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Here’s an easy lesson for rising political hopefuls to draw from Francesca Hong’s failed bid to be Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee: Don’t demonize Thanksgiving.
Hong, a chef, state legislator and democratic socialist, was the clear front-runner in the Democratic primary race until a social media comment she posted six years ago, now deleted, turned up, in the way that old tweets often do to embarrass political candidates.
You didn’t have to be a right-winger to slap your forehead, shake your head and condemn cheap shots at a holiday long cherished by countless families yet dismissed by Hong as a glorification of colonialism.
She backpedaled on those past remarks, but one way or another her polling lead evaporated, and last Tuesday she lost to a moderate opponent, David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive.
Although Hong had campaigned on a platform that no doubt appealed to many Wisconsin voters, by the end she was beleaguered by questions about Turkey Day and whether she still believed in defunding the police.
Such left-wing stars as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, refrained from endorsing Hong, despite campaigning for other prominent progressives, including Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
Such hesitancy about Hong and her hot-button holiday heat signaled a renewed appreciation of moderated rhetoric even among the progressives in pursuit of restoring unity to the Democratic Party and calming the concerns of independent voters.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez suggested the dawn of a new post-“woke” era to replace “Woke 1” like a now model of automobile.
“Woke 1 was crazy,” she said, laughing, during a Sunday appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”
Translation: Some Democratic candidates (including herself) were distancing themselves from extreme statements like “Defund the police” that were all the rage, quite literally, in the volatile context of 2020’s protests over the killing of George Floyd.
“I think that what’s important is that we have to assess what a candidate is saying now,” she said.
“Woke 1” (or 1.0, as some call it) presumably met its demise in 2024 with the re-election of Donald Trump. What Woke 2.0 looks like, or if it even exists, is not for me to say. Yet progressive candidates are learning that the “woke” frame continues to be a bludgeon used against them, and however pure their intentions may be, they need to formulate their positions and explain themselves to voters with care.
Calls for the blanket defunding of police or throwing open the doors to prisons and jails don’t play so well when you’re running for governor or Senate -- or the presidency, an office that some speculate AOC has her eye on.
The same message came from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in a later news conference. People can “change” and “develop” their beliefs, he said, adding that he, too, does not support problematic positions like defunding the police, although he is on record as having done so in the past.
So far, Mamdani has pretty much governed in that fashion, and other progressive-wing voices, wishing to avoid snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory, seem to be showing a new respect for their fellow partisans in the political ground.
If they keep that up and avoid too much infighting, Democrats will be able to enjoy Trump’s gift to them: his administration’s seemingly endless controversies that have put his popularity ratings on the skids.
For example, while Wisconsin’s votes were being counted, Trump’s approval rating continued its downward slide amid the interminable Iran war and its knock-on effects on the economy and affordability.
The latest survey from The Economist/YouGov, published Monday, found only 33% of respondents said they approved of how Trump has handled his job as president. Another 62% indicated they disapproved.
Yet, with the economy on so many minds, the president has famously -- or should I say “infamously” -- disparaged “affordability” as a “con job” and “word made up by the Democrats” and, oh, yes, by the media to criticize him.
Trump calls the Democrats “Dumb-ocrats” and Social Democrats “godless communists.” And the Republicans have largely adopted this name-calling as their campaign strategy for November. Not exactly ground-breaking stuff.
But, as I always caution, it’s early. With the midterms less than three months away, there’s still time for either party to lose. And the same goes for the next presidential election in 2028, when Trump (presumably) will not be on the ballot.
The Democrats would do well to remember the lessons of 1972, the first election in which I was old enough to vote.
Richard Nixon was well-positioned to win re-election. The economy was recovering from a recession, he was winding down the Vietnam War, and with his trips to Beijing and Moscow, he had largely defused the Cold War.
Yet his victory was a historic landslide, in which he won more than 60% of the popular vote (a GOP high water mark) and carried every state but Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. He owed this stunning result to an unexpected gift: Democratic disarray.
Long story short, the Democrats had failed to patch up their differences in time. George McGovern had won the Democratic nomination on his bona fides as an antiwar liberal, and that inspired more traditionalist elements in the party, such as some labor unions and Southerners, to start an “Anybody But McGovern” campaign.
In order to win in 2028, the Democrats have to do more than wait for the current president to destroy his own presidency. They need to nominate someone without dividing themselves and destroying their own chances.
Their challenge begins now.
(E-mail Clarence Page at clarence47page@gmail.com.)