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It has been some week for Wisconsin Democrats.
Let’s go through it:
On Friday, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez ended her campaign to succeed Gov. Tony Evers after acknowledging that the campaign had badly misstated its finances. Contributions had been double-counted, expenses had been underreported and the campaign had hundreds of thousands of dollars less than Rodriguez believed it did.
“As we have continued to dig into our financial reports, it has become clear there are issues that would be an ongoing distraction,” Rodriguez said on X. She had fired her campaign manager days earlier.
Then came the comeback.
• Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who dropped out of the race less than two weeks earlier and endorsed Rodriguez, jumped back in on Saturday. He was swiftly endorsed by Evers, a blow to Mandela Barnes, who was lieutenant governor from 2019 to 2023 and is a leading candidate to replace him.
• Evers’s endorsement is not just a blow to Barnes. By backing Crowley, Evers was also going against Joel Brennan, yet another gubernatorial candidate who was a top Evers aide as his administration secretary.
• And then there is Francesca Hong, a state representative from Madison who has emerged as the race’s democratic socialist insurgent. And a member of the progressive Democratic Socialists of America. She is the Republicans’ preferred candidate for November, and conservative groups like the Republican Governors Association are spending millions to boost her in the primary. Her campaign is testing whether the left’s recent successes in deeply liberal cities can translate to a statewide victory in one of the nation’s most closely divided battlegrounds.
So, yeah, it’s been a week.
The upheaval matters because the winner of this race will be running in one of the most closely watched gubernatorial contests in the nation. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wisconsin), the likely Republican nominee, is probably sitting in Washington and enjoying this madness. Republicans certainly are.
“Watching Wisconsin Democrats is like watching a clown car crash into a parked semi-truck,” said Kollin Crompton, a spokesperson for the Republican Governors Association. “From financial scandals to re-launching failed campaigns, these Democrats shouldn’t be in charge of a lemonade stand let alone the state of Wisconsin.”
The chaotic week sets up what is seen as a clash among Hong, Barnes and now Crowley.
Crowley’s return scrambles a primary in which Hong and Barnes have been the most prominent contenders. It also confronts Crowley with a basic question: What will be different this time?
A Marquette Law School poll conducted in March put Crowley at just 3 percent, compared with 14 percent for Hong and 11 percent for Barnes. But nearly two-thirds of Democratic voters remained undecided, making the survey more a measure of how unsettled the race was than a reliable forecast of its outcome.
Asked Monday why voters should reconsider him, Crowley told The Washington Post that “circumstances change in life and one of the qualities of a good leader is being able to adapt and adjust when necessary.” He pointed to Evers’s endorsement, which he did not have during his first run.
“I’m going to win the nomination, and defeat Tom Tiffany, by energizing Democrats in Milwaukee and Madison, while also competing in suburban and rural communities across the state,” he said. “I have deep roots and strong support in Milwaukee County, where Democratic turnout is crucial, and I have spent years building relationships across Wisconsin that allow us to be competitive statewide.”
Barnes had praised Crowley when he left the race. His campaign was far less welcoming when Crowley returned.
“David Crowley left this race for a reason,” said Darby O’Connor, Barnes’s campaign manager. “This Hail Mary serves no purpose other than playing spoiler and handing our state to Trump’s handpicked candidate in Tom Tiffany.”
Barnes has tried to use the week to reinforce his argument that he stands outside Wisconsin’s Democratic establishment.
“This last week is one of the main reasons why people are so frustrated with politics,” Barnes said over the weekend at a gubernatorial forum. “This week is why so many people are frustrated and want nothing to do with the Democratic establishment. ... We deserve so much more.”
Wisconsin’s primary is on Aug. 11.
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