Wisconsin voters will decide on Tuesday whether to nominate a democratic socialist for the state’s highest office in the latest test of an anti-establishment wave among Democratic primary voters.
Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist state lawmaker, emerged as the frontrunner in a four-way race to succeed Tony Evers, the Democratic governor who is not seeking another term.
Evers threw his support behind David Crowley, the Milwaukee country executive. Crowley previously left the race, before reentering it on 18 July.
Crowley and Evers toured the state in the last two weeks, centering his campaign around electability, saying Crowley was more poised to win a general election in a swing state like Wisconsin than Hong.
Eyes turned to the Wisconsin governor’s race after Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic primary for US Senate in Michigan last week in the most recent example of a progressive beating out a moderate. Next door, Minnesota voters have also been weighing a US Senate primary between a moderate and a progressive.
After a wave of wins of progressives and democratic socialists in solidly blue parts of the country, the midwest primaries centered more on electability concerns given the close nature of statewide races there.
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