Inside the Wisconsin upset that shook the progressive left for a change

By Eric Bradner, Jeff Zeleny, CNN

(CNN) — One month after he suspended his campaign, David Crowley’s victory in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary for governor on Tuesday marked an astonishing turn around.

When the Milwaukee County executive re-entered the race 10 days after he exited it, democratic socialist state lawmaker Francesca Hong’s momentum seemed near insurmountable.

But on Wednesday morning, it was Crowley, not Hong, who was urging his party’s voters to set aside their ideological differences and unite against “something much bigger” in this fall’s race against Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany.

The stunning win opens a critical new chapter in the ongoing battle between the center-left Democratic establishment and its progressive insurgency — one that revealed voters’ hesitancy around the electability of further-left candidates in a presidential battleground.

Tony Evers, the popular outgoing Democratic governor, recruited Crowley back into the race last month and campaigned at his side as they traveled together across Wisconsin in the closing stretch of the race, mincing few words as he implored voters to weigh their choices carefully.

“In my heart of hearts, I know David Crowley is the best chance we have of beating Tom Tiffany,” Evers said at one of his final rallies. “A lot of people have asked: Why David? David is the kind of guy who gets shit done.”

The 40-year-old has a long record in local politics. A former member of the state Assembly, Crowley was elected Milwaukee County executive in 2020 and won a second term four years later. It’s the same path that GOP former Gov. Scott Walker followed: serving in the legislature, then as Milwaukee County’s executive for eight years — where he was the first Republican to hold the role — prior to being elected governor in 2010.

Crowley also has the chance to make history. If elected in November, he would be the state’s first Black governor.

“I’m a son of Milwaukee,” he said Wednesday, seeking to introduce himself anew. “I’m a community organizer by heart who has just happened to find himself in the halls of the state capitol building and at the head of Milwaukee County government for the last six years.”

Crowley described his climb from the “very dark days” of his childhood, which included eviction, mental health struggles, addiction and housing uncertainty, to dropping out of college at 19 to pursue an electrical apprenticeship, and ultimately graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2024 while serving as county executive.

“I know what it means to face hardship because I’ve lived it. I know what it’s like to rely on public schools, to depend on opportunity, and to believe that if that if people invest in you, your future can improve and it absolutely can change,” he said.

Insurgent left hits a rare road block

Democratic socialists this year have won the mayoral primary in Washington, DC, ousted House incumbents in New York City and Denver and defeated moderate contenders in congressional contests in Philadelphia and Detroit.

Just last week, progressive former public health official Abdul El-Sayed bested the establishment pick, moderate Rep. Haley Stevens, in Michigan’s Senate primary, despite many Democrats’ worries that El-Sayed’s positions — including his strident criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, his support for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and his advocacy for Medicare for All — might alienate the moderates, independents and disaffected Republicans whose votes he will need to win November’s general election.

Wisconsin lacked many of the hallmarks of those races.

Key progressive figures like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stayed out of the primary — a reality that made the race less of a litmus test on the party’s broader direction.

The primary field was jumbled several times in July. First, Crowley dropped out. Then a top center-left choice, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, ended her own campaign amid a campaign finance scandal. At Evers’ urging, Crowley jumped back into the race. Finally, Evers’ first-term lieutenant governor, Mandela Barnes, exited. Just weeks from Election Day, Crowley was improbably the last moderate contender left standing.

But in the days leading up to the election, the former chef and restaurant owner set off alarm bells herself with a series of television interviews that raised questions about whether she was prepared to handle the intense scrutiny of a general election in a battleground state.

In an interview with CNN, she gave a meandering answer when asked about a 2020 tweet in which she advocated for canceling Thanksgiving. The moment went viral, and many Democratic voters said in interviews that it gave them pause about Hong’s viability in November.

Another complicating factor: Many Wisconsin voters cast their ballots early and while the primary field was still in flux. This year, they were not given the opportunity to scrap the ballots they’d already submitted and ask for new ones.

Twenty percent of the electorate — more than 165,000 voters as of Wednesday afternoon, with the final ballots still being counted — had voted for candidates other than Crowley and Hong. Another progressive, state Sen. Kelda Roys, had claimed nearly 60,000 votes — including more than 16,000 in Dane County, which covers Hong’s hometown of Madison.

With Crowley and Hong separated by less than 4,000 votes, any of those factors could be the difference in the race’s outcome.

“We may not agree on every policy. We may not use the same labels. But we all want safe communities, strong schools, affordable health care, good-paying jobs, and a brighter future for all of our children. And every one of us has something much bigger to unite around, and that is keeping MAGA extremism from bringing the chaos we see in Washington into our neighborhoods right here in the state of Wisconsin,” Crowley said in a victory speech Wednesday morning in Milwaukee.

The final sprint

The consolidation of establishment support around Crowley also played a key role in reviving his campaign.

Evers and Crowley hit the road together on a final sprint to Election Day, as Wisconsin Democrats looked to salvage a rare opening this fall.

Democrats have been on the rise in Wisconsin, winning two key Supreme Court seats in recent years, with a statehouse majority finally within grasp after years of Republican rule.

“Wisconsinites, we have worked too damn hard and we have waited too damn long to have this all squandered now. Everything we built and everything we worked for is on the line,” Evers said at a campaign stop Sunday.

It was a message aimed squarely at undecided voters like Kelly Walters of Madison, who was frustrated by the chaotic primary and unsure of who to support.

“I really like Gov. Evers and I appreciate his support in a race where there’s a lot of candidates,” Walters said as she left her polling place at the Covenant Presbyterian Church. “Not knowing at the end who to support, that definitely helped me in my decision.”

Karen Neff, who came to see Crowley at one of his final campaign stops, was visibly frustrated with all of the wild twists and turns in the Democratic primary, with candidates dropping out of the race and failing to coalesce around one alternative sooner.

“I’m really disappointed that we find ourselves in this mess between Hong and Crowley,” said Neff, who said she liked Hong, but worried about her electability. “She has been fairly abrasive in her stance as a democratic socialist. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a democratic socialist, but she’s come out so strong that I think she’s going to scare people.”

Evers, 74, is hardly the flashiest of the nation’s governors. But several Democratic advisers in Wisconsin said he has an unusually deep reservoir of trust with voters and his late endorsement in the race was critical.

“Without the governor’s helping hand, Crowley couldn’t have won,” a longtime party adviser told CNN. “His timing and his backing were critical.”

At each stop in the closing days of the race, Evers literally embraced Crowley on stage, sending an unmistakable signal of his support and seal of approval. But while Crowley had the backing of much of the party establishment, he bristled at the notion that he was an entrenched part of it.

“I may be established,” Crowley told CNN, “but I’m not the establishment.”

Building a new coalition

Now, Crowley must unite the divided factions of the party, a majority of which voted for his opponents, and expand his base as he looks ahead to the general election against Tiffany.

He started on Wednesday with a speech at a community center in Milwaukee where he praised Hong for running a campaign that he said “reminded people across Wisconsin that there are no longshots when it comes to believing in a better future and fighting to expand opportunities to every family.”

“That kind of passion strengthens our democracy, and I look forward to earning their support and everyone who participated in this campaign as we move forward together,” he said.

Crowley also previewed his lines of attack against Tiffany, blasting the GOP congressman for siding with President Donald Trump’s claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election and for voting to slash funding for programs like food stamps.

In the coming days, he vowed to turn his focus to “coalescing Democrats, independents, Republicans, and those who are afraid of having a MAGA extremists occupying our governorship.”

Hong also looked to quickly mend the party’s rifts, calling Crowley to concede early Wednesday morning and agreeing to appear at a unity event.

She said in a speech on Tuesday night that no matter who wins the primary, Democrats are going to “continue to fight for each other.”

“Because everyone who’s running in this race, they know that we can make better possible — and we must make better possible,” she told supporters in Madison.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.