Are Mainstream Democrats Taking Back the Wheel?

Froma Harrop on Aug 13, 2026

You couldn't find a wackier candidate than Francesca Hong, the Democratic Socialist vying to become the governor of Wisconsin. She wanted to defund police and abolish ICE, topping it all off with a call to end Thanksgiving. "Saturday Night Live" couldn't have made her up.

Hong lost the Democratic primary but left behind some sobering thoughts. She finished second by only a hair and against a sterling Democrat with relevant experience. The winner, David Crowley, is the Milwaukee County executive and an African American born into poverty.

Crowley will face off against Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, a MAGA right-winger who voted against certifying the 2020 election. GOP-aligned groups spent heavily to promote Hong's candidacy for obvious reasons.

You know who put Crowley over the top? Rural Wisconsin voters.

Over in Michigan, the wily Abdul El-Sayed, endorsed by the fringe-left leaders, beat Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens by a similar tiny margin. She did extraordinarily well in working-class areas in and around Detroit. El-Sayed flew to victory on the wings of college towns.

Could normal Democrats build an alliance between the urban working class and rural voters? That might become a more pressing requirement if El-Sayed loses to Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, which will probably happen. El-Sayed has burned bridges with many Jewish voters, a constituency Democrats have traditionally relied upon. He also has his inflammatory influencer friend, Hasan Piker -- who said America deserved 9/11 -- hanging around his neck.

Rogers is an establishment Republican who defended the 2020 election results that made Joe Biden president. He has since veered more toward MAGA and won Donald Trump's endorsement in the Republican Party.

But Trump undoubtedly figured that Rogers would have a better chance of victory in this swing state than a fire-breathing right-winger. And a Rogers win in November could keep majority control of the Senate in Republican hands.

Are we done with polls yet? Polls issued right before these primaries showed both Hong and El-Sayed beating their opponents by double digits. The photo-finish results suggest the pollsters know nothing. But belief in their "findings" can alter election outcomes.

A Marquette poll from March showed Crowley supported by only 3% of Democratic primary voters. He left the race believing that Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez would be the stronger Democrat. He also didn't want to split the mainstream Democrats' votes. When Rodriguez later dropped out due to finance accounting problems, Crowley jumped back in.

Looking forward to 2028, the Democratic National Committee has chosen South Carolina as the site of its first presidential primary. That makes some Democratic Socialists uncomfortable. In 2020, South Carolina played a major role in making Joe Biden the Democratic nominee over Bernie Sanders. In earlier contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, the generally white and college-educated electorate had sent Sanders toward the head of the pack.

Come South Carolina and the other Southern Democratic primaries with their huge African American voting bloc, Biden shot ahead. It wasn't because the voters were "conservative," as Sanders grumbled. It's because they cared more about health coverage, racial fairness and income inequality than the left's boutique issues: defunding police, transgender rights and the obsession with identity politics. What did Latinx mean?

Mostly, it was the belief, a correct belief, that Biden could beat Trump, and Sanders could not. Black voters favored Biden over Sanders by 4 to 1.

Moderate Democrats may be finally putting up effective resistance to the highly organized fringe left. Step one is reorganizing primaries to better reflect the preferences of the Democratic mainstream. Step two is getting Democratic normies out to vote. Step three is to build on issues regular people care about. They can do it.

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Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

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