Stunning Wisconsin Outcome Hands Dems a Surprise Weapon Against MAGA

How David Crowley’s upset win in the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary sets the party up for potential wins in state legislative races, and in bigger upcoming battles with MAGA.

Ben Wikler, who heroically rebuilt the Wisconsin Democratic Party as its chair from 2019 to 2025, is fond of describing our election system as akin to an “electric grid.” The idea is that local elections are interconnected in obscure ways. Just as losing one substation can wreak havoc on electric power in nearby areas, local electoral outcomes can have ripple effects that are not immediately obvious but nonetheless prove hugely consequential.

Case in point: David Crowley’s upset victory over democratic socialist Francisca Hong in Tuesday’s Wisconsin gubernatorial primary. Crowley, the candidate of the Democratic “establishment,” defeated Hong by half a point. Yet this extraordinarily narrow win could have hidden, surprising implications that benefit the party more broadly, perhaps impacting Democrats’ ability to combat MAGA-GOP tactics in the 2028 presidential race and in the longer-term House redistricting wars.

Let’s connect the dots. Most obviously, a Crowley win in the primary probably makes it more likely that a Democrat will take over the Wisconsin governorship next year from incumbent Democrat Tony Evers. Republicans spent millions to boost Hong for exactly that reason. But that’s not all: With Crowley at the top of the ticket, Democratic strategists believe, wins in many down-ballot state legislative races in Wisconsin are now more likely.

On that front, the stakes are very high. Another top Democratic goal this year is flipping control of the Wisconsin state legislature, which is notoriously far more right wing than the state itself. To do so, they’re targeting 14 GOP-controlled legislative seats—10 in the State Assembly and four in the State Senate. Winning those seats would have been harder........

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