Source: Politics<\/p>\n
David Crowley has a strategy to win over the voters who backed democratic socialist Francesca Hong on Tuesday: make the governor\u2019s race an existential fight against \u201cMAGA extremism.”<\/p>\n
Wisconsin Democrats have spent the past day scrambling to unite<\/a> the far left and centrist factions of the party after a bitter primary battle defined by questions of electability<\/a> and how far left of an ideology to pursue. The same is happening in Michigan, where the party has just three months to mend broken fences and get progressive Abdul El-Sayed elected<\/a> in another competitive state this November.<\/p>\n Crowley told POLITICO he plans to use GOP Rep. Tom Tiffany and President Donald Trump as the foils that bring everyone together.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not all going to agree on everything. But I think we agree that the ultimate goal is making sure that we don’t have a MAGA extremist and congressman Tom Tiffany sitting in the governor’s office,\u201d Crowley said in an interview Thursday, adding that the state \u201chas a grand opportunity in putting some level of check on Trump\u2019s agenda\u201d amid the \u201caffordability crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrats view holding onto the governor\u2019s mansion in Wisconsin \u2014 a top battleground state that Trump won by just shy of 30,000 votes in 2024 \u2014 as critical for acting as a bulwark against Trump. They\u2019re hoping to secure a governing trifecta in the state for the first time since 2010.<\/p>\n Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive who was hand-picked by current Gov. Tony Evers, said he plans to not only fold in the left flank, but also reach out to independents and previous GOP voters who \u201cfeel rejected by this current Republican party.\u201d Evers himself ousted GOP then-Gov. Scott Walker in 2018 thanks to a coalition that cut across Democratic strongholds, independents and some Republican-leaning voters.<\/p>\n Crowley also said he\u2019s already talked to \u201csome Republicans who are more interested in defeating Tom Tiffany.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s approval rating has been continually slipping, and Crowley\u2019s advisers believe focusing on the cost of living under the Trump administration amid an unpopular Iran war is a sweet spot to hit a broad cross-section of voters.<\/p>\n But even as he committed to reaching out to voters who had backed Hong, Crowley told POLITICO he would not campaign with some of her top surrogates on the trail \u2014 and demurred when asked whether he\u2019d bring on any Hong allies to staff his general election campaign, saying everyone is \u201cwelcome\u201d at the table.<\/p>\n When asked whether he would campaign with controversial, leftist social media influencer Hasan Piker, Crowley responded: \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t know Hasan, but I always want to be focused on Wisconsin voters,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Hong has committed to hitting the trail with Crowley ahead of November, but many of his allies see her as too much of a political liability to be directly involved. They\u2019re worried her brand of democratic socialism \u2014 and past controversial social media posts about defunding the police and canceling Thanksgiving \u2014 could affect Crowley\u2019s wider appeal.Crowley also isn\u2019t budging on a key campaign policy issue that divided the primary: He will not embrace the moratorium on data center development that Hong ran on.<\/p>\n \u201cNo moratorium,\u201d Crowley said in the interview, adding he and Hong do agree on adding \u201cguardrails<\/a>\u201d on data center development and operation via a package of legislation.<\/p>\n \u201cI let folks know exactly where I stood on data centers,\u201d he said. \u201cThat’s why we were able to not only consolidate many of those undecided voters, but get many rural communities to support us as well, because we have a common-sense approach to make sure that we’re protecting our environment, protecting our water, and protecting ourselves \u2026 when it comes down to these data centers.\u201d<\/p>\n