Here are the winners and losers from the only televised debate in the Wisconsin Democrat primary.
Mixed: Fran Hong
What does she stand for anymore? She threw her much vaunted principles under the bus at the first sign of pressure. She’s now FOR the police? Yeah, right, lady, you just stood in the middle of a crowd with a megaphone and threw a cop under the bus. It’s on video, and that’s not going to go away – but now you look feckless and weak besides.
She has a pile of anti-police comments and legislative votes out there, so her debate comments about not supporting defunding the police will easily be exposed as an insincere and craven flip flop. Same with her comments trying to distance from DSA, a group she belongs to, and whose chapters endorsed her and are aggressively organizing for her as we speak. This doesn’t seem honest; minimally it confuses her brand. Plus, she outright lied about her tax plan.
Hong’s entire image is predicated on this gutsy speak truth-to-power persona, but she just showed that she will sell out any principle for access to power – she’s just another politician, and that’s the worst thing she could be. She also lacked gravitas on stage. She simply doesn’t have the charisma of Mamdani or Trump. The populist warrior princess seemed like a kid at the adult table. She carefully modulated her answers and didn’t seem as versed on policy as others. She misspoke – saying she wants to give a better quality of life to millionaires. What? She didn’t dominate.
I kept her as mixed, not loser, because her delicate soft-spoken demeanor and repudiation of her past extreme stances make her seem less scary to voters. She doesn’t match the fiery revolutionary they’ve heard about. There’s a disconnect between image and reality. Barnes and Brennan did well enough to keep the field divided, which helps Hong. She led by a lot in a primary poll released right before the debate. And many of her diehard believers will still see her curated faux revolutionary image because they’re watching her on TikTok – not linear TV. Still, it’s hard to see which clip she could send viral from this performance. She was kind of boring. She’s almost in loser category here. Plus, she looked pretty nutty on video when she was cornered about her contradictions in the spin room. (Update: the next morning, a Marquette poll showed her WAY ahead of the rest of the field. This article was written before that poll.)
Winner: Joel Brennan
I’ve said for weeks that he was Democrats’ best candidate for a general election. Too bad they didn’t figure that out until it’s too late. He had the most gravitas on stage, and his experience and understanding of policy/business stood out. He had nowhere to go but up, but it’s probably too late. He will grow, though. Why didn’t Tony Evers endorse his former cabinet secretary again? He did have a gaffe at the end when he said the common thread among the candidates is losing to Trump and Tiffany. Oops. But it didn’t really overshadow a strong debate performance.
Winner: The Color Green
Hong looked like Gumby, dressed in a bright green pantsuit, but it kind of worked for her by making her seem different from the regular politicians.
Winner: Mandela Barnes
Barnes needed to stand out, and I thought he did. At times, he seemed to be searching for answers on policy, but he had “the moment” – accusing the establishment of rigging the primary. He’s closer to Mamdani than Fran Hong is when it comes to having a presence on stage. He lives to see another day, but will he be locked out of the data and money needed to compete? He sank to third in a debate day poll, albeit barely. This keeps him alive.
He was the only one who took a shot at anyone else. The others played it super genteel like they were sipping mint juleps together at a tea party. But he took shots at Crowley, not the woman leading in the polls, which is sort of odd.
Winner: Tom Tiffany
Tiffany benefits if socialist loon Fran Hong ends up the nominee. Establishment pick David Crowley needed to dominate and clear the field to increase his chances of ousting Hong. That didn’t happen, so the field remained divided, which helps Hong, which helps Tiffany.
Mixed: David Crowley
As a conservative independent, I appreciated two reasonable answers he gave: he’s not for eliminating vouchers (Brennan also had a good answer on that), and he was for the bipartisan surplus deal. This reinforced what I said before. Crowley isn’t a nutball (at least when he’s not contributing to crazy social media pages.) He has a reasonable streak. This matches what some Republicans have told me – that he can be worked with. However, most Democrat primary voters aren’t going to be hunting for any sign of conservatism.
My Democrat mom went into the debate leaning toward Crowley largely because of a TV ad she saw and ended up leaning toward Brennan and Barnes, completely underwhelmed by Crowley. I think he needed to stand out and dominate. He needed to demonstrate why, of all of the people on stage, Tony Evers anointed him, and I don’t think he did that. He didn’t put it away, minimally.
Another reason he’s mixed: he’s been touting all the revenue he’s got flowing in from the establishment. Even my mom loved his ad with Evers. How many voters will see the ad vs the debate? Can millions of dollars and targeted GOTV for Crowley buy him a path?
Loser: Tony Evers
See above. Plus, he basically got accused of being an election rigger and only Crowley supported his surplus deal. With friends like these…
Mixed: Robin Vos
The Assembly Speaker lives rent free in Democrats’ minds and he already announced his retirement.
Winner: The Police
Even all of the Democrat candidates agreed not to defund the police, much less abolish them. Guess we won that one. Even Bullhorn Fran is now pro-police. I think she’s lying, though. Who knew having a socialist in the mix would force Democrats to be more pro police. Ha.
Winner: The Moderators
Matt Smith and Gerron Jordan did a good job. They asked pointed questions with some good follow ups.
Winner: The Spin Room & Jason Calvi
The craziest Hong videos came out of the spin room. That’s where the reporters really pinned her down. Good job Jason Calvi.
Loser: DSA
Even their great socialist hope in the Heartland, Fran Hong, is pretending she doesn’t want anything to do with the extremist group she belongs to and whose state chapters endorsed her and one is organizing for her. Sorry, Fran, we don’t believe you. Madison DSA sent out a press release endorsing you.
Loser: Hasan Piker
He didn’t get mentioned once.
Loser: The Format
The moderators did well with what they had, but the debate was too short and didn’t lend itself to enough follow-up questions or true debate between candidates. That might be because there were so many of them.
Loser: Kelda Roys
She didn’t bomb, but she needed a moment and didn’t get it. She faded into the woodwork, and, since she’s hovering around 2%, that’s bad. She didn’t really connect and leaned too much on reciting her resume.
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