Here & Now

Inside Wisconsin Politics: The 2026 Democratic Field Narrows

Frederica Freyberg:
And then there were five. This week, one of the six Democrats running for governor dropped out of the race. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley announced he would no longer seek the position, saying it has become clear that I will not be the Democratic nominee for governor. After being outpaced by other candidates, he threw his support to Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez. Also still in the race, Francesca Hong, Mandela Barnes, Kelda Roys and Joel Brennan. This week’s “Inside Wisconsin Politics” took up changes in the primary campaigns for governor.

Shawn Johnson:
Now we’re down to five. Zac, is it still crowded or is this race shifted to you in a meaningful way?

Zac Schultz:
I think the crowd — it depends more on the lanes of what we’re talking about. I think there’s clearly a progressive lane. There’s clearly a more establishment center, government lane. And then there’s a question of if there’s room in between for any of the rest of them to kind of stake their own area, or if they’re competing for those two groups. But there clearly is this sense, as the two candidates have dropped out, that have now endorsed Sara Rodriguez, that there is an establishment going on and that fits this national theme that we’re seeing of establishment Dems worrying about progressive Dems potentially undermining chances to win seats in November, versus progressives who are saying, no, we are the ones that are going to win these primaries and win in November, get behind us as we keep going forward. So there’s definitely a shrinkage there, but it’s almost a shrinkage into lanes as opposed to these individual candidates.

Shawn Johnson:
Anya, how do you see those lanes? I mean, I think just a few weeks ago, I was kind of having a hard time putting the candidates into different lanes or buckets, however you want to do it. What are the lanes now as you see it?

Anya van Wagtendonk:
Yeah, I think Zac sort of hit the nail on the head with establishment versus progressive. And one way that we’re seeing that is when these candidates are dropping out, that they are endorsing other candidates. There’s a world in which you drop out and you say, I love my party and I all I want is for a Democrat to win. And David Crowley did that kind of initially in his original announcement that he was stepping down. He didn’t immediately endorse anyone. He said the most important thing is just that somebody beats Tom Tiffany in the fall and then this morning came out and endorsed Sara Rodriguez. So I think that’s a sign that people are kind of choosing teams and trying to say, who do I think has the best ability for Democrats to win in November? Is it the sort of Hong progressive lane? Is it the Rodriguez more sort of establishment lane?

Shawn Johnson:
Nobody that I’ve heard has come out and said, well, we got to stop Francesca Hong, you know, but we’ve seen this debate that you’ve referenced at the national level where you have sort of the national establishment Democrats fighting against this, you know, democratic socialist caucus that’s growing. Is there an unspoken we got to stop Francesca Hong in all this, or are we making that up? Are we looking for conflict where there is none here in Wisconsin?

Zac Schultz:
I don’t think it’d be wise for anyone to say that out loud from the Democratic Party, because there’s a very good chance that Hong can win this, and then they have to unite behind her. So that is the other half of this game is you can drop out and you can endorse someone that you would prefer, but then you still want to create a sense of party unity. That is still the goal is for the Democrats in their minds, is to beat Tom Tiffany. And whether that is Francesca Hong or whether that’s Sara Rodriguez or Mandela Barnes or Brennan or Roys or anyone that’s still in this race at this point, they have to worry about that in the long run. So in the short run, we’re not seeing some of the disunity of attacking each other that was a potential with a more crowded race. There’s still time. There’s still million-dollar ad buys coming up. Kelda Roys just announced an hour ago that she’s got 1.2 million that she’s going to announce, and she’s going to spend every last penny of it. She’s not going to drop out of this race. And she has a history in some of these big competitive elections of going a little contrarian towards the end. So I don’t think it’s going to be all quiet and rosy from here until August. There’s going to be some fireworks as they try and create that last separation to hopefully put themselves over the 30 to 35% that may be needed to win.