Rep. Ro Khanna defended his backing of democratic socialist Francesca Hong after she lost Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary to establishment-backed David Crowley, a defeat that even prominent progressives saw coming and quietly avoided.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley edged Hong by just over 3,200 votes out of roughly 787,000 cast, National Review reported, with Decision Desk HQ calling the race early Wednesday morning. The narrow margin belied the breadth of Hong's political liabilities, a record so far left that even Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez refused to put their names behind her.
Khanna, a California Democrat, took to X on Wednesday to frame the loss as a matter of unfair labeling rather than a rejection of Hong's positions. He accused unnamed critics of "caricaturing and labeling candidates based on a few statements" and said he remained "proud" of his endorsement.
A few statements, though, is a generous way to describe the trail Hong left behind.
Hong, a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, built a campaign on single-payer health care, free childcare, and a pause on data centers. Those were the policy planks Khanna highlighted. He did not mention the rest.
The rest included past social media posts calling to "defund and abolish the police" and a 2021 call to "cancel Thanksgiving." Hong later walked both positions back. In July, she said she would not be able to defund the police as governor, an acknowledgment that landed less as a change of heart than as a concession to political reality.
Beyond policing and holidays, Hong voted against a bill imposing penalties on adults who groom children, denounced the Fourth of July, and condemned hospitals for not providing sex-change operations to minors, the Washington Free Beacon reported. She also accepted an endorsement from streamer Hasan Piker, whom the Beacon described as a "Hamas-loving Maoist influencer" who said America deserved the 9/11 attacks.
That association drew its own backlash during the campaign, adding to a growing list of controversies that made Hong a difficult candidate for anyone outside the DSA orbit to defend.
Khanna framed his endorsement as standing on principle. But the most prominent figures in the progressive movement made a different calculation. Sanders declined to back Hong. So did Ocasio-Cortez. So did Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Mark Pocan, Newsmax reported.
That was not accidental. A progressive Democratic strategist told Newsmax that the institutional left "mostly stayed away" by design. Sanders's decision to sit out the race days before the primary spoke volumes about how even the party's socialist wing assessed Hong's viability.
"Bernie, AOC, and most national groups stayed out. Abdul El-Sayed was a great foot forward, Graham Platner was not, and we didn't need our political reputation hanging on this race."
That was a progressive strategist's blunt assessment, per Newsmax. A Democratic operative involved with progressive campaigns was even more direct: "The people who made those calls are relieved."
Ocasio-Cortez went further, actively distancing herself from the "defund the police" language that Hong had championed, a notable retreat from a slogan AOC herself once embraced.
Crowley's victory marked the first major win for center-left Democrats in weeks. Progressive and democratic socialist candidates had racked up a string of primary victories in recent months, including Abdul El-Sayed's win in Michigan's U.S. Senate race the prior week, AP News reported. Wisconsin broke the pattern.
Gov. Tony Evers backed Crowley and celebrated the result. "I am so proud of David, he's the future of our Party, and I can't wait for him to be our next governor," Evers said, per Fox News.
Crowley's campaign manager, Garren Randolph, framed the win as a coalition play. "David is focused on bringing people together, earning the support of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and anyone who believes Wisconsin is at its best when we work together and deliver results," Randolph said.
One detail the Khanna post did not address: pro-Republican super PACs spent millions to boost Hong during the primary, viewing her as the weakest possible Democratic nominee against Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in the general election. GOP strategists wanted Hong on the ballot. Democratic voters gave them Crowley instead.
Khanna's Wednesday post leaned heavily on Hong's personal story, "a daughter of Korean immigrants, a single mother, a small business owner of a restaurant who struggled", while treating her policy record as a sideshow inflated by bad-faith critics.
As The Hill reported, Khanna wrote that he "categorically reject[s] the idea that the Democratic party must play the same name calling games" as President Trump, "reducing people's identity to labels for political games."
But Hong's problems were not about labels. They were about positions she took, votes she cast, and associations she chose. Calling to abolish the police is not a label imposed by critics, it was her own demand, posted in her own words. Voting against a child-grooming bill is not a caricature. It is a legislative record.
A Wisconsin Democratic operative offered a cooler read of the landscape. "There's a ceiling" for democratic socialism in Wisconsin, the operative told Newsmax, a verdict that had less to do with name-calling than with where voters actually draw the line.
Resurfaced posts about race and "whiteness" added yet another layer of controversy to a candidacy that seemed engineered to test how far left a Democratic primary electorate would go.
Hong told supporters after the loss, "We have built something that will change politics forever." Crowley struck a different note: "Our ultimate goal is to make sure we don't have a MAGA extremist occupying the governor's office."
Khanna can remain proud of his endorsement. But when Sanders won't touch a candidate, when AOC walks the other way, and when the candidate's own party operatives say they are "relieved" she lost, the problem is not caricature. It is the candidate.
