Wisconsin state Rep. Francesca Hong, a Democrat running for governor, is distancing herself from a 2021 social media post calling for the U.S. Senate’s abolition, with her campaign saying she does not recall writing it.
The controversy flared after Democratic Socialists of America co-chair Megan Romer went viral during a Sunday interview by confirming that the DSA’s platform calls for eliminating the Senate, national borders and prisons, along with replacing the presidency and Supreme Court.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany seized on the interview, arguing on social media that Ms. Hong, who has DSA backing, held the same views. Ms. Hong’s campaign pushed back hard.
“Tom Tiffany is once again telling lies and inventing quotes,” Hong communications director Allison Geyer told Fox News Digital. “Rep. Hong has never called for abolishing the U.S. Senate. Tiffany cannot produce a single statement where she did, because it doesn’t exist.”
Ms. Geyer said Ms. Hong has discussed police and prison abolition only as an “aspirational goal,” does not support replacing the presidency with the Supreme Court, and does not favor eliminating national borders — adding that Ms. Hong “doesn’t agree with everything” in the DSA’s national program.
Mr. Tiffany’s campaign then produced a February 2021 post in which Ms. Hong wrote, “Abolish the Senate,” made the day the chamber voted to acquit President Trump in his second impeachment trial. Ms. Hong’s campaign said she does not recall the post and called it a “frustrated reaction” to that day’s vote rather than a policy position.
Ms. Hong is not endorsed by DSA’s national chapter, though her campaign’s endorsements page lists three Wisconsin DSA chapters — Madison, Milwaukee and Northeast Wisconsin — among her backers.
Mr. Tiffany maintained Tuesday that Ms. Hong “can’t hide who she is,” calling her a “card-carrying socialist” whose campaign is trying to rewrite her record.
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