Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley is projected to win the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin governor over Democratic Socialist state Assembly member Francesca Hong despite her lead in the polls earlier this week.
Hong’s record on Israel and antisemitism has been of concern to Wisconsin Jews, as well as Democratic figureheads more broadly.
She has appeared on livestream fundraisers with Hasan Piker, a left-wing critic of Israel, who has also supported Hong, as well as twice with Michael Beyer - also known as “Mike from PA”- who has referred to Jewish identity as “a constructed ethnicity, this demonic ethnicity, wholly invented.”
During one of her appearances with Beyer, Hong encouraged her constituents to fundraise for those on the “front lines in Gaza.”
Hong apologizes for misrepresenting 'anti-Zionism' as 'antisemitism'
While campaigning, Hong apologized for having called the police on a vandalized Israeli flag in her district in December 2023. At that time, she described the act as “highly antisemitic” and urged that it be investigated as a hate crime.
Explaining her change of heart about the call, Hong recently told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “The image was cropped and incomplete to misrepresent anti-Zionism as antisemitism – a distinction I take seriously.”
She has also called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government “genocidal” and advocated for overturning a ban on government contracts with businesses that boycott Israel. Additionally, she has criticized Wisconsin’s moderate Democratic governor for supporting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s controversial definition of antisemitism.
Andrew Lapin contributed to this report.