US Politics Turns Attention to Korean American Gubernatorial Candidate: "A Leftist Shaking Up Democratic Mainstream"

▲ Francesca Hong, Wisconsin State Representative

Ahead of the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Wisconsin, a key Midwestern swing state, a "democratic socialist" candidate of Korean descent is drawing keen attention from Washington political circles.

The U.S. daily The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) spotlighted 37-year-old Francesca Hong, a state representative whose Korean name is Hong Yoon-jung, who is running in the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary scheduled for August 11.

The newspaper reported, "In Wisconsin, which produced a razor-thin result in the 2024 presidential election, far-left candidate Hong is leading in the polls," introducing her as "a democratic socialist bartender who is shaking up the Democratic mainstream."

Hong, a second-generation Korean American, was elected in 2020 as the first Asian American state representative in Wisconsin history.

She belongs to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a faction creating a whirlwind in recent elections following the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Having run a restaurant for seven years in the past, she faced financial difficulties after closing it down due to rising labor and living costs.

She still works periodically as a bartender.

With this background, Hong has been drawing the attention of national politics with striking policy pledges.

Universal childcare, running public grocery stores, total student loan forgiveness, state-level healthcare integration, the introduction of a 32-hour workweek, and the establishment of a state development bank are among her core pledges.

In addition, she supports abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), restoring voting rights for criminals, and ultimately downsizing or abolishing police and prisons.

Hong recently recorded a leading approval rating of 26% in a poll.

However, more than 40% of respondents answered that they have yet to decide on a candidate, and with subsequent dropouts and re-announcements of runs by some candidates, room for a shift in the race remains.

This primary is evaluated as a test bed to gauge whether democratic socialists within the Democratic Party can win beyond traditional strongholds even in swing states.

The Democratic mainstream is reportedly wary of the impact that the strong ideological clarity of Hong's campaign will have on the general election sentiment in November.

The WSJ also pointed out that concerns are being raised within the Democratic Party over Hong's general election competitiveness, noting that it "shows division and confusion within the Democratic Party."

There is a perspective that if a far-left candidate runs in the general election in Wisconsin, where victory and defeat were split by a narrow margin during the 2024 presidential election, it could work disadvantageously in the head-to-head matchup against Republican candidate U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany.

Joe Wineke, former chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, said, "(Hong is) an extreme left-wing candidate," adding, "She might work in a primary, but she won't work well in a general election."

David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Barack Obama, also recently wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that "the Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary is like a car slowly driving toward a cliff."

U.S. President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have defined democratic socialists as "communists" and are using them as material to target the entire Democratic Party.

Organizations related to the Republican Governors Association view Hong as a relatively weak opponent and are expected to pour about 3 million dollars, roughly 4.4 billion KRW, into an ad campaign to raise her name recognition, the WSJ reported.

In an interview with the WSJ, Hong introduced herself as "the only wage earner, daughter of Korean immigrant parents, single mother, and renter among the candidates in this primary."

She then dismissed inner-party concerns about her winnability, stating, "Voters are ready to accept bold, rational solutions that reduce the cost burden on the working class and disperse the money and control concentrated among the privileged elite."

As a financing plan to implement her pledges, she proposed tax hikes on the wealthy and the elimination of corporate tax breaks.

Emphasizing that "the money is there," she stated, "It is a question of how we have distributed that money and whom we have not taxed."

(Photo: Yonhap News)

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