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Can a Democratic Socialist Win Wisconsin? Fran Hong Says “Yes!”

Amid all the talk of “electability,” a Midwestern state’s radical history points to what’s possible.

Democratic socialism is having a moment in 2026. In congressional and big-city mayoral primaries across the country, candidates who support economic and social democracy are winning Democratic nominations—defeating incumbent members of the US House of Representatives, coming out on top in open-seat contests for mayoralties, and generally prevailing with a frequency that has corporate Democrats running scared.

So, of course, defenders of the status quo politics that voters are so aggressively rejecting have turned to the oldest of all arguments: the claim that while socialists—along with progressive populists who are open to a bolder politics—may be appealing to a small segment of the public, they aren’t “electable” outside of, say, New York City. And, well, Denver, and Washington, and Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, and Tempe, Arizona, and the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, and all the other places where they have won during the current primary season.

Since candidates supported by the Democratic Socialists of America movement swept New York congressional and legislative primaries last week—and especially since 29-year-old socialist Melat Kiros beat a 15-term House incumbent in a Colorado primary on Tuesday—pundits have been trying to put a lid on the insurgency. Which brings us to Wisconsin, where a robust campaign for governor by DSA-backed Wisconsin State Representative Francesca Hong is gaining national attention.

Hong has been leading in several polls for Wisconsin’s August 11 Democratic gubernatorial primary. Cue the establishment warnings that she couldn’t possibly win a general election in this swingiest of swing states.

Even as she rouses crowds with a declaration that “possibility is bound only by our ambition,” political insiders keep dismissing Hong’s bid as an unlikely fit for Wisconsin.

On CNN, former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel—a historically Wall Street–friendly Democrat who fancies himself a presidential contender in 2028—recently ran through a list of swing states that included Wisconsin and declared, “They’re not electing socialists.” On a WTMJ talk radio show in Milwaukee, commentators echoed the sentiment. “If the primary were held today, Hong would win, and that is a problem for the Democrats,” announced one of the talkers, while another declared, “There’s not been a single statewide race in America where a democratic socialist has won anything yet.”

Really? Let’s press pause and review the record.

The nation’s most prominent democratic socialist, Senator Bernie Sanders, has won a dozen statewide general election contests (for the........

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