GOP Donors Reportedly Meddling in WI Democratic Gubernatorial Primary — With Spectacular Results
“The second the primary is over, every penny of Francesca Hong’s TV advertising disappears and the GOP will spend tens of millions of dollars on [attack] ads.”
Anyone following the polls in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary over the past month can’t help but notice the extraordinary momentum behind democratic socialist state Rep. Francesca Hong’s campaign.
A Marquette Law School poll of registered voters conducted July 8-16 showed Hong leading the field by 11 points. Just two weeks later, a new Marquette poll found her lead had doubled to 22 points.
Hong now leads her nearest rival by roughly 20 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average and will likely cruise to victory in Tuesday’s primary.
But November will be another matter. Hong will face presumed Republican nominee Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) in what promises to be a far tougher contest. Tiffany currently holds a narrow 1.7-point lead in the RCP average.
Interestingly, Hong’s campaign has not spent a dime on traditional television advertising, according to campaign finance records. Instead, she has focused her spending on digital and connected-TV advertising.
And yet, Wisconsin television viewers have been seeing lots of ads featuring Hong over the past month.
X user @SwannMarcus89 reported that family members who live in Wisconsin tell him “there are tons of Francesca Hong ads on TV — there actually seem to be more ads for her than any of her opponents.”
So, if Hong’s campaign isn’t paying for all those television ads, who is?
Marcus did some digging, and what he found out is remarkable.
He discovered:
A lot of Hong’s direct TV advertising came from a super pac called Middle Class Priorities. Middle Class Priorities only has one donor, Progressive Prosperity Caucus, Inc. And what is Progressive Prosperity Caucus, Inc? A fake GOP slush fund run by Republican operatives that’s spent millions of dollars getting leftists nominated in swing districts. Most leftists who have won swing district primaries are being funded by the GOP btw, that’s why so many of them claim they won despite being outspent.
He also learned that a second Republican PAC spent $2.2 million on “attack ads” against Hong. Marcus began tracing those ads and found that the so-called “attack ads” only appeared “in extremely Democratic areas like Dane County and they were all about how you shouldn’t vote for Francesca Hong because she opposes Trump’s immigration agenda.”
Naturally, that message was music to the ears of many Democratic voters and helped boost Hong’s support even further, just as it was intended to do.
While Hong held a slight lead over her primary rivals in early July, by mid-July she had spiked in the polls. That happened “at the exact same time a GOP Super PAC launched an ad campaign meant to make Democratic Primary voters think the Republicans are scared Francesca Hong will stop their immigration priorities.”
He added that “literally her entire TV footprint” was paid for by Republican PACs.
Marcus drew some interesting conclusions:
[T]he second the primary is over every penny of Francesca Hong’s TV advertising disappears and the GOP will spend tens of millions of dollars on [attack] ads about how she’s a radical police abolitionist who hates Valentine’s Day, is grotesquely obsessed with her son’s ethnic heritage, and pals around with a guy who said America deserves 9/11. There will be no response to these ads because Hong doesn’t have any money for ad buys and all of her Super PAC support came from [Republican mega donor] Peter Thiel.
According to Marcus, Tiffany’s campaign has roughly 10 times as much cash on hand as Hong’s.
So I discovered something interesting today.
I keep hearing Francesca Hong is running some innovative campaign where she isn’t spending money on TV and it’s working like a charm. This confused me because I have family in Wisconsin and I know for a fact there are tons of…
— Swann Marcus (@SwannMarcus89) August 8, 2026
Professor Jacobson responded to Marcus’s post: “Good. This is the tactic in reverse Democrats used expertly for decades to get the weakest republican nominated.”
Good. This is the tactic in reverse Democrats used expertly for decades to get the weakest republican nominated. Harry Reid perfected it: “A fake GOP slush fund run by Republican operatives that’s spent millions of dollars getting leftists nominated in swing districts.” https://t.co/v0lexS6ACu
— William A. Jacobson (@wajacobson) August 8, 2026
Although Hong is as far to the left as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), he has so far declined to endorse her. Asked last week by “Pod Save America” host Jon Favreau if he plans to endorse Hong, Sanders replied,
“I don’t think so. I met Francesca a couple of years ago. I was in Wisconsin, and she seems very, very nice, but again this is a race I’m just not that familiar with.”
He added that he has “not gotten involved in many governors’ races,” because he is very focused on the Senate races.
Sanders’ notably restrained response fueled speculation on social media that he questioned Hong’s electability.
Bernie on whether he’ll endorse Hong:
“I don’t think so.” pic.twitter.com/83pBwPw545
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) August 5, 2026
In a recent post about Hong, I wrote that she “had a baggage problem of Platner proportions.” At the time, a 2023 interview Hong gave to Meal Magazine had just resurfaced, revealing troubling details about her history of mental illness.
Hong said:
At 18, I had a mental breakdown. I didn’t actually walk at my high school graduation because I had been hospitalized for a week at a child psychiatric hospital. … And I found myself self-harming to feel something.
It was cutting. I was diagnosed with bipolar disease. I was taking SSRIs and I’d overdosed on lithium. I didn’t know why I couldn’t connect with people deeper, and that pushes you into isolation.
While people do recover from mental illness, Hong is running for the highest elective office in her state. Voters should consider her mental health history accordingly as they evaluate her candidacy.
Hong is a former chef who co-owned a ramen restaurant with her husband until the pandemic hit in 2020. That’s when she pivoted to politics and won a seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly representing the 76th district (Madison). She is a member of the legislature’s Socialist Caucus.
But the most dangerous thing about Hong is her radical worldview. Leaders matter. A Hong governorship would be devastating for the state of Wisconsin and terrible for America.
This sounds a lot like DSA-backed @FrancescaHongWI.
Does she want to abolish the police? Yep.
Does she want to abolish prisons? Absolutely.
Did she call for abolishing the U.S. Senate? Yes.
Socialism is knocking on Wisconsin’s door. This November, we slam it shut. https://t.co/xEo8kKPIow
— Tom Tiffany (@TomTiffanyWI) July 26, 2026
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Comments
She is the type of democrat I’d vote for in the primary and against in the general election. That is if Wisconsin has open primaries.
She’s a disgusting anti-American, Aunt Jemima looking, worthless, morally offensive scumbag.
She looks angry. Really angry.
It’s a strategy. Instead of better GOP candidates you get worse DSA candidates.
The downside of the strategy is that it runs interference for worse Republican candidates as well.
The point is to better position your own candidate to win, no matter how good or bad that candidate may be, by causing Dem voters to score an own goal by selecting a candidate who is even less electable. How much less isn’t relevant; it doesn’t matter how much better your candidate is, only that he’s better.
Republicans playing to win – what a concept. They should have done it decades ago.
Agreed, it’s about time.
Instead of outsourcing thinking to useless RINO consultants who just want to burn campaign dollars on their own grift, it looks like we are playing to win in Wisconsin
Winning, what a concept!
Meh. I would not underestimate her chances in the general election. Hong is Asian and has a vajayjay, so the Communist media will spare no effort to elect her.
If she were a trans Muslim she would be worshipped as a goddess by Communists. Don’t underestimate the brain-destroying powers of higher education to barf out voters incapable of doing anything besides exactly what they are ordered to do without thinking.
Historians will look back at 2008 and wonder what was put in water supply nationwide to get that Kenyan elected as POTUS
In the same genre as sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes? is
“Electores eligunt, sed numeratores numerant” which may explain Obama’s election as well
I must say, all that Latin is Greek to me.
Shhh! Ix-nay on the azy-cray. 2 more days is all
Agreed.
Great article but would prefer to see this and swannmarcus89’s analysis … on Wednesday. After the primary.
No doubt she’s a nutcase, It’s fair to question the overall judgment of any party that would put forth such a person. That said, Republicans better have it together when it comes to the new majority of voters, many of whom are totally ignorant about issues. They can be mobilized in an instant, however, to follow the crowd and then you get a wacko in office, or worse, an intentional actor like Mamdani. It would not be a bad idea to start stressing that, if voting is so important, then one should really be informed about what they vote for. It’s a voter’s duty. One can dream.
That’s why Congress should repeal the ban on literacy tests, and instead mandate them, or at least allow the states to have them, with appropriate supervision to ensure that they’re administered fairly this time.
I’d prefer property ownership of your residence as a better criteria. That cleans up lots of potential issues. Clarifies very simply where someone may register and vote. Restricts voting to those with a long-term stake in their community. Home ownership also means property taxes and ability to make a down payment (or earn/use Veteran benefits) demonstrates ability to manage finances to pay the mortgage and other costs. Comes with increased degree of exposure to the pettifogging bureaucracy which leads many to question the size/scope of govt.
At least then it should severely limit the ones who just vote for more things they are already getting from the tax largesse.
Yes indeed. It would restore the normie, broad middle-class home owning Citizen to the public policy driver’s seat. Severely curtailing the ‘taker class’ from voting for more ‘freebies’ from the productive folks. Though, in fairness we’d also need to eliminate the property tax abatement and exemptions other than basic ‘homestead’ exemption so no more 65+ homeowners getting a free or reduced property tax bill which would cause all sorts of howling from boomers getting their ox gored.
The siren call of government: “We’ll do it fairly this time.”
The people who were doing it unfairly are all dead and gone anyway. Any test today would be implemented fairly, but because of the history it would be best to have a mechanism set up to ensure it.
There is always the chance fraud can win her the seat.
One might note that the tactic Democrats used to get the “weakest republican nominated” resulted in the election of Donald Trump.
Wasting money making fake ads for a woman who wants to abolish ICE and Thanksgiving is suspect. It shows profound weakness in ideology.
But it’s worked for the Dems several times in the past. For instance Claire McCaskill engineered Todd Akin’s victory in the GOP primary to run against her, so that she could easily defeat him.
Yes, came here to say this is the tactic that Democrats used for Trump. Here, I’d much rather they use the funds to push the GOP candidate, Tiffiny. Tiffany is a candidate that does not have much visibility or exposure. Instead of controlling the narrative on Tiffany, they will let the Democrats do so. The purplish state has gone D in all but three state-wide races over the last ten years (Trump 1016, 2024, Ron Johnson 2024). Governor, at least 3 Supreme Court vacancies, multiple attorney general elections.
I don’t know whether to upvote your first sentence or downvote your second.
The money isn’t being spent to “promote” an ideology, any more than the money I spend on D-Con is being spent to nourish rats.
Hong has ads portraying her as blue collar Rosie the Riveter, Hong as a hip Asian, Hong as Vogue Magazine cover worthy, Hong as a homely socialist, Hong as a soft spoken community chef who loves! Thanksgiving.
Voters get to pick and choose who they’re voting for. Let’s see how dumb Michigan voters are.
Wisconsin.
Michiganders have enough problems of their own.
Michigan already has Gretchen Whitmer.
Who is Rep, Tiffany and why should I vote for him must be answered or else the Commie can win.
Save your money Rep. Tiffany and put on a red MAGA hat. You’ll be surprised at the landslide it attracts..
While people do recover from mental illness, Hong is running for the highest elective office in her state.
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.Voters should consider her mental health history accordingly as they evaluate her candidacy.
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I’m sure the dems will behave like the tribal morons they’ve always been.
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