Wisconsin State Rep. Hong enters governor’s race as progressive 'wild card'

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Wisconsin State Rep. Francesca Hong (D-76) announced her gubernatorial candidacy Wednesday, positioning herself as a progressive “wild card” who will challenge the Democratic establishment in next year’s primary for the battleground state’s top office.

Driving the news: Hong, 36, launched her campaign with a video invoking Rosie the Riveter imagery from a restaurant she started 15 years ago near the Wisconsin Capitol. “It’s stressful as hell to get by today. Too many people in our capitols in Madison and Washington don’t understand that,” she said in her announcement, adding, “One wrong step can lay you out flat, and that’s by design.”

The Madison legislator enters a Democratic primary vying to succeed retiring Gov. Tony Evers in Wisconsin’s first open gubernatorial race since 2010.

About Hong: Hong, the daughter of South Korean immigrants, made history as Wisconsin’s first Asian American state legislator after being elected in 2020. A single mother who studied Spanish and journalism at UW-Madison before pursuing culinary arts, she continues to balance legislative work with restaurant employment. While she has memberships in both the Legislature’s four-member Socialist Caucus and the Democratic Socialists of America, she also continues to work as a cook, bartender and dishwasher.

In the last Democratic presidential primary, Hong spearheaded Wisconsin’s “uninstructed” movement that delivered over 48,000 protest votes — representing 8.3% of the total — against former President Joe Biden’s Israel policies while demanding a Gaza ceasefire. Her activism echoes that of rising national progressive figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu as she builds influence through grassroots organizing. In the Legislature, she authored bipartisan education reform requiring Wisconsin public schools to teach Asian American and Hmong American history, which Evers signed into law last year.

What she aims to accomplish: Hong’s campaign platform prioritizes universal childcare, paid family leave, public school investment and BadgerCare expansion while rejecting corporate PAC funding. On social issues, she takes uncompromising stances, promising to safeguard reproductive rights while vowing to combat what she terms “fascism in Washington and at home.” On economic policy, her detailed proposals include establishing a North Dakota-style public banking system to provide affordable small business loans, coupled with subsidies to reduce healthcare burdens on entrepreneurs and workers.

The Democratic primary is scheduled for August 2026, with Wisconsin’s open governor’s race rated as a toss-up in the critical swing state President Donald Trump carried in 2024.

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