Bernie Sanders is brushing off the left-wing backlash over Francesca Hong’s narrow Wisconsin primary loss, arguing that even his endorsement operation has limits.
The Vermont senator drew criticism after Hong, a Democratic Socialists of America member, lost Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley by around 3,000 votes.
Hong had entered Tuesday’s contest as the heavy favorite in polls, but Crowley had Democratic Gov. Tony Evers behind him and pulled off the upset.
Some progressives blamed Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for not jumping in before the vote.
“My response is that we have limited resources and capabilities, and there are a lot of really great candidates who have run for office who we have not endorsed,” Sanders told Politico.
“We can’t endorse every single candidate,” he continued.
Sanders still lauded Hong’s run, calling it a “very, very great, and very strong, grassroots campaign.”
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The loss quickly became a test of how much responsibility national progressive stars are supposed to carry when a left-wing candidate falls short.
Nathan J. Robinson, editor of the left-wing magazine Current Affairs, said Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez were “directly responsible for Hong’s loss.”
Cenk Uygur, co-founder of the Young Turks and Justice Democrats, told Politico that high-profile endorsements can reshape races even when they never happen.
“If they endorse people, it makes a difference. If they don’t endorse people these days, sometimes it makes a bigger difference,” Uygur said.
Uygur also rejected Sanders’ earlier explanation on “Pod Save America,” where the senator said he was “not that familiar” with the Wisconsin governor’s race.
“I love Bernie, but that’s not true. Sorry, brother, but you have a giant team,” Uygur remarked. “Of course somebody on your team knows who’s running for governor in Wisconsin.”
Our Revolution, the group founded after Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, joined the post-primary fight with a warning about how progressives treat their own candidates.
“We cannot build progressive power while gatekeeping our own movement through the eyes of the establishment,” they stated Wednesday.
Sanders made clear the organization was not speaking for him.
“Our Revolution is an organization I’ve not had any interaction with, any participation with … for I think nine years,” Sanders said. “They do what they want and they say what they want. They have nothing to do with me.”
The senator also argued that the left had plenty of other primary results to celebrate.
He backed Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Wisconsin congressional candidate Rebecca Cooke and Minnesota congressional candidate Matt Little, all of whom won their Democratic primaries.
“Needless to say, I’m feeling really very good,” Sanders added.
His endorsements also helped Minnesota’s Flanagan and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed win their primaries this cycle.
Ocasio-Cortez did not endorse Hong either, and said her focus was on winning back Congress.
On ABC’s “This Week,” Jonathan Karl asked Ocasio-Cortez about Hong’s past remarks.
The congresswoman said her “understanding is that… Francesca Hong has made clear her present stances to her electorate” and “moved away from” prior comments.
She also repeated a local city councilman’s line about earlier progressive politics.
“And I have a local city councilman that has this… saying, ‘Woke 1 was crazy,’” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And I think that what’s important is that we have to assess what a candidate is saying now.”
Hong declined to fault Sanders or Ocasio-Cortez when questioned about the missing endorsements.
“I have so much respect for the senator and the congresswoman, and they are working tirelessly to make sure that we can flip Congress and the Senate and get Democrats wins in the midterms,” Hong said. “I look forward to conversations with them about that too.”
Asked whether their decision suggested they doubted her statewide chances, Hong said a governor’s race “is different from federal elections.”
Hong also answered Ocasio-Cortez’s “Woke 1” comment with the economic pitch she had been trying to drive through the campaign.
She said people “are opening their eyes to an economy that is deeply rigged against working-class people” and pointed to taxing the ultrarich, pausing data centers, raising wages, universal child care and fully funded public schools.
That message kept colliding with her past.
Hong had faced scrutiny over calls to abolish police and prisons, along with comments about Thanksgiving and American culture.
Evers repeatedly said Hong was spending too much of the campaign defending old social media posts rather than talking about issues.
After she lost, Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York sent CNN a Thanksgiving-themed jab.
“Let’s just say it’s a day of Thanksgiving,” Suozzi tweeted.
Rep. Ro Khanna, who endorsed Hong, defended her on X and said Democrats should not reduce candidates to a handful of old remarks.
“I appreciate that Democrats can have differences over single payer healthcare, free childcare, pausing data centers and other issues @FrancescaHongWI fought for,” the California Democrat wrote. “But caricaturing and labeling candidates based on a few statements is not a politics I believe in.”
Crowley now carries the Democratic nomination, Evers’ endorsement and the job of facing Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, while Sanders’ side of the party is still arguing over whether Hong was left on her own.
