Trump Frees Captive in Russia & Socialists Regroup From Loss | 8.13.26

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
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**Georgia Howe** (0:31)
Democratic socialists are regrouping after a shock loss in Wisconsin, while Republicans see a real opportunity there and in Minnesota.

**David Crowley** (0:39)
I'm looking forward to working with every single candidate in every all walks of life, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum, to make sure that we can defeat the mega extremists.

**Georgia Howe** (0:49)
I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Thursday, August 13th, and this is Morning Wire.

**John Bickley** (1:04)
A US Marine veteran is freed after four years in a Russian prison, following intervention by President Trump.

**Georgia Howe** (1:12)
And the WNBA debate gets racially charged and has Sophie Cunningham's coach playing defense.

**Stephanie White** (1:18)
The stuff that's trying to hijack our league will not win.

**John Bickley** (1:22)
Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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**John Bickley** (2:33)
The dust has now settled from a significant series of primaries held Tuesday. The marquee result came out of Wisconsin, which saw a shock upset that could have broader implications.

**Georgia Howe** (2:44)
Here to tell us more is Wired in host Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, let's start with the race that everyone is buzzing about. This is the Democrat primary for governor in Wisconsin. There we saw David Crowley, who was behind in the polls, actually have a very late and narrow upset against Francesca Wong. What happened in that race?

**Cabot Phillips** (3:02)
Yeah, this was no doubt one of the most shocking results we've seen this entire primary season. So before election day, polls had Hong leading Crowley 44 to 22, and she was a 20 to 1 favorite on the betting markets, but she ended up losing by a little over 3,000 votes. Now, just a few weeks ago, everyone considered this primary a more or less coronation for Hong, considering that Crowley had actually dropped out of this race just a few weeks ago, after failing to gain any traction in the polls. But he jumped back in less than two weeks ago with massive support from establishment Democrats and also the endorsement of the state's powerful Democratic Governor Tony Evers.
Hong really fits the bill of a lot of these new era Democratic socialists that we talked about yesterday who are dominating state primaries. But she came with a lot of baggage, especially for a purple state like Wisconsin. Democrat leaders there were terrified at her prospects of actually winning in November, and that is why they jumped in late to try and rally the troops around Crowley. Hong has in the past called for canceling Thanksgiving, defunding the police, abolishing the Senate and combating whiteness, despite the fact that her own son is half white. She said that that made her uncomfortable, and in the end, she ultimately underperformed in white working class areas of Wisconsin and did not make up enough ground in college towns like Madison.

**John Bickley** (4:18)
Now about Crowley, he's being billed by the legacy media as a moderate, but is that actually true?