Another Democratic Socialist is eyeing a gubernatorial win in the battleground state of Wisconsin. A 37-year-old restaurant owner and single mother who became the state’s first Asian American assembly member in 2021, Francesca Hong, is now leading in a number of polls to become governor of the state. She is also a former line cook, dishwasher, executive chef, and bartender.

Her restaurant Morris Ramen in downtown Madison was closed in 2024 due to financial difficulties. She was sued for a $30,000 credit card debt, accumulated by the now-closed restaurant, although she said it was paid off by her parents shortly after Capital One Bank filed the lawsuit, according to the Capital Times. 

Anti-Cop / Anti-Israel

Hong claims Democrats lack imagination, which evidently means a lack of vision when it comes to abolishing the police and standing against Israel.

“I think they’re underestimating voters,” she said in an interview with Politico. “I think that has always been a problem for the Democratic Party — that we are not listening to how they are feeling.”

Hong seems to feel that leftist voters feel that Democrats aren’t radical enough and want to full-on embrace socialism/communism. It’s classic Democratic Socialist of America thinking.

The young communist’s platform embraces a $20 minimum wage, free childcare, and a full moratorium on data center construction. She slams the Israeli government every chance she gets and was one of the leaders of Wisconsin’s “uninstructed” pressure campaign that put pressure on the Biden administration when it came to Gaza. She’s pro-Palestinian/Hamas and obviously hates Jews. Hong is also all-in for taxing the rich. The DSAer is a deeply ingrained foot soldier for the Red/Green Alliance.

Hong has called for defunding, then abolishing the police, and has suggested that once she becomes governor, she will call the state National Guard to arrest federal ICE agents, which is unconstitutional.

She also took to Instagram to call ICE “the leading edge of Trump’s fascist agenda” and accused agents of “tearing apart families and our communities with unconstitutional practices that threaten public safety.”

Her anti-cop posts on social media called for an end to policing following the death of addict scumbag George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake. Those occurred before and during her time as an elected official, according to Fox News. Unlike her communist compatriots, she has not deleted those posts.

“I support defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police,” she posted in August 2020, according to CNN.

CNN also reported that in 2021 she wrote on X that “police exist to uphold white supremacy. Defund then abolish. Reform can’t be an option.”

Hong has since attempted to walk back her anti-cop sentiment, although not very convincingly.

Another DSA Politician Rises

Hong sees her card-carrying membership in communist DSA as a perk, not a risk in a general election: “The liability is having someone who is the establishment and wants to maintain the status quo.”

The primary is on August 11^th, but at this rate, Hong could very well win and then face off against Tom Tiffany, the presumed GOP nominee endorsed by President Donald Trump. She’s competing against five other Democrats, but communism on the left is now in vogue. Trump narrowly won Wisconsin in 2024, so she’s definitely a threat to conservatives winning in the state.

The other Democrat candidates in the race are Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, state Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, and former head of Gov. Tony Evers’ Department of Administration Joel Brennan. 

Hong has been endorsed by fellow travelers Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Ro Khanna (D-CA). 

Wisconsin has a long history of socialism. Milwaukee had three socialist mayors between 1910 and 1960. Ironically, the state is home to one of the Senate’s most conservative members, Sen. Ron Johnson, but is also the nesting grounds for one of the most progressive, Sen. Tammy Baldwin. And, as a reminder, in 2016, communist/Independent Bernie Sanders won 71 out of Wisconsin’s 72 counties.

Hong is aggressive, especially with her DSA backing. She has over 3,000 active volunteers and has organized 250 events across the state, with an additional 230 planned for the coming months.

“She has shown up; she’s the only candidate currently who has built any infrastructure down in Rock County,” said Jim White, who leads Rock County Democrats. “She’s the only person who has active canvassers, has people showing up at events, at meetings; she’s the only one who seems to have increasing infrastructure to do outreach to voters, and that’s been something that I think we’ve all really noticed.”

An Alliance with Antisemite Hasan Piker

Hong has also turned to communist Hasan Piker for support. His Twitch following is over 3 million, and he is vowing to raise money for her campaign.

(Video Credit: Hasan Piker)

Hong promoted establishing a public grocery store during the interview, noting that a similar policy is being implemented in “communist” Indiana. She proposed a public bank, which would be modeled after the country’s only such bank in North Dakota (“famously a communist state,” she joked), that would be used to give small businesses subsidized loans.

“If it is radical to have free childcare and public grocery stores, I would say, let’s be radical, let’s embrace that,” Hong told Piker. “That hasn’t been what we’ve done in the past, and look at where we are now using the same playbook and strategy. We’ve been incremental in the past, and it’s led to complacency.”

She has also appeared with the progressive Twitch streamer Mike from PA, who has over 100,000 followers, and with Mercury Stardust, a TikToker with more than 2.6 million followers who describes herself as “The Trans Handy Ma’am.”

“Over the course of those two appearances, in which Hong chatted about Milwaukee’s socialist history, handed out merch and ate Korean food, Hong raised about $92,000 for her campaign — $35,000 from the Beyer stream, $57,000 from appearing with Piker. Piker added that he’d fly out to Wisconsin to help Hong campaign for getting over $50,000,” Wisconsin Public Radio reported.

Hong also holds fundraisers at karaoke bars and is well known for her “prodigious cussing.” According to Politico, her go-to song is “I Will Survive.”

It’s also a good bet that dark money will flow to her campaign via DSA and other leftist outfits.

A Wisconsin Progressive to the Core

Hong pitched herself at the Atwood Music Hall rally as following in the footsteps of Wisconsin’s progressive trailblazers former Gov. Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day and the “father of environmentalism,” former Secretary of State Vel Phillips, the first black statewide officeholder in Wisconsin who spent much of her career combating racial discrimination in housing and former governor and Sen. Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, leader of the progressive movement who helped pioneer progressive taxation and workers’ compensation. 

“Did you know that it is our state where environmentalism was born? It was our state where sewer socialism was born. It was our state where Social Security was born,” Hong told the crowd. “Our progressive roots run deep. F*** Robin Vos and the Republicans, who’ve been trying to uproot our history,” she added, referring to the longtime Republican Assembly speaker who is retiring this year. “That time is over.”

Hong is looking to capitalize on the momentum of other Democratic Socialists winning across the nation.

Her Democratic competition in Wisconsin fears Hong’s surge in popularity. They should; if she wins, she becomes the communist face of Democrats in that state.