‘Defund then abolish’: A leading Democrat in Wisconsin governor’s race urged abolishing police
By Andrew Kaczynski, Em Steck, CNN
(CNN) — Years after mayors from Democratic cities reversed course on calls to defund police departments, one of the leading Democratic candidates for governor of Wisconsin is running with a starkly different record: she didn’t just back defunding police — she called to abolish them. And unlike many in her party, she has neither deleted those posts nor renounced them.
Francesca Hong has repeatedly called for abolishing police departments, according to a CNN KFile review of her social media posts, interviews and statements.
Hong, a 37-year-old state representative and democratic socialist, wrote on X in 2020 she supported “defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police.” She later argued in 2021 that “police exist to uphold white supremacy. Defund then abolish. Reform can’t be an option.”
She is competing in a crowded Democratic primary field that includes Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and state Sen. Kelda Roys for the right to face Republican US Rep. Tom Tiffany in the closely watched battleground state.
Hong and Barnes are the only candidates in double digits, 14% and 11% respectively, according to a Marquette Law School poll released in March. A significant share of potential Democratic primary voters – 65% – were still undecided.
Barnes himself saw his 2022 race for Senate bogged down for past comments, first reported by CNN, in which he signaled support for removing police funding. Barnes’ campaign told CNN then that he “does not support abolishing ICE or defunding the police.”
In a statement to CNN, Hong did not disavow her past support for abolishing police departments, calling it part of a “wider conversation around police abolition” rooted in her belief that “the current system is not working.” While she said she does not support “arbitrary cuts” to public safety budgets and would not pursue them as governor, she also questioned whether current police spending levels are an “optimal or efficient” use of resources.
Asked directly if she still supported police abolition, Hong said in a statement, “While I envision a world where public safety is not synonymous with law enforcement, I recognize that this paradigm shift is a very long term vision and my focus is building systems of care for now and for our future.”
Democrats reckon with ‘defund’ rhetoric
Democrats’ reckoning with the defund the police movement came to a head after the 2020 election, when the party underperformed in House races and lost seats. In 2022, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared, quoting a fellow member of Congress, that “defund the police is dead.” Democratic candidates across the country have walked back their support for defunding the police, including Abdul El-Sayed, a leading candidate for Senate in Michigan who purged posts advocating the defund police movement.
Even past supporters and fellow democratic socialists in deep-blue cities have headed for the exits on the “abolish” and “defund” rhetoric. In Los Angeles, mayoral challenger Nithya Raman recently declared the city shouldn’t lose more cops, while in New York, Zohran Mamdani has explicitly told voters “I am not defunding the police.”
In a sign Republicans still see political potency in tying Democrats to the defund police message, this week Senate Republicans wrapped their push for the Secure America Act, a bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol, in warnings about “defund the police” Democrats.
Wisconsin Republicans have already begun highlighting Hong’s past rhetoric as they seek to paint her as too far left for the battleground state.
Hong’s political rise
A former chef and restaurant owner, Hong entered politics in 2020 by launching a campaign in a crowded primary for a Wisconsin State Assembly seat representing parts of Madison. She successfully ran during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in part by leaning into her background as a small restaurant owner just as the culinary industry was hit hardest by the pandemic.
She is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
While Hong appears to have maintained previous posts calling to defund or abolish the police, she has deleted other posts.
Her Twitter bio, which for years placed her location as “Occupied Ho-Chunk Land” – a Native American people whose historic territory included parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois – was changed sometime after March 2023 to simply read “Wisconsin, USA.”
Hong told CNN that she occasionally updates her bio on social media, and she “wanted to acknowledge the full state rather than just my hometown” of Madison. “Any responsible elected official should recognize our relationship with our tribal neighbors,” she said.
In a since-deleted tweet from March 2020, Hong lamented that the White House invited the nation’s top fast-food chains. “This is who gets to talk policy about food …the folks who keep trump orange and fat. F**k,” she wrote.
Hong stood by the tweet, telling CNN, it is “uniquely frustrating” to watch fast food executives “whose sole purpose is increasing profit influencing health and food policy.”
She also deleted reposts with race-based jabs. “Peak white male privilege is declaring victory with 0% of precincts reporting 🥴,” she retweeted in February 2020.
She also deleted a repost that read, “You all can say ‘Chinese coronavirus’ as long as I can say ‘white racism.’”
Hong told CNN, “During a time when anti-Asian rhetoric from Trump specifically was causing violent attacks on people across the country, it was completely reasonable for people to call out racism.”
‘Abolish the police state’
Even after assuming office in 2021, Hong maintained support for abolishing police.
In posts in 2021, Hong called to “abolish the police state” and argued that “reform has never been the answer.” In one radio interview, she claimed that police operate under a “false umbrella of providing law and order.”
While 47% of Americans embraced calls to shift funding away from police departments toward social services at the height of racial justice protests, according to a July 2020 Gallup poll, abolishing police departments remained a fringe position, with just 15% supporting the idea of abolishing police. By April 2021 an Axios/Ipsos poll found that just 27% of respondents supported the “defund the police” movement, with 70% opposed to it.
“To put that in perspective, 16% of all Americans have been in favor of their state seceding from the union to join another country. Additionally, 21% believe that polygamy is moral,” said Harry Enten, CNN’s chief data analyst.
Some of the comments from Hong came after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020. Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot seven times by a White officer during an attempted arrest, sparking days of protests and unrest.
“When an institution can only respond in violence because it is so deeply rooted in maintaining a carcerel system upheld by white supremacy, the priority can and only be to work to abolish the institution,” she wrote on April 12, 2021.
Days later, Hong reposted calls to abolish police following the 2021 fatal shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo by a Chicago police officer, amplifying a message that said: “Disarm. Defund. Dismantle. Abolish.”
Hong has continued to defend the broader rationale behind the movement.
Though she declined to say whether she still supported abolishing police, Hong did not directly reject the idea of defunding police when pressed on the issue during an April campaign interview.
“I think we have to make investments in what would help prevent crime —investments in communities, our public schools, community centers, public libraries. When there are limited resources, we have to look at where we can make cuts as well as where we can make investments,” she told a local TV news station in April.
But her past rhetoric was more explicit.
“@CityofMadison 1. Defund police 2. Defund police 3. Defund police 4. Defund police 5. Craft 2021 budget,” she wrote in one June 2020 tweet.
The-CNN-Wire
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