Wisconsin state Rep. Francesca Hong has apparently decided one thing may need changing after Tuesday's Democrat primary: the people helping sell Francesca Hong.
Her campaign is planning a broad post-primary staff shakeup if she wins, with communications and rapid response specifically targeted after what was described as a rocky final stretch.
New in @playbookdc:
— Will Steakin (@wsteaks) August 11, 2026
Francesca Hong’s campaign is planning a broad post-primary staff shakeup if she wins today, specifically targeting its comms and rapid response efforts after a rocky final stretch: pic.twitter.com/O0VTFPnux7
There's nothing unusual about changing staff between a primary and general election. Campaigns grow, strategies change, and new opponents require different tactics.
Hong's problem runs deeper; communications staff didn't write the old social media posts now haunting her campaign; they didn't create the positions she's spent the final days of the primary explaining, softening, or abandoning.
Hong previously supported defunding police as a step toward abolishing them, called for abolishing ICE, and wrote "Cancel Thanksgiving" in 2020. She has since said she doesn't support defunding police or abolishing prisons. Her campaign website, however, still proudly says she has called for abolishing ICE.
Now even two of America's best-known progressives seem reluctant to climb aboard. Neither Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) nor Sen. Bernie Sanders (Commie-Vt.) endorsed Hong.
Asked about Hong's old positions, AOC laughed and offered a remarkable explanation: "Woke 1 was crazy." She then said voters should "assess what a candidate is saying now."
During a Sunday interview on ABC's "This Week," Jonathan Karl asked Ocasio-Cortez whether she would endorse Hong.
"No, I haven't endorsed in that race. My focus has been in winning back the Congress, winning back the House and positioning ourselves to have the best, ah, chance possible to, to win the Senate," she said.
Karl asked the congresswoman about controversial comments Hong has made in the past.
Ocasio-Cortez indicated that her "understanding is that... Francesca Hong has made clear her present stances to her electorate" and "moved away from" prior comments.
"And I have a local city councilman that has this... saying, 'Woke 1 was crazy,'" she said, laughing. "And I think that what's important is that we have to assess what a candidate is saying now."
When asked on Monday about Ocasio-Cortez's wokeness-related comment, Hong, a Democratic Socialists of America member, suggested that individuals "are opening their eyes to an economy that is deeply rigged against working-class people" and that she will speak about how to "deliver for working class people by taxing the ultrarich, ensure that we have a moratorium on data centers, that we're raising wages, fighting for universal childcare and that we fully fund our public schools."
Fine. Let's assess Hong now.
Her campaign identifies her as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Wisconsin Assembly's Socialist Caucus. Her current platform includes higher taxes on wealthy earners and large corporations, a one-year moratorium on data-center construction, moving away from Wisconsin's school voucher program, and policies designed to block state and local cooperation with ICE.
Those aren't ancient social media posts dug from some forgotten corner of the internet; they're positions her campaign is advertising today.
Wisconsin voters are perfectly capable of deciding whether they want them. Hong should make the case, defend the record, and live with the verdict.
Changing the people behind the microphones won't settle the larger problem. Hong spent years saying things that become much harder to explain when the audience expands beyond Madison progressives.
Her campaign can hire sharper writers, faster researchers, and a rapid-response shop capable of answering attacks before breakfast. None can erase what their candidate believed, wrote, proposed, or still supports.
Maybe commercial-grade primer is coming.
They'd better plan for several coats.
Fresh paint can make almost anything look better for a while. But by November, Wisconsin voters won't elect Hong's communications director, press secretary, or campaign strategist.
And no staff shakeup can change that.
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