The party\u2019s left flank was buoyed by Abdul El-Sayed\u2019s victory last week<\/a> in the US Senate primary in Michigan, and hoped that a repeat success was possible in a neighboring Great Lakes state with a similarly purple voting bloc. But El-Sayed performed far short of the comfortable victory many polling outlets had predicted, squeaking a winning margin of just under 1%.<\/p>\n \t That may not be the case this time. Polling from Marquette Law School, considered the gold standard in the state, had also consistently shown Hong with a wide lead. Despite entering the race with little name recognition, Hong had benefited from both a national progressive populist push and a crowded, musical-chairs Democratic field that burst with seven candidates at its peak.<\/p>\n The race had whittled down to four candidates, with Crowley having re-entered the field after previously suspending his campaign. The flip came after Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, the preferred candidate of Crowley and many other institutionalist Democrats, dropped out of the race following an accounting scandal. Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, the party\u2019s 2022 US Senate nominee and a once-promising figure in the state, also dropped out after failing to gain traction.<\/p>\n During her campaign, Hong apologized for having called the police on a vandalized Israeli flag in her district in December 2023, which at the time she had called \u201chighly antisemitic\u201d and urged to be investigated as a hate crime.<\/p>\n She explained why she now regrets making the call. Hong recently told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, \u201cThe image was cropped and incomplete to misrepresent anti-Zionism as antisemitism \u2013 a distinction I take seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n Hong\u2019s impact on Israel policy as governor of Wisconsin would be limited. But she had called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government \u201cgenocidal\u201d and pushed the state to overturn a ban on government contracts with businesses that boycott Israel. She had also criticized Wisconsin\u2019s current moderate Democratic governor for backing the International Holocaust Remembrance Association\u2019s controversial definition of antisemitism.<\/p>\n \t Hong\u2019s general-election success may hinge on the broader electorate\u2019s views of the Democratic Socialists of America.<\/p>\n This week a co-chair of the DSA drew further concern from Jewish Democrats after appearing in a viral interview on The New Yorker\u2019s podcast. Megan Romer called the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel \u201clargely inevitable\u201d and said she \u201cprobably would have\u201d joined a pro-Palestinian rally in New York the day after the attacks if she\u2019d been able to attend.<\/p>\n Prior to Oct. 7, Hong\u2019s state house campaigns had expressed some positive feelings toward Jews and Jewish causes. In January 2023, her campaign sold a Hebrew-language shirt, with proceeds going to Jewish Social Services of Madison.<\/p>\n \u201cTeam Hong has upped our commitment to uplifting multiculturalism,\u201d Hong\u2019s campaign wrote on Twitter at the time. She included praise of the symbolic significance of the number 18 in Hebrew and of the Hebrew phrase \u201cL\u2019chaim.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tHasan Piker speaks during a primary election night event for Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for US Senate in Michigan, August 4, 2026, at the Majestic Theatre in Detroit. (AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26222758319680-e1786475250453-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tWisconsin Democratic candidate for Governor Francesca Hong speaks to supporters, August 10, 2026, in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. (AP Photo\/Scott Bauer)<\/p>\n
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