“…the Interest and Duty of a Wise People to Discourage and Restrain it”
George Washington on Political Parties
The Democratic and Republican Parties of the United States are not of the people, by the people or for the people. They have become what our Founders feared they would. Our Founding Fathers opposed political parties, viewing them as divisive factions that would corrupt government and destroy the Republic. John Adams, the first Vice President and second President of the United States, called a division of the Republic into two great parties “the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”
The Founders saw the parties as corrupt relics of the British system they left behind, and it was not an oversight when, in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention, they omitted parties from the new nation’s founding document. Parties were formed despite their warnings and today they have evolved into one of the corrupt forces threatening our freedom.
The Democratic and Republican Parties are all about money and power. They are controlled by elites who have no interest in the will of the people and, up until now, have had a relatively easy time exercising control over everything from policy positions to which candidates get the nod for elected office.
The 2024 Presidential election may have been the pivotal turning point for the Democratic Party, when it ripped the right to decide who would be the Party’s nominee after Joe Biden dropped out of the race from the hands of their members and left them furious about the incompetent choice and ultimate loss. They blamed the Party bosses. Now, a movement is sweeping across the country to replace our Republic with communism, and its proponents have hijacked the Democratic Party to pursue their mission. A leaderless and unprincipled Democratic Party has no answer for the growing number of “Democratic Socialists” who are winning Democratic primaries all across the country and toppling long-term, more moderate Democratic incumbents in the process. Their strategy – pretending their Party is a big tent with room for the radicals who will remake our country if we allow it – is giving way to the truth. The Party will be replaced by the communist extremists if they don’t find a way to stop them. The Democratic Party has a tiger by the tail as it tries to manipulate who their nominees will be while simultaneously creating the illusion they care about the power of the people to decide. In Wisconsin, voters have a front row seat to how the Parties operate.
The Race
Shortly after Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers announced he would not be seeking reelection in 2026, the field was flooded with 7 candidates seeking the Democratic nomination. They were Sara Rodriguez, Lieutenant Governor; Joel Brennan, Former director of the Department of Administration under Evers; Mandela Barnes, Former Lieutenant Governor under Evers and failed candidate for U.S. Senate in 2022; Francesca Hong, State Representative; David Crowley, Milwaukee County Executive; Missy Hughes, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO; and Kelda Roys, State Senator.
Tony Evers ended speculation early about who he favored by publicly stating on multiple occasions that he would not be endorsing in the race. He would allow the process to play out and the voters to select their candidate in the August 11 primary.
In the months that followed, the candidates organized their campaigns, competed for money and endorsements, and worked to differentiate themselves in the crowded field. By May of this year, Francesca Hong, a 37-year-old chef, single mother, and unapologetic “Democratic Socialist”, whose platform reads like a communist manifesto, had gone from long shot to true contender and was rapidly becoming a favorite of the Democratic base. Her style is unflinching and she doesn’t mince words. She aspires to be one of the people leading the movement to dismantle our Democratic Republic. Her masterful use of social media, atypical campaign events, and aggressive travel throughout the State have her building momentum that cannot be ignored.
As the campaigns tried to measure the state of the race through their own internal polling and the polling of others, it became clear by early summer that Barnes, Hong, and Rodriguez were the preferred candidates of Democratic primary voters, though Barnes was declining in popularity and Hong and Rodriguez were on the rise. Crowley and the other candidates were inconsequential, hovering as the choice of voters at 5% or less.
Hong’s momentum was a growing concern for Party insiders and it’s a reasonable bet the Party’s fingerprints were on David Crowley’s decision to suspend his campaign on July 8 and immediately endorse Sara Rodriguez. The reason he gave was it was clear he could not win the nomination. Concern became a crisis a few days later when Sara Rodriguez announced significant financial mismanagement in her campaign required her to fire her campaign manager. A week later, on July 17, she dropped out of the race.
With this game-changing development, the Party could not afford to let the process run its course. On July 18, one day after Rodriguez dropped out, and with just 24 days until the Democratic primary, David Crowley announced he was back in the race. Suddenly, despite having little money and almost no support from the voters when he left the race 9 days prior, Crowley had the endorsement of Governor Evers, and the Party was pushing him as the best choice to assume executive leadership of the State’s $111 billion budget and nearly 75,000 employees, despite his abysmal performance as Milwaukee County Executive. How do we know the Party is actively trying to manipulate the nomination process? Democratic strategists do not believe a radical Democratic Socialist can win the general election in Wisconsin and Barnes is viewed as a loser in his own Party. Governor Evers’ reversal on his pledge to remain neutral in the primary is all the evidence we need. This sudden change most certainly did not come out of the blue without collaboration with the Party machine. The state and national Democratic Parties are similarly trying to manipulate primaries in Maine, Michigan, and other states where radical extremists are threatening to become the Democratic nominees. If you think the Republican Party elites would behave differently in a similar situation, you are wrong. A few months ago, Wisconsin Republican Party leaders manipulated the candidate endorsement process at their own state convention, denying members the right to a legitimate selection process.
David Crowley grew up in Milwaukee and never had a real job. He was a community organizer until elected to the state Assembly at the age of 30. In 2020, at the age of 33, he was elected Milwaukee County Executive. It is the largest county in the state with an operating budget of $1.4 billion. He was the youngest County Executive ever elected to that role.
The Milwaukee County Executive is the chief policy maker for the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS). He directs the overarching strategy, budget and policy for the system. In June 2025, Milwaukee County elected officials were blindsided by a $10.9 million deficit for the MCTS created by runaway overtime, excessive contract spending, and massive “fare evasion” (people riding the bus without paying the fee). In a recent audit, the County Comptroller revealed that millions of dollars in contracts were approved by MCTS leaders without the required oversight from the County Board. The immediate crisis was remedied by using Federal pandemic funds and a $5 million Board “recovery amendment”, but this has proven to be nothing more than a finger in the dike. A staggering $15 million deficit is projected for 2027, and the County is currently planning a 25% cut to bus services. These services are vital to the very people Crowley professes to champion – those who rely on bus services to get them where they need to go.
Crowley is accountable for the MCTS financial disaster and unacceptable financial performance countywide. Leaders are projecting a $50 million deficit for Milwaukee County in 2027 and a long-term shortfall of $168 million has been forecasted by the County Comptroller by 2031.
The People’s Right to Know
Informed decision making is essential to the electoral process. Political parties that value winning above all else, candidates who are weak and dishonest, and media that fails to do its job on a daily basis, make evaluating candidates much harder than it should be for the voters.
On July 28, Gerron Jordan and Matt Smith, co-hosts of UpFront on WISN Channel 12 in Milwaukee, will moderate the Democratic Candidates for Governor Debate. Jordan and Smith, in my judgment, provided Wisconsin voters with the most effective debate moderation we have seen at any level when they presided over the Wisconsin Supreme Court Candidate Debate earlier this year. It was substantive, unbiased and afforded the candidates a fair opportunity to express themselves. Tuesday’s event will feature the 5 remaining candidates in the race (Hughes and Rodriguez have dropped out) and with the choice of moderators, there is reason to be optimistic that we will learn something useful.
It will be a true test of journalistic credibility for Jordan and Smith. They have a choice to make. If they press the candidates as they should, they will expose the truth about who they are, serve the people, and risk the wrath of the Party. If they allow the candidates to speak in meaningless platitudes and make unsubstantiated claims, they will fail the people.
Barnes, Hong, and Crowley are considered the front runners.
Barnes lied about graduating from Alabama A&M with a bachelor’s degree when he ran for Lieutenant Governor and has done nothing in his adult life that qualifies him to become the chief executive of Wisconsin. He is masterful at speaking while saying nothing, and must be pressed hard for specifics.
Hong has an uncommonly detailed website that makes no attempt to hide what she plans to do. She must be pressed hard on where socialist/communist ideology has ever resulted in a better life for the people, and how exactly she proposes to accomplish this radical change to our fundamental form of government.
Crowley says he will show up for working families and he reentered the race because he has the experience, the record, and the coalition to win. He has produced absolutely nothing that supports these claims and the dire financial state of Milwaukee County rests squarely on his shoulders as the Executive. The Party is going to try to drag this empty suit across the finish line with no regard for the will of the people who will vote in the Democratic primary.
Brennan and Roys have been written off by the Party. Jordan and Smith have the opportunity and the responsibility to expand voter understanding of who they are and how they would govern.
Gerran Jordan and Matt Smith will have the opportunity next Tuesday to show the people of Wisconsin that journalists with integrity, who will follow the truth wherever it leads, may be rare, but they are not extinct. Let’s hope they seize it.
The Way Forward
Defeating the Democrats in November must be the highest priority for every freedom loving American. They have become a serious threat to our way of life that is spreading like a cancer every day. After their ambitions are neutralized, we the people must wrest control of both political parties from those who have abused their power and remake them into organizations that serve the will of the people. George Washington commented on political parties in his farewell address as he stepped aside from the Presidency, “The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of the party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.” Do we have the insight to see what is happening? Do we care enough to change it?
