Wisconsin Democrats are on the precipice of completing a 15-year comeback from the political wilderness. Locked out of power in one way or another since GOP Gov. Scott Walker won in the Tea Party wave of 2010 and proceeded to gut the state’s public sector unions, the Democrats are now just two seats in the state Senate and five seats away in the state Assembly from having total control over the state government. So far the comeback has cost, conservatively, more than $250 million. It has involved a failed recall attempt, a series of bruising battles to gain control over the state Supreme Court and an effort to undo a Republican gerrymander of the state’s legislative maps. In addition, it has required winning an off-year election that the world’s richest man said would “affect the entire destiny of humanity.”It’s culminating in 2026: In the words of Milwaukee political journalist Dan Shafer, this year’s election is the “first realistic chance for a Democratic trifecta — control of the Senate, Assembly, and the governorship — in a generation.” He goes on to call it “the big one.” Despite an ultra-favorable political environment, the Democratic establishment in the state is now incredibly nervous about completing the comeback, which would enable them to expand healthcare, increase education funding and perhaps even rebuild the state’s labor movement. The reason? Francesca Hong.The 37-year-old restaurateur and chef-turned-member of the state Assembly is leading in polls by relatively wide margins ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic gubernatorial primary. Hong, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who represents the famously liberal state capital of Madison, comes equipped with politically problematic tweets covering everything from abolishing the police to the racist origins of Thanksgiving.But it’s only been in the final days of the race that Democrats have begun directly raising the possibility of fumbling the ball. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) is a member of the House Freedom Caucus and has the backing of President Donald Trump. He also voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty ImagesRelatively few Democrats have been willing to outright make the case to voters that Hong can’t win, in part because both national Democrats and Republicans think the weaknesses of the Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a member of the House Freedom Caucus who has the backing of President Donald Trump, are also readily apparent.Hong’s major rival, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, has begun indirectly arguing that she could lose the race against Tiffany, noting the Republican Governors’ Association has now spent more than $3 million on ads “attacking” her by highlighting her left-leaning positions on key issues.Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who has barnstormed the state in recent days, also insists Crowley would make a better opponent against Tiffany in November. “I know in my heart of hearts that David Crowley is the best chance we have of beating Tom Tiffany,” Evers said at a rally Monday night in Milwaukee. In interviews, he’s been arguing Hong’s past tweets would be a “distraction” from winning issues for the party. But the push is coming rather late in the game.It was only on Monday that a group backing Crowley began explicitly making the case against Hong in television ads, highlighting her past support for defunding the police – which it notes is opposed by 7-in-10 voters in the Badger State – and attacking her “bizarre rants against holidays we love.” “We can’t trust Francesca Hong to defend the progress we’ve built in Wisconsin,” a female narrator gravely said at the end of the 30-second spot from Wisconsin Future Rising. Hong has tried to distance herself from those past statements, but Democrats have cringed at her continued use of left-wing lingo to do so. In an interview with Pod Save America last week, she employed the phrases “justice-impacted” and “historically marginalized communities” while explaining how her views had evolved beyond defunding the police. In the same interview, Hong insisted she could convince independent voters to move past her “democratic socialist” label by focusing on a class-first campaign. “It is about the solutions, not just the labels,” Hong said. “The solutions we’re presenting actually meet the moment to solve the problem that the system is rigged against working-class people.”Democrats working on downballot races in the state, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were major concerns about how Hong would perform in suburban areas, especially the state’s traditionally Republican and heavily populated “WOW” counties outside Milwaukee. Even if Hong can win in November, Democrats worry her margins could be tighter and hurt the party’s chances of flipping the legislature. Of the four districts at the center of the battle for the state senate, three are at least partially suburban. Flipping the Assembly will require winning some seats in Trump-won areas. Democrats, both at the national level and in Wisconsin, are reluctant to outright declare Hong can’t win, in part because of the weaknesses of Tiffany, who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has only recently begun indirectly arguing that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong will lose the race against Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany.AP Photo/Andy Manis, FileYet the path to a Hong vs. Crowley showdown was a winding one. Hong aggressively campaigned, spending money early to build her name identification and pushing for a one-year moratorium on data center construction. A jumbled field of establishment candidates saw no one break out, and Crowley struggled enough to drop out. But scandals took out both of Evers’ lieutenant governors – Mandela Barnes and Sara Rodriguez – so Crowley jumped back into the race and quickly secured Evers’ endorsement. Although polling indicates Hong still has a healthy lead, Crowley and his allies are hoping for a repeat of last week’s Democratic primary in Michigan, where a centrist candidate outperformed the polls.“After seeing what happened in Michigan, that means we have to pause a little bit because all these polls have not necessarily been telling the truth,” Crowley said on “Upfront,” a statewide political talk show. Crowley, despite a reputation as a fairly progressive county executive, has been running as a centrist, talking up the need for pragmatism and finding solutions rather than dreaming of systemic change. That relative lack of ambition has frustrated some Democrats rooting for him, with one strategist telling HuffPost his failure to match Hong’s call for a data center moratorium was a significant misstep.“It’s just disqualifying him with a block of voters he needs to win,” the strategist said, asking for anonymity to protect relationships. “If this is a five-alarm fire, you need to be flexible in how you put it out.”