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Welcome to this week’s edition of the Surge, a catering truck clandestinely schlepping you to a world of political knowledge.

We over here at the Surge are trying to have an easy Hot Newsletter August, but wouldn’t you just know it? The politics keep happening. The polls were once again wrong, this time in Wisconsin. We learned whom Donald Trump really wants around him in threatening situations. And Nancy Pelosi is trying to vaporize one last soul, for her legacy.

Let’s begin with institutional Democrats’ Empire Strikes Back moment against the pesky rebels in Wisconsin.

The Democratic establishment still has a few tricks to play.

We shouldn’t call it a shock that Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley defeated democratic socialist Francesca Hong in the Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary. Just a week before in Michigan, we’d seen that pollsters were having trouble accurately modeling support for insurgent left-wing candidates. But it was nevertheless impressive that Crowley, with the backing of Gov. Tony Evers, was able to prove double-digit polling deficits and prediction markets completely wrong with his narrow victory. He now has an opportunity to become only the fourth Black person elected to be a state governor in U.S. history. (Seriously: only the fourth.)

Say what you will about the Democratic establishment circa 2026. But it has shown that if someone has trouble answering questions about Thanksgiving, it can still take you down (by a 0.5-percentage-point margin). And while Hong’s defeat will come as a disappointment to Madison, Wisconsin, it will be a relief to most other Democrats nationally. It’s not just that Democrats will have a better—very good, even—chance to maintain the Wisconsin governor’s mansion ahead of another presidential election cycle. This also means that every other Democratic candidate in the country won’t be asked about Francesca Hong throughout the fall. A useful nominee for the GOP has been taken off the table.

Meet Crowley’s opponent.

Crowley will face GOP Rep. Tom Tiffany in November. Tiffany is a conservative member of the House Freedom Caucus, though not one of the attention-hungry ones always causing problems. His principal legislative interest has been to delist the gray wolf as a federal endangered species.

Wisconsin can do whatever it wants with its wolves. Save the wolves, shoot the wolves—none of our business. It is all of our business, though, that Wisconsin, the state that decides presidential elections, have someone who can be trusted to neutrally administer........

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