Breaking Points: Socialist Surge in Wisconsin Rattles the Political Center

**Krystal Ball** (0:01)
Wisconsin's governor's race is becoming something much bigger than a typical primary. Today, we're discussing Franchesca Hong, a Wisconsin state representative who's running as a socialist and could become the first socialist governor of any state in the country.

**Saagar Enjeti** (0:18)
That's a bold move. What's driving her campaign?

**Krystal Ball** (0:22)
It's the same pressures hitting families everywhere. Rising costs, underfunded public schools, affordable health care. She's even talking about AI data centers.
Hong argues voters want someone who will confront what she calls a system built for the wealthy, while making life more affordable for working people.

**Saagar Enjeti** (0:42)
And she's leaning hard into Wisconsin's progressive history, right? The state has quite a legacy there.

**Krystal Ball** (0:49)
Absolutely. She calls Wisconsin the birthplace of sewer socialism, kindergarten, environmentalism, social security, and unemployment insurance.
She presents herself as a Democratic socialist on the Democratic ticket, committed to workers and to fixing what she calls a rigged system designed to uphold the billionaire class.

**Saagar Enjeti** (1:11)
That kind of rhetoric has drawn criticism, though. Van Jones called far-left candidates divisive.

**Krystal Ball** (1:18)
Hong pushes back hard on that. She says it's disappointing to call her campaign divisive when she's trying to build the broadest coalition possible to fight fascism and authoritarianism, multiracial, multigeographic and multifaith.

**Saagar Enjeti** (1:33)
What about immigration? That's a hot button issue in Wisconsin.

**Krystal Ball** (1:38)
She's not backing down there either. Hong says dairy, agriculture, meatpacking and education all depend on immigrant labor.
She notes that policies like drivers licenses for all and in-state tuition for DACA recipients are actually popular, even with the Farm Bureau.

**Saagar Enjeti** (1:58)
Interesting. And the wage suppression concerns?

**Krystal Ball** (2:02)
She dismisses those fears as a manufactured crisis and connects it to anxiety around AI-driven layoffs. Her answer is to support neighbors and strengthen the whole workforce, not pit people against each other.

**Saagar Enjeti** (2:17)
What about her polling numbers? I've heard she's behind other candidates.

**Krystal Ball** (2:21)
She points to the number of undecided voters and says her movement is growing. She highlights having more individual donors than Tom Tiffany and says her team reached more than 35,000 doors in a single weekend.

**Saagar Enjeti** (2:35)
So how does she define Democratic Socialism?

**Krystal Ball** (2:38)
In simple terms, a government that puts working class people first. She uses examples like the Green Bay Packers, public schools and infrastructure.
It's about practical fairness, not abstract ideology.

**Saagar Enjeti** (2:53)
And her economic vision?

**Krystal Ball** (2:55)
She's proposing taxes on millionaires and billionaires to lower property taxes and boost education.
She connects this to fair taxes, green jobs and renewable energy. Something more durable than corporate tax credits and grounded in dignity for ordinary people.