Newsweek, August 2026
Democrats’ chances of holding on to the Wisconsin governor’s office have surged on prediction markets after moderate Democrat David Crowley won his party’s gubernatorial primary over progressive state Representative Francesca Hong. Crowley, who is seeking to become Wisconsin’s first Black governor, narrowly defeated Hong after pitching himself as the candidate best positioned to defeat U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany, who received President Donald Trump’s endorsement and won the Republican primary, in November. Crowley, who had quit the race in early July, revived his campaign with the endorsement of outgoing Democratic Governor Tony Evers less than two weeks later. Newsweek has contacted the Crowley and Tiffany campaigns for comment via email.
In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday night, Crowley said in part that “MAGA extremism is not the way that we want to go, it’s not where our state wants to go and it’s not the way that our country should be going. And at the end of the day, we need to make sure that we can defeat Donald Trump’s legacy and make sure that Tom Tiffany doesn’t become our governor.” In a separate interview with MS NOW’s Jen Psaki, Crowley was asked how he plans to gain Hong’s supporters following her loss. “We may not agree on everything, but I think that we can all agree on the fact that we need to defeat any MAGA extremist that’s going to be trying to occupy our governor’s office,” Crowley said in part in a rush transcript sent to Newsweek.
