The Democratic frontrunner for Wisconsin governor once hosted a six-course dinner "inspired by menstruation" and tweeted that Americans should "Cancel Thanksgiving", a record now shadowing her primary campaign.
Francesca Hong, a 37-year-old state representative and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, held what she called a "Feast of the Feminine" at her downtown Madison restaurant in October 2019. The event, advertised on Eventbrite as a "celebration of menstruation with conversation and dinner," drew 17 attendees to Morris Ramen, the restaurant Hong co-owned with her ex-husband Matt Morris from 2016 until it closed in 2024. The menu featured soondae, a Korean blood sausage. The Washington Free Beacon reported that the dinner was the only event Morris Ramen ever hosted through Eventbrite.
Hong promoted the dinner on X, writing: "I'm doin a 6course dinner inspired by menstruation alongside my friends Autumn and Kel. There will be booze too. Come hang." The post included a logo featuring a pomegranate drawn to resemble female anatomy.
That event alone might have remained an obscure footnote. But it lands differently now that Hong holds a 22-point lead over Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley in the Democratic primary for governor, with the primary just days away. And it is far from the only entry in a social-media trail that establishment Democrats, including the sitting governor, say makes her unelectable in a general contest against Congressman Tom Tiffany, the de facto Republican nominee.
One week before Thanksgiving Day 2020, Hong posted a now-deleted tweet that read: "Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621. If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indegenous [sic] folx [sic] and women so be it." Four days earlier, she had posted a separate message: "Please DON'T gather for the colonizer holiday."
Hong has since deleted the "Cancel Thanksgiving" tweet. Her reversal on the subject has been striking. In an interview with Politico, she said of Thanksgiving, "I actually love it." And when CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked whether she still believed Thanksgiving should be canceled, Hong pivoted to her résumé:
"I'm a chef, and one of the first meals I made that was for the community when I was 16 was a Thanksgiving meal, so I always think my hospitality background and owning a restaurant for seven, eight years, that bringing folks around the table to share conversation and build community, is always a good thing."
She then added that "Thanksgiving is also a time that's incredibly painful for many people in our communities", and steered the answer back to her candidacy, saying her "background as a chef will actually help me become a better governor." The answer did not include the words "yes" or "no."
Hong's effort to distance herself from the post has drawn scrutiny from observers who note the gap between what she wrote in 2020 and what she says now on camera.
Wisconsin's Democratic governor, Tony Evers, has not been subtle about his concerns. At an August 3 campaign event alongside Crowley, Evers took aim at Hong's online record without naming her directly:
"She spends a lot of time, from what I understand, talking on Twitter and all these other extraneous issues. People in this room... have seen tornadoes destroy the city, and we're going to spend time on that bulls*** that others are talking about on Twitter? Please."
When asked flatly whether Hong could beat Tiffany in November, Evers answered with two words: "Probably not."
That assessment reflects a broader anxiety among establishment Democrats who see Hong's rhetoric as a liability in Wisconsin, the 12th-oldest and 10th-whitest state in the country. Her deleted Thanksgiving post has become a recurring flashpoint, and it is only one item in a long catalog.
In July 2019, Hong tweeted about a visit to a Culver's restaurant in Black River Falls, Wisconsin: "I ate two bites of my kid's cheeseburger at a Culver's in black river falls and told him they ran out of ice cream. Mostly just wanted to leave bc I was on the verge of a anxiety attack...to [sic] many old white people who didn't think we spoke english."
In October 2020, when the Tavern League of Wisconsin, a trade group representing thousands of restaurants and bars, tried to block Governor Evers's executive order limiting the size of public gatherings, Hong responded on X by calling the organization's leaders "corrupt, crooked, c****." That is the language a candidate for governor used to describe a statewide industry group.
In a 2021 interview with Listen MKE, a project of Milwaukee's NPR station, Hong discussed her biracial son's identity in terms of racial proximity:
"My proximity to whiteness continues, right? My son is biracial. He's half-white and half-Korean. And I think navigating what his identity is and how people perceive him is always at the back of my mind as well."
And in a 2023 interview with Meal Magazine, Hong declared herself openly hostile to the economic system she would be asked to oversee as governor: "Capitalism has not been working for consumers or workers. There has to be transformative change in those economic structures... I am a business owner who is anti-capitalist."
That anti-capitalist stance sits alongside the fact that Morris Ramen closed in 2024. Anonymous former employees were not kind on Reddit. One wrote: "Having worked for Matt... I've never seen him talk rudely to anyone. The other half of ownership, on the other hand... good grief. You couldn't pay me enough money to work for her again." Another offered a blunter review of the product: "Well s***! Where am I going to get mid ramen?!"
Despite all of it, Hong is winning. A State Navigate poll released the Friday before the primary showed her with a 22-point advantage over Crowley. She describes herself on her campaign website as a "state representative," "single mom," "restaurant worker," and "chef." She first won a seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2020.
The tension between Hong's primary strength and her general-election vulnerabilities mirrors a pattern familiar to Democrats nationally. Progressive candidates energize activist bases in primaries, then hand opponents a thick file of quotes for the fall. Even Bernie Sanders has declined to endorse Hong, a notable absence for a candidate who carries his party's socialist label.
Hong's campaign did not respond to the Free Beacon's request for comment. The primary field has already narrowed after Mandela Barnes exited the race amid misconduct allegations, leaving the contest as a two-candidate affair between Hong and Crowley.
Wisconsin voters heading to the polls on Tuesday face a straightforward question: whether a candidate who hosted a menstruation feast, called Thanksgiving a colonizer holiday, described herself as anti-capitalist, and used profanity to attack a statewide business group is someone they want representing their party in November. Governor Evers has already given his answer.
When even the sitting Democratic governor says you probably can't win, the voters who ignore him own what comes next.
