MADISON, Wis. — Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley won the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin governor by a razor-thin margin over state Rep. Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist who had led public polling in the final stretch of the campaign.
Crowley took about 39.8% of the vote in a crowded field, with Hong finishing roughly 0.4 percentage points behind, Al Jazeera reported. The contest was not called until around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, after some 28,000 absentee ballots from Milwaukee were delayed by a human error in uploading results, FOX 11 reported.
Crowley will face Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in the Nov. 3 general election. Tiffany, who represents a conservative rural district in northern Wisconsin and carries President Donald Trump's endorsement, faced little opposition in his own primary, NBC News reported.
The race capped one of the most chaotic primary seasons in recent Wisconsin history. Gov. Tony Evers declined to seek a third term, creating the state's first open-seat gubernatorial contest since 2010. Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez left the race amid a campaign finance scandal and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes dropped out in the closing weeks, CNN reported.
Crowley himself withdrew in early July, then reactivated his campaign 10 days later with Evers' backing, positioning himself as the moderate alternative as the field cleared around Hong.
The outcome carries weight beyond Wisconsin. Hong had sought to extend a run of victories by left-wing candidates in Michigan, New York and Colorado, and her narrow loss in a battleground state is likely to be read as evidence that the intraparty argument between establishment Democrats and democratic socialists remains unresolved.
Crowley's campaign manager, Garren Randolph, said in a statement Wednesday morning that the candidate was now focused on building a broad coalition across party lines and framed the November choice as one between problem-solving leadership and what he called the extremism of Tiffany and Trump.
Hong told supporters late Tuesday, while the result still hung in the balance, that her campaign had built something lasting. She conceded overnight, a source in her campaign confirmed to Fox News Digital.