Wisconsin Democrat gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong dodged questions Tuesday about her past support for abolishing the police, offering a pair of winding non-answers when a Politico reporter pressed her on the issue backstage at a primary debate.
Hong, a state representative and democrat socialist, was cornered by Politico’s Jonathan Martin in the spin room after the debate. Semafor reporter David Weigel captured the exchange and posted a clip to X. The front-runner in the crowded August 11 Democrat primary has spent recent weeks walking back a record she once promoted openly.
Martin asked her directly why police should continue to exist.
“Because the reality of this moment and the types of public safety systems that we have, I want us to be sensible and realistic, but we know now the billions invested in the criminal legal system is not working,” Hong said. “We are spending on incarcerating an individual than [sic] tuition for UW-Madison. This is about making sure that local law enforcement is working with community, that we are taking resources from the state and investing in things like public education, victim services, out-of-school programs.”
Martin followed up, asking whether she still wanted to abolish the police over the long term.
“I believe that we have to be serious about public safety, and I’m going to be a governor that is more serious than anyone else in making sure that we are building systems of care,” Hong said. “It’s appalling to me that for folks who are working within our prisons, they have some of the highest suicide of any job and occupation. So this system is not working.”
A member of Hong’s team then ushered her away.
The answers stand in contrast to Hong’s own posts. In August 2020, she wrote that she supported “defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police,” according to a CNN review of her social media. In April 2021, she wrote that “police exist to uphold white supremacy. Defund then abolish. Reform can’t be an option.” She has neither deleted nor renounced the posts.
The exchange comes as Hong leads the Democrat field at 26 percent in a Marquette Law School poll, backed by Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Ro Khanna (D-CA). She has called it “cowardly” for hospitals to stop gender procedures for minors and has called ICE “the enforcers of fascism.”
Likely Republican nominee Rep. Tom Tiffany has framed the November choice as “common sense or crazy.”
