![\"AP](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AP-logo.png\" "\\"AP"){kind=logo}
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) \u2014 Progressive candidates for governor in Wisconsin and U.S. Senate in Minnesota are making their final pushes ahead of the Aug. 11 election, increasing the pressure on a Democratic establishment that has spent the year on its heels.<\/p>\n
The primaries come a week after Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated<\/a> Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan\u2019s divisive and costly U.S. Senate primary. El-Sayed\u2019s victory has energized the left while stoking fears among Democratic Party leaders<\/a> that the shift to the left, particularly in battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin, will make it more difficult to win in November.<\/p>\n Wisconsin\u2019s chaotic primary pits progressive against governor\u2019s pick<\/p>\n In Wisconsin, democratic socialist Francesca Hong is trying to win<\/a> a four-way Democratic primary for governor<\/a> where her top opponent has been endorsed by popular Gov. Tony Evers, who isn\u2019t seeking a third term.<\/p>\n Evers got behind<\/a> Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley on July 18, the same day Crowley reentered the race<\/a> after dropping out 10 days earlier. Crowley rejoined after the candidate he backed, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, ended her candidacy<\/a> amid a campaign finance scandal.<\/p>\n Evers and Crowley were crisscrossing the state together in the last days before final ballots are cast on Aug. 11.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like we caught lightning in a bottle,\u201d said Crowley, standing next to Evers at a stop to thank campaign volunteers in Madison on Aug. 11. \u201cMomentum is just growing and growing and growing.\u201d<\/p>\n Evers and more establishment Democrats were hoping to finally coalesce around Crowley in the final days of the chaotic primary<\/a> that saw two other candidates drop out, most notably former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes on July 29<\/a>.<\/p>\n Barnes and Rodriguez, who were both seen as potential front-runners, remain on the ballot and absentee votes already cast for them can\u2019t be undone<\/a>.<\/p>\n Republicans are spending to influence the Democratic primary<\/p>\n Republicans are putting money behind Hong, thinking she will be the better matchup for Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in November. The Republican Governors Association has spent nearly $3.6 million through its Right Direction Wisconsin PAC on ads contrasting Hong with President Donald Trump and playing up her liberal policies.<\/p>\n Crowley and other Democrats argue the ads are meant to bolster Hong\u2019s standing in the primary because Republicans see her as the easier opponent.<\/p>\n Evers projected confidence at a rally that attracted hundreds of people in Hong\u2019s hometown of Madison on the night of Aug. 9, saying Crowley was the best chance Democrats had to defeat Tiffany.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to win this thing,\u201d Evers said, telling the Crowley supporters that Tiffany would be \u201cthe worst governor in the history of Wisconsin.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf Tom Tiffany wins in November that will be like electing Donald Trump as governor of the state of Wisconsin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Crowley urged Democrats to come together after the primary to beat Tiffany.<\/p>\n \u201cOur ultimate goal is to make sure we don\u2019t have a MAGA extremist occupying the governor\u2019s office,\u201d Crowley said.<\/p>\n David Crowley, Democratic candidate for Wisconsin governor, center, takes a group photo with Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, right, and supporters gathered at the Sheboygan County Democratic Party office during a campaign stop on Aug. 7, 2026, in Sheboygan. (Credit: AP Photo \/ Kayla Wolf)<\/p>\n Hong, speaking to supporters on the afternoon of Aug. 10, said the coalition she built isn\u2019t just about winning the primary.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to come together to defeat Tom Tiffany,\u201d she said, adding that she would welcome Evers campaigning with her after the primary.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is about uniting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Tiffany, one of the most conservative members of Congress, is endorsed by Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n The president called Hong a communist in remarks on Aug. 5, where he mentioned a 2020 social media post by Hong calling for Thanksgiving to be canceled. Asked about the post this week, Hong reversed herself and said that Thanksgiving was her favorite holiday.<\/p>\n Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 and 2024, and Republicans have held majorities in both chambers of the Legislature since 2011. Holding onto the governor\u2019s office is key to Wisconsin Democrats\u2019 effort to gain full control<\/a> of state government for the first time in 16 years.<\/p>\n In the race to replace Tiffany, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy\u2019s son-in-law Michael Alfonso is in a five-person Republican primary. Alfonso, who is trying to represent Duffy\u2019s old congressional district, has Trump\u2019s endorsement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Minnesota primary comes in wake of immigration enforcement surge<\/p>\n In neighboring Minnesota, voters are choosing between moderate U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in a Democratic U.S. Senate primary that\u2019s playing out in the aftermath<\/a> of Trump\u2019s aggressive immigration enforcement surge in the state.<\/p>\n The race has been shaped by the killing of Renee Good<\/a> and Alex Pretti<\/a> by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, confrontations that were caught on camera<\/a> and fueled a backlash<\/a> to Trump\u2019s immigration policies.<\/p>\n Both Craig and Flanagan spent the weekend traversing the Twin Cities metro area.<\/p>\n In a driveway in suburban Eagan on Aug. 9, Craig spoke to the angst among Democratic primary voters who feel that Washington isn\u2019t working for them. Members of Congress need to stop trading stocks and becoming lobbyists when they leave office, she said, and the U.S. needs to restrict the flood of corporate campaign spending.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the only way we pass any of the progressive policies that all of us here support is by winning elections and taking damn majorities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Unlike in Wisconsin, where the incumbent governor has endorsed a candidate in the race to succeed him, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has not gotten involved in the Senate primary. But his wife, Gwen Walz, has endorsed Craig and campaigned with her on Aug. 9.<\/p>\n Flanagan campaigned Aug. 8 with U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, who helped her make the case that Washington needs a shake-up to root out the deep-pocketed forces propping up a broken status quo.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is big corporations, it\u2019s special interests who are putting their thumb on the scale in our elections across the country,\u201d Flanagan said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not just Republicans. It\u2019s Democrats, too.\u201d<\/p>\n The race has been one of the most expensive Minnesota has seen, with millions of dollars backing both candidates, but disproportionately falling in Craig\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n Whoever wins the primary will be the front-runner to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith in November. Minnesota voters haven\u2019t elected a Republican to a statewide office since 2006.<\/p>\n Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow, is a top Republican candidate in the governor\u2019s race. He\u2019s endorsed by Trump, and he was a prominent promoter of falsehoods about election fraud. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is in a six-person primary on the Democratic side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Scott Bauer and Jonathan J. Cooper, AP MADISON, Wis. (AP) \u2014 Progressive candidates for governor in Wisconsin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-809668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ap-politics-election-2026-governor-crowley-sheboygan-20260807.jpg\")
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