Wisconsin's primary election for the 2026 midterm cycle is Tuesday, Aug. 11.
Wisconsin is an open primary state, so voters don't need to register with a party (Democrat, Republican, Green etc.) in order to vote. However, each voter can only vote for candidates from one party in all contests.
That means that if you're going to vote for a Democratic candidate for governor, for instance, you can then only vote for a Democratic candidate in the remaining races on the ballot, such as for attorney general or for state legislative posts. You can find information about what's on your ballot here.
We asked JR Ross, editor of WisPolitics.com, for analysis on where the tumultuous Democratic primary for governor stands. We also talked to him about Republican support for the GOP frontrunner, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
WUWM's Maayan Silver: There have been more twists and turns in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor since we last spoke. Mandela Barnes dropped out of the race after allegations surfaced that he had some concerning behavior towards women. How have the candidates who are leading in the polls, democratic socialist Francesca Hong and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, been appealing to Barnes' supporters?
JR Ross: Well, Hong is making the pitch that Barnes ran a progressive campaign and his progressive followers have a home with her. Crowley's making an electability argument that Hong is going to have problems in November (and that) Democrats need somebody with executive experience who's won before in a larger arena to lead them. He's also barnstorming the state with Gov. Evers, who's basically putting his political legacy on the line here by trying to get behind Crowley's late push (to) see if they can get him over the top.
READ: The candidate I voted for in the Wisconsin primary dropped out. Now what?
We've also got two other candidates in the Democratic primary. State Sen. Kelda Roys and former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan. They were each polling very low in the last Marquette Law School Poll, but that was before the televised debate. Is it reasonable for Democratic voters to presume that only Crowley and Hong have a chance to actually win the primary?
Ross: We have not seen any indication from Kelda Roys or Joel Brennan that they have the resources to put them over the top. I've been tracking ad buys through various means from the state ethics website, through Ad Impact that tracks ad buys. And there is a real effort behind David Crowley right now. So that is definitely going on. But I'm not seeing Joel Brennan or Kelda Roys have any similar kind of paid media campaign behind them now.
What's interesting is Francesca Hong doesn't, either. I went through her finance reports this week. She had reported all of like $300,000 for any media, like that means mail, online ads, et cetera. She's doing zero TV — nothing on broadcast or cable TV — which is unusual, to say the least, for a person who's a front runner for a statewide election. But she's reaching voters a different way. She's got this kind of passionate base and she's connecting through streaming services, that kind of stuff.
So I don't want to say that paid media is the end all be all, but I'm not seeing Kelda Roys or Joel Brennan catch fire in a way that suggests there's a groundswell of support with them, especially because we're not seeing a groundswell of resources for them. I'm looking at other things, like you have to report contributions of a thousand dollars or more in the days after the closed reporting period. I'm seeing Crowley and Francesca raising OK amounts that way. (I have) not seen the same for Brennan or Roys.
So (this) paints a picture of it's basically a two-person race. However, those two are on the ballot. So [is] [Lieutenant Governor] Sara Rodriguez [who dropped out]. So is Mandela Barnes. So is [former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation secretary] Missy Hughes [who dropped out]. We've also got thousands of ballots already cast absentee before Barnes dropped out.
It's really a complicated picture because...Crowley would almost prefer a one-on-one matchup with Hong. That's not possible. Even if Kelda Roys or Brennan dropped out late, they're still on the ballot. They're starting to draw votes and people already voted for them at this point. So, it's a kind of a complicated picture electorally for the path for Crowley to win this thing, because of what's already happened before he got back in.
What do you think is Crowley's best approach to win the primary?
Ross: Good question. You know, they've been riding on this idea that Tony Evers has this broad appeal. He's the most popular politician in Wisconsin. He could help David vault into first place. The challenge is, they only started a couple of weeks ago. If the governor — people have told me over and over again, since this all kind of took place — that if the governor really wanted to shape the primary, he should have done this six months ago, even two months ago. It could have changed the entire complexion of the race. But by waiting until like mid-July when Francesca Hong already had momentum and was coalescing support, it made it that much harder for them to try and stop her. It's going to be interesting to see how Evers is effective in this final pitch. Can he — can he and David — stop the Francesca Hong momentum?
There's also the fact that David Crowley dropped out of the race and then got back in. And so that's raising red flags for some voters.
Ross: Yeah, this is unlike anything I've seen before. So Missy Hughes drops out June 22. David drops out I think July 8 around there somewhere. Sara [Rodriguez] just drops out July 17, but Crowley's back in July 18. Then a week and a half later, Mandela Barnes drops out. I mean, it's just it's been one drama after another and that's not helping. Whereas Francesca Hong is just this consistent kind of like progressive force in the primary, and she is speaking to voters in the Democratic base where they're at right now. That's what people tell me.
Everybody else, they've argued, in this primary has played it kind of safe. Francesca has not. You know, she's the only one talking about a moratorium on data centers. She's the only one connecting on these populist economic themes that resonate with primary voters. Now, remember, I'm talking about primary voters. It's a world of difference between winning a primary and winning a general election. Can she take that message, if she wins the primary, and make it fit with a purple state like Wisconsin (in November)?
