Wisconsin Democratic socialist Francesca Hong, now running for governor, is drawing sharp criticism after old social media posts about "whiteness" resurfaced, including remarks that pulled her own biracial son into her racial framework.
Hong, a Wisconsin State Assembly member since 2021, posted a string of comments between 2019 and 2021 that framed ordinary encounters with white people as threats and called for abolishing police. In a 2021 interview, she described her son's mixed heritage as part of her "proximity to whiteness", a phrase that struck critics across the political spectrum as reducing a child's identity to an ideological talking point. Fox News Digital reported that Hong's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fox News political analyst Guy Benson offered a two-word verdict on X: "Weirdo racism." Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty president Rick Esenberg said, "It must be exhausting to have to think like this." Fox News contributor Paul Mauro wrote, "I'm sorry but this woman is not well."
The most scrutinized remark came from a 2021 interview Hong gave to ListenMKE, a Milwaukee-area media outlet. Speaking about race, she said:
"My proximity to whiteness continues, right... My son is biracial. He is half-white and half-Korean. I think navigating what his identity is and how people perceive him is always at the back of my mind as well."
The framing treats a child's racial background as a burden to manage, and treats the white half of that background as something requiring ideological vigilance. For a candidate seeking to lead a state where roughly 80 percent of residents are white, the worldview embedded in those words raises a straightforward question: Can a governor who views "whiteness" as a problem she must constantly navigate govern all of her constituents fairly?
Hong's earlier social media posts painted a similar picture. In July 2019, she described a trip to a Culver's restaurant in Black River Falls, a small Wisconsin city:
"I ate two bites of my kid's cheeseburger at a Culver's in black river falls and told him they ran out of ice cream. Mostly just wanted to leave bc I was on the verge of a anxiety attack... to many old white people who didn't think we spoke English."
She offered no evidence that anyone at the restaurant said or did anything hostile. The post described her own anxiety about being around "old white people", and attributed bad motives to strangers based on their race and age. Hong has also faced scrutiny for her calls to abolish police, a position that compounds voter concerns about her fitness for the state's top office.
Two months earlier, in May 2019, Hong posted another complaint about white customers at her ramen restaurant:
"2018- old white dude asks 'where are you from?' 2019- old white dude asks 'what is your country of origin' My ramen bar has become a customs kiosk."
Asking a restaurant owner where she's from is a common conversational question, one that Americans of every background field regularly. Hong chose to frame it as an act of racial aggression. The post turned a customer's small talk into evidence of systemic hostility, a habit that runs through her public commentary on race.
By October 2021, Hong had moved from personal grievance to policy prescription. She posted on X: "Police exist to uphold white supremacy. Defund then abolish. Reform can't be an option. My heart breaks for the trauma the Blake family and their community continues to endure." That post, calling for the outright abolition of law enforcement, came from someone already serving as a state legislator.
Whether Hong still holds that position is unclear. Her campaign has not addressed it publicly, and she did not reply to Fox News Digital's outreach. The Democratic Socialists' broader push into state-level races across the Midwest makes the question more than academic, it speaks to the policy agenda these candidates would actually pursue in office.
Hong's rhetoric was not the only thing drawing fire. On August 2, 2026, she held a campaign rally alongside Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and left-wing political commentator Hasan Piker. Attendees were required to register and present photo identification to enter.
That requirement caught the attention of her Republican rival. Wisconsin GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany posted on X:
"Add this to the growing list of Fran Flip-Flops: @FrancescaHongWI opposes voter ID, yet she's requiring photo ID for her event with Ilhan Omar. You can't make this up."
Matt Henkel, deputy director of political development at Americans for Prosperity, made a similar point: "registration and photo id required! Draconian for voting, required for socialist gatherings." The contradiction is hard to miss. Hong and her allies have fought voter ID requirements as discriminatory barriers, then imposed those same barriers at their own event, apparently without any concern that doing so would suppress attendance.
Hong's choice of rally partners tells its own story. Ilhan Omar carries her own long record of controversial statements. Hasan Piker, a socialist streamer with a large online following, has generated repeated controversy for his political commentary. Hong has already had to scramble to distance herself from Piker after fundraising on his show, yet she brought him back for a high-profile campaign event.
Former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker appeared on Fox News' "America Reports" to discuss Hong's record, with the segment headlined that her "radical rhetoric" would make the state "unsafe." Walker's appearance underscored that establishment Republicans view Hong not merely as a fringe primary candidate but as a genuine threat to the state's direction if she wins the governor's mansion.
Hong spoke at the Wisconsin Democrats' convention in Madison on June 14, 2026, a sign that the state party has embraced rather than sidelined her candidacy. That embrace matters. The recent scramble within Wisconsin Democratic politics over the gubernatorial field has not produced a moderate alternative capable of boxing her out.
Tiffany noted in his post that Hong "has faced renewed scrutiny after past X posts resurfaced in which she made comments that critics argue express anti-white sentiments." That scrutiny is likely to intensify as the race moves forward. A Wisconsin judge recently denied Democrats' bid to let absentee voters recast ballots before the August primary, a ruling that narrows the party's room to maneuver.
Fox News Digital reached out to Hong's campaign on Tuesday. No immediate reply came. The silence leaves voters to judge her by the public record she built, a record of viewing white people as a category to fear, of treating her own child's heritage as an ideological dilemma, and of calling for the abolition of the police who keep Wisconsin communities safe.
Hong may yet offer context, walk back her statements, or argue they were taken out of proportion. Candidates do that. But the posts are her own words, written over multiple years, in her own voice, on her own public account. They are not a single offhand remark. They reflect a consistent worldview, one in which race defines every interaction, every institution exists to enforce racial hierarchy, and law enforcement should be eliminated rather than reformed.
Wisconsin voters deserve a governor who sees all of them as constituents, not as problems to navigate.
