anti-Zionism as antisemitism — a distinction I take seriously.”

A week after the bloody Hamas-led onslaught on southern Israel of October 7, 2023, Hong posted on social media a plea to “prevent further devastation in Gaza; we can not answer war crimes with war crimes.”

“To the Jewish community here and around the world, I love you with my whole being and am praying for your safety,” Hong wrote. “Please know my heart continues to be with the Israeli & Palestinian people through this harrowing time.”

Since then, Hong has introduced legislation that would repeal a 2018 law banning state contracts with businesses that boycott Israel, and criticized outgoing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers for recognizing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which includes certain types of criticism of Israel. She has highlighted both efforts on her campaign website.

Hong has received endorsements from Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ro Khanna of California, both staunch Israel critics, as well as three Democratic Socialists of America chapters in Wisconsin.

Hong’s campaign drew further scrutiny after she appeared on both anti-Israel streamer Hasan Piker’s show and on a stream hosted by Michael Beyer, an influencer known as “Mike from PA” who came under fire after saying that Jewish identity is “a constructed ethnicity, this demonic ethnicity, wholly invented.”

“If Wisconsin is going to be a state that actually values human rights, then we have to ensure that we’re supporting, we’re fighting for the pro-Palestine movement,” Hong said on Beyer’s show in October.

She also encouraged constituents to fundraise for people on the “front lines in Gaza and the West Bank.”

Hong appeared a second time on Beyer’s show last month, telling the host that “The people deserve leaders who lead with moral courage and moral clarity, and the litmus test is to say explicitly that what is happening in Gaza is a genocide.”

Hong raised roughly $35,000 from Beyer’s livestream and $57,000 from Piker’s.

Herstand said that he was “absolutely appalled” by Hong’s decision to sit down with the influencers.

“It’s unconscionable for her to do and fundraise with them,” Herstand said. “She should return the money she made with these antisemitic influencers, and she should denounce the hate that they spread against Jews.”

Hong’s appearances on the podcasts also sparked condemnation from Ann Jacobs, the Democratic chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

“When you decide these are the sort of people you want to hang out with in order to raise $, you have made clear that you either (1) agree with them or (2) can be bought or (3) both.  Fran Hong appears to be all 3,”  Jacobs, who is Jewish, wrote in a post on X. “She is willing to sell out the Jews of Wisconsin for a few bucks.”

Hong’s campaign did not respond to an inquiry from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about her appearance on the podcasts, but in an interview with MS Now earlier this month, Hong defended her engagement.

“It’s important that we get our message out in places where campaigns struggle to reach voters,” Hong said. “Just because I am on a platform certainly does not mean that I endorse everything that has been said by either the hosts or other people who have gone on.”

Hong told MS Now, “I condemn hatred, discrimination, antisemitism and islamophobia, any sort of dehumanizing of communities.”

For Tunis, the community relations co-chair, Hong’s response to criticism of those appearances fell short.

“I think that there’s a lot of questions that she has not provided sufficient answers on, particularly her recent appearance and friendliness with Hasan Piker and Mike from PA,” Tunis said. “I think people are waiting and watching.”

Miryam Rosenzweig, the president and CEO of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, told JTA in a statement that the federation’s “concern extends well beyond any one candidate.”

“Many in Wisconsin’s Jewish community are increasingly concerned by a political environment in which antisemitic rhetoric is too often minimized or excused, where the choices public leaders make about the voices they elevate and the platforms they share shape that environment, and where too few are willing to confront antisemitism consistently, regardless of its source,” Rosenzweig said.

Looking ahead to the crowded Aug. 11 Democratic primary, Tunis and Herstand said many Wisconsin Jews he had spoken with had been supportive of Rodriguez who, before she dropped out, was endorsed by Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley earlier this month after he had exited the race.

“I hope that Francesca Hong can tone down her rhetoric, because I do not think that it promotes Jewish community safety, and it can make life difficult,” Tunis said. “I hope that she keeps an open mind as her campaign progresses. I’m not super confident that’s going to be the case.”

If Hong does prevail next month, Herstand said he hoped that she would foster communication with Jewish communities in the state.

“I hope she doesn’t get the nomination, but if she were to do that, I would hope that she would reach out to the Jewish community and actually learn a few things that she’s probably not aware of,” he said.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.