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Democratic socialists face a prove-it moment in battleground Wisconsin

By CNN

(CNN) — Francesca Hong, the democratic socialist leading Wisconsin’s Democratic field for governor, could soon test whether the progressive insurgency that notched primary victories in deep-blue districts this summer can prevail statewide in a perennial presidential battleground.

Polls show Hong, the 37-year-old state assemblywoman from Madison, at the forefront of the field of Democrats vying for the nomination in the August 11 primary to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. The winner is all but certain to take on Republican US Rep. Tom Tiffany in November.

Hong was already the frontrunner entering July. But the month saw her top two Democratic rivals’ campaigns implode. Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez exited amid a campaign finance scandal, and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes dropped out Thursday.

Evers and others are attempting to rally at the last minute around a more moderate alternative in David Crowley, the 40-year-old Milwaukee County executive who dropped out of the race in early July and then re-entered 10 days later. But even Crowley’s supporters acknowledge Hong is the clear frontrunner.

“Wisconsin is the quintessential swing state, but it’s also a very polarized state,” said Sheboygan Mayor Ryan Sorenson, who is supporting Crowley. “This is going to be a new chapter in a political science theory book: how do far left-wing and far right-wing candidates build a coalition and win elections.”

Tiffany isn’t waiting for the primary votes to be counted: He has already started to tee off on Hong, latching her to the Democratic Socialists of America’s platform and accusing her of supporting abolishing prisons, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the US Senate and more. He has also highlighted her history of calling for the defunding of police — an issue sure to feature prominently in a slew of Republican advertisements this fall.

Hong, who worked her way up from low-level kitchen jobs to become a top chef and restaurant co-owner, has tried to distance herself from some of the more politically problematic planks of the DSA platform.

“I do not support the full platform of the national DSA and I am not endorsed by DSA National,” she said in a recent debate. Hong also said that she is “not here to govern by slogan” and that a governor cannot defund the police.

But in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Friday, Hong wouldn’t directly answer when asked repeatedly if her views on defunding the police have changed.

Hong said Republicans who control the Wisconsin legislature are the ones who have defunded police by slashing dollars directed to local governments.

“People can evolve,” Hong said. “I am going to be a sensible and practical governor that is going to make sure that public safety is a priority.”

A party in flux

The election comes with the Democratic Party at a critical juncture, and many within it looking to the governor’s race in Wisconsin, a Senate primary this week in Michigan and other key races as potential signs of what’s to come in 2028, with a wide-open presidential primary looming.

For much of the last year, democratic socialists have been on the march — with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s win last year serving as an inflection point.

Democratic socialist Katie Wilson was elected mayor of Seattle last year and another, Janeese Lewis George, is poised to win the mayoral contest in Washington, DC, this November. In Los Angeles, democratic socialist Nithya Raman is challenging incumbent mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat. They’ve also won a series of congressional primaries, including ousting House incumbents in New York and Colorado.

But Hong is different: A democratic socialist running not on deep-blue turf but in a true political battleground.

Her supporters say Hong’s brand of politics is a break from a Democratic Party that polls show isn’t popular among voters — even those who oppose President Donald Trump.

“She has brought a coalition into the Democratic Party that otherwise had been shut out and told, ‘You don’t belong within this.’ And they’ve been showing up continuously. They definitely look different and act different than folks who have been around for a really long time, and frankly they should, because the political system has not worked for them,” said state Sen. Chris Larson, who represents parts of Milwaukee and is supporting Hong.

Republicans, meanwhile, have made no secret of how they intend to run against her. Republican Governors Association communications director Kollin Compton called Hong “the Mamdani of the Midwest.”

A chaotic primary

Hong’s rise comes in an election year in which Democrats have their first real shot at winning full control of Wisconsin’s state government in a generation. Under Evers, the party has won a majority on the state Supreme Court and forced a redraw of state legislative districts that ended a Republican gerrymander. This fall, Democrats hope to retain the governor’s office and flip both the state Senate and Assembly.

However, as Hong climbed in the polls, the state’s jittery Democratic establishment struggled to coalesce behind a more moderate alternative.

Crowley had dropped out amid lagging poll numbers in early July. But he re-entered the Democratic primary on July 18, and received Evers’ endorsement. Barnes’ exit left Crowley as likely the only viable contender in the race aside from Hong.

Still, he’s far behind: A Marquette Law School poll conducted in late July found Hong with 38% support among Democratic primary voters to 16% for Barnes, who at the time was still in the race, 7% for Crowley, and no other candidate topping the 2% mark. The poll found Hong is strongest among young and very liberal voters; Barnes and Crowley performed better among older and more moderate voters.

In an effort to rally Democrats who are concerned about Hong, Crowley will campaign alongside Evers in the race’s closing days.

“I’m not here to protect the establishment. I’m here to deliver real results for Wisconsinites all over our state,” Crowley said in the recent Democratic debate.

How Hong defends her positions

Hong addressed her status as a democratic socialist — she’s a dues-paying member of the local Madison chapter — she said in a Fox News interview on Friday.

“I believe that as a democratic socialist, you know, I am less defined by just one organization, but clearly our bipartisan coalition means I’m more defined by being a good single mom, that I am a service industry worker, that I truly believe in legislation that helps everyone,” she said. “And these are the things that people want to talk about in rural and urban parts of the state.”

She walked back some of the stances she has taken, such as supporting calls to eliminate the US Senate, which she said Friday is “nonsensical and nonpractical at this time.”

But a social media post from Tiffany that followed Hong’s Fox News appearance offered a preview of what she would face in the general election.

Instead of clipping her comments, Tiffany on X posted a still image of Fox News displaying Hong’s years-old social media comments.

A 2021 post included in that image says: “Police exist to uphold white supremacy. Defund then abolish. Reform can’t be an option.”

“The facts speak louder than campaign spin,” Tiffany said.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Russia and Ukraine have stepped up their aerial war. Civilians are paying the price

By CNN
(CNN) — The front lines of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are largely stagnant. But in the skies, the war is ratcheting up.Each sides’ offensive capabilities now appear to be outstripping their air defenses, analysts say. That means more strikes are hitting their targets, more critical and economic infrastructure is being damaged, and more civilians are killed each week.“We definitely see an increased number of (attack) events, an increased number of casualties as well,” said Olha Polishchuk, the Eastern Europe research manager at ACLED, a global conflict monitor. “There has been an escalation also with regard to the variety of targets that are hit.”Ukraine has long been able to hit areas of Russia that are thousands of miles away from the front line, but the sophistication of its drone technologies has increased rapidly in the last year. In late June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a 40-day campaign to ramp up drone strikes deep into Russian territory – a push that his top adviser has said will continue.“That is a significant issue for Russia, because obviously the past 40 days have demonstrated that they have a serious weakness when it comes to interception, and Ukraine has been able to reach their targets quite successfully,” said Natia Seskuria, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a UK-based security think tank.Rather than occasional long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries, Ukraine is now carrying out frequent attacks on refineries, oil tankers, power substations and broader energy infrastructure, according to ACLED’s Polishchuk. Kyiv has also increased aerial attacks aimed at disrupting Russian military logistics in the occupied eastern areas.The analysts also noted an increase in attacks targeting the Russian economy more broadly, such as strikes on the warehouses of Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries. The Ukrainian government has said the facilities are legitimate military targets because the company supplies Russia’s frontline troops.Kyiv also recently broke through Russian defenses in St. Petersburg and has repeatedly hit Moscow.It appears to be an effort to bring the war home to everyday Russian people and to place more pressure on the business elite, who may have some sway with the Kremlin, to push for an end to the full-scale invasion.In addition, Seskuria said, Ukraine’s long-range strike campaign has a “pragmatic aim to slow down Russia’s summer offensive, in terms of stretching Russia’s resources towards intercepting the drone attacks.”Earlier in the conflict, Russia concentrated its air defense systems at the border with Ukraine and along the front line, Ukrainian military sources previously told CNN. But Kyiv’s strategy has been to target many different locations inside occupied areas of eastern Ukraine and Russia, forcing the Russian military to spread its air defense systems into a more threadbare tapestry.Recent attacks have also exposed how Russia’s air defense systems were not designed to combat drones, but rather to shoot down conventional military aircraft and missiles, analysts previously told CNN. Video captured in June showed Russian soldiers scrambling to respond to one attack by firing off man portable air defense systems (MANPADS) on a busy highway.Ukrainian forces have also slammed Russian-occupied Crimea, with ACLED recording a significant uptick in June of strikes targeting the peninsula’s power and transportation infrastructure.But the increase in air strikes goes both ways.“We’ve seen all of those strikes that Ukraine conducts also mirrored in Ukraine,” Polishchuk said. “So, after the attacks on Wildberries, for example, now a lot of warehouses in Ukraine belonging to the Rozetka electronic store have been targeted.”Meanwhile, on the front line, ACLED recorded a decline in armed clashes in recent months. Russia continues to push forward and capture some small settlements, but overall movement “has been very, very slow,” Polishchuk said.Civilian death toll mountingThe escalation in the air war has led to even more civilian casualties.In June, the United Nations recorded the highest number of civilians in Ukraine killed and injured in a single month since 2022. In Ukraine, at least 1,396 civilians were killed and 7,978 wounded in the first half of this year – a 37% increase compared to the same time period in 2025. The vast majority of those civilian casualties occurred in areas of Ukrainian government control, according to the UN, but some were recorded in Russian-occupied areas.The Russian foreign ministry has said that at least 797 Russian civilians have been killed so far this year. CNN and international monitoring groups are unable to independently verify that figure.Russia’s nightly assaults on Ukraine well exceed the number of attacks it is experiencing at home. Last month, Moscow launched a daily average of 172 strikes on Ukraine, compared to 28 on average launched by Kyiv.And for months, Russia has increased the number of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles it fires in each attack wave, a strategy intended to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses.Those mass aerial attacks are in addition to small drone attacks targeting civilians in cities close to the front line, who have previously described feeling like victims of a “drone safari” carried out by Russian troops. Russia denies targeting civilians.In July, Russia fired 139 ballistic missiles into Ukraine, more than in any other month this year, according to analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Ballistic missiles are particularly difficult to defend against because they move at a speed and altitude that requires US-made Patriot interceptor missiles, which are both expensive and in short supply.Earlier this week, at least 17 people were killed in Kyiv and surrounding areas as Russia fired more than two dozen ballistic missiles and anti-ship missiles – none of which were shot down.Zelensky has repeatedly appealed to allies for more Patriot interceptors, but the war with Iran has complicated that effort, having diminished stockpiles of US-made weapons. Ukrainian hopes were buoyed when US President Donald Trump promised at last month’s NATO summit to allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot interceptors on its own soil. But Trump later walked that back.Window for diplomacy?Beyond the Patriot interceptors, some observers have noted that both the United States and Ukraine’s allies in Europe could be doing more to bolster the country’s position, and to enable talks that finally end the four-and-a-half-year war.The US had allocated more than $130 billion (115 billion euros) in support to Ukraine before February 2025, according to the Kiel Institute, a think tank based in Germany. But Congress has not passed any new major financial or military aid packages for Ukraine during the second Trump administration.Ukraine does appear to have some momentum right now, and it’s plausible that some negotiation could happen at a time when Kyiv is in a more confident position, Polishchuk said. “But from what we’ve seen so far, it has been so ineffective to try to negotiate with Russia.”She said it’s more likely that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war calculation would only change based on internal pressure in Russia, which could increase as its economy suffers.RUSI’s Seskuria also said she doesn’t see a strong window for diplomacy right now.“The problem is that (Putin) no longer has the leverage that he had back in the days when he started negotiating with the United States, and the United States back then had a more favorable position towards Russia,” she told CNN, adding that it would currently be hard for the Kremlin to portray an end to the war as any great victory.“I think the other option is escalation, which is probably more likely.”CNN’s Alex Leeds Matthews and Anna Chernova contributed to this report.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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