Kelda Roys’ secret Signal Chat has been leaked, according to a self-described liberal man named Ethan Rouse who says he infiltrated it. The chat exposes her plan to “get” Francesca Hong, to “astroturf comment sections and flood polls,” and to “attack the candidate most ideologically aligned with them,” wrote Rouse, sharing screenshots.
A message on the screenshotted chat read, “We are coming up fast, Sara fell off the board, and Hong is going down.” The leaked screenshots show a “Team Kelda” strategy to paint Hong as misleading voters about her anti-data center stridency, as well as to go after her for opposing police because elderly Democrats don’t like it.
The leaked chat sparked a round of infighting and back-and-forth on the comment thread among liberals. “This is very typical of Kelda, which is one of the reasons I can’t support her,” wrote Christine Sinicki, a Democrat state representative from Milwaukee.
“For the last few months, I’ve been in a Kelda Roy’s Signal chat, and here are just a few of the spicy things that have been put inside of it that I was able to get screenshots of before they deleted it (there was worse),” wrote Rouse. “With Kelda Roy’s betting odds less than *checks notes* JOSH KAUL (someone that isn’t running), she is only taking away votes from Francesca Hong and is a spoiler for the progressive movement, just like Elizabeth Warren was to Bernie Sanders in 2020.”
Added Rouse: “Kelda Roys would send out multiple emails telling people to vote in endorsement polls, while the Hong campaign would not. The Roys campaign in the pictures is actively telling people to attack the candidate most ideologically aligned with them, while the Hong campaign would not. The Roys campaign seems significantly more invested in taking down Hong than a progressive making it to the general. The campaign has told staff to astroturf comment sections and flood polls while the Hong campaign has not.”
“Let me reiterate: at this point, the Kelda Roys campaign serves only to attack Francesca Hong, as they are attacking no one else. They are actively hurting the progressive movement and going to lose goodwill for it. If she were to drop out and endorse Fran, there would be an opening for a 2028 US Senate run, but Roys seems to be too selfish to get behind the leading progressive,” added Rouse.
‘Kelda, Kelda, Kelda’
The screenshots show Roys telling her supporters to trash Hong and to boost Roys by praising Roys in comment threads. It also reveals a strategy to paint Hong as a fake for her staunch opposition to data centers. Rouse has shared pro-socialist and Hong posts in the past.
Bryna Caves, a daycare owner who is running as a Democrat for state Assembly, wrote in the Signal screenshots, “Also, (Mandela) Barnes made a good point that no one (Hong included) has introduced any legislation to make a one-year moratorium for the state, would that be helpful to mention in comments? Her supporters laud her tough on data center stance but it’s not true.”
“Yes,” Roys responded, according to Rouse’s screenshot. Eight minutes later, Bryna Caves wrote, “Sara’s out!!!” (Wisconsin Right Now reached out to Roys’ campaign for comment. If we receive a response, we will add it into this story.)
In one message, Roys allegedly advised her team, “Yes, exactly! Not just searching Kelda but the other candidates and ‘Wisconsin Governor race’ and posting on news stories. Quantity over quality!”
“My 60year old neighbors (democrats) told me Fran’s stance on the police is why they ‘can’t stand her.’ 620wtmj just did an interview, go get her,” wrote Caves on Signal, according to the screenshot.
In another message, Roys allegedly wrote, “It’s about flooding the zone with many brief positive mentions during this next critical week. Our campaign has just made a huge bet, putting a massive ad buy behind it. We are ready to capitalize on this moment.”
Caves responded, “Also anything related to the governor race (type it into the search icon on socials) COMMENT on it. Try for at least 10+ comments a day. (I’m shooting for way more than that for myself.) We need to push back against Hong’s internet army.”
Ethan Rouse also says Roys wrote a message to her Team Kelda supporters on Signal. He shared a screenshot of that message, in which Roys allegedly asks people to “please post about me. We need the people reading to see ‘Kelda Kelda Kelda’ in the comments. These don’t have to be long essays about why I’m the strongest candidate to back (though that’s fine). It’s about flooding the zone with many brief positive mentions during this next critical week.”
Roys claimed she had “already earned the support of many Crowley and Rodriguez supporters….We need your help to shape the narrative…”
Bryna Caves Responds
Caves herself responded on Rouse’s comment thread where he shared the screenshots – and she didn’t deny any of it. Instead, she went after Hong supporters and Hong.
“I’ll say it again, Kelda is equally as progressive as Hong but is wildly more qualified and the best to beat Tom Tiffany. I’m ride or die for Kelda. Also, you’re just doing my work for me. go ahead and tell everyone her data stance is weaker than what she presents and she wants to defund the police. Please and thank you,” she wrote on the Rouse comment thread. She added that “Hong supporters are clutching their pearls.”
A man named Alex Calibur responded to Caves, quoting the screenshots, “You’re just saying that because Kelda told you to. Kelda Kelda Kelda.” Caves retorted, “That is absolutely not true. I was on team Hong originally. Donated to her and everything. Then I did my research and switched to Kelda. And I’m all Kelda. Kelda. Kelda because I want a progressive candidate that can beat Tiffany and start giving the people what we deserve on day one. She’s got way better policies. Read about her healthcare ideas. Her plan to end the voucher program. This woman has got more brains and badassness in her pinky finger than all the other candidates combined.”
‘Fran Dropped Out of College’
Caves added on the Rousecomment thread, “Kelda has been fighting the establishment and pushing for progressive policies since before Fran dropped out of college.”
That incensed another person, who wrote, “See? Your snarky dig at Fran being a college dropout is kind of proving Chris’s point. Kelda doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the primary. Are you going to vote for Hong when she gets the nomination? Or are you going to spite vote for Tiffany?”
Rouse alleged, “I’m getting attacked by democratic party leadership in another repost, but little do they know they are have said and done a lot that others will testify too (sic).”
Roys, the candidate endorsed by WEAC, is a state senator who is one of four candidates remaining in the race, but she had only 2 percent in the last Marquette Poll. The other Democrats still competing in the Aug. 11 primary are establishment pick David Crowley; socialist and DSA member Fran Hong; former Evers’ cabinet official Joel Brennan; and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.
As Rouse noted, Roys has tried to stake a position on the far left alongside Hong.
‘I Was Invited to Their Signal Chat’
In another post, Rouse wrote: “People are going to blame organizations or campaigns for what the Kelda Roys campaign has said in their own chats; a group that no organization knew I was in. Pointing out that Kelda Roys making up from a low single-digit to winning the primary is nearly impossible is not a sexist statement. I was invited to their Signal chat through several campaign communications.”
“In the same way that the lower-pollled progressives in the congressional race in Chicago should have dropped out and endorsed the top-polling candidate, the same thing should have been done here. The Roys campaign, through the messages from earlier, only seems interested in attacking the top contender exclusively when there are wider gaps in policy between Roys and other candidates. On what exactly? Attacking Hong on her AI datacenter position, on which she is with the vast majority of Americans, and on which Hong is the only one who raised the paddle in support of a moratorium in a forum,” he added.
“Be noted that the post was not in service of Francesca. In the next few days around the primary, I was planning to do an analysis of each of the major candidates and look at their platforms and history from a *liberal* perspective, not leftist. I’ll give you a teaser: the idea of entirely abolishing the police would always be a PR disaster; calling the police on Palestine protesters wasn’t a good look. Another candidate: accepting $251,415 from the Israel lobby is not a good look for a party moving quickly to the left on this issue. Yet a different candidate: their old Twitter posts are not a good look either,” he added.
“To boil this whole thing down: The Kelda Roys campaign would need to pull off an upset never seen before to win, and they are attacking the frontrunner who ideologically aligns with them the most over those who differ from Roys significantly in an attempt to do that. Because of this strategy, they increase the likelihood that someone who doesn’t align with them wins the primary. From people more politically active then myself months ago, they predicted this scenario,” claimed Rouse.
Other people weighed in on Rouse’s comment thread.
“We have seen that behavior before from the Roys camp. Let them self destruct in silence. Let them quote the lies Republicans propagandists print if they want,” wrote a man named Sean Downing.
Christina Stratton wrote, “I am tired of the —it show! I have never seen this much in house fighting and attacks on and between candidates that I can remember.”
A guy named Mike Doan wrote Rouse, “You’re doing the very same thing that you accuse Democratic politicians of doing.”
A woman named Lauren Christine wrote, “This is completely based on vibes but I just get the feeling that Kelda thinks she’s more entitled than Francesca to be governor. I’ll vote for her if she becomes the nominee but she’s not my primary pick.”
Rouse explained, “I never made an attempt to join it, they just kept texting and emailing the invite to join. It was a read-only chat with 40 members in it, only a few messages over months.”
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