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Wisconsin Socialists Have a Proud History In the Democratic Party

Long before Francesca Hong’s current bid for governor, the party was revitalized when it nominated a Milwaukee “sewer socialist” for governor.

Wisconsin Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong speaks during a campaign rally on August 2, 2026 in Milwaukee.

Tuesday’s Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary has inspired intense nationwide coverage—mostly because a leading contender, state Rep. Francesca Hong, is a democratic socialist. The strength of the bid by Hong, a state representative from Madison who has run an energetic grassroots campaign, has triggered endless scrutiny of her past social media messages, along with handwringing by Democratic Party insiders who question her electability.

Much of the national media’s coverage of the primary – in which voters will choose between Hong and three other Democrats, including Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who is backed by outgoing Democratic Governor Tony Evers – has focused on the question of whether a midwestern swing state is the right place for democratic socialist politics. Headlines like “Wisconsin governor’s race tests limits of Democrats’ leftward shift” and “Democratic socialist Francesca Hong tests how far left voters will go in battleground Wisconsin” are common.

But Wisconsin is a unique place. Its great progressive leaders of the past, including former Republican Governor Robert M. La Follette, worked closely with socialists and sometimes ran with their backing. The state frequently elected members of the Socialist Party of Eugene Victor Debs and Norman Thomas as congressional and legislative representatives—and as mayors of Wisconsin cities, including the state largest municipality: Milwaukee. Indeed, through much of the 20th century, Milwaukee was governed by so-called “sewer socialists” – Mayors Emil Seidel, Dan Hoan and Frank Zeidler – who earned national reputations as visionary and efficient managers.

What a lot of the people who are now commenting on the 2026 race probably don’t know is that one of those socialist mayors played a critical role in building the modern Wisconsin Democratic Party.

Almost exactly 82 years ago, on August 15, 1944, , Wisconsin Democrats voted by a landslide to make Hoan, a former Socialist Party stalwart who had recently joined the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, their gubernatorial nominee. 

Raised in a radical family in rural Waukesha County, Hoan arrived at the University of Wisconsin in 1901........

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