12 Takeaways from Wisconsin’s Discombobulating Democratic Primary
Our post-election deep-dive breakdown on everything from David Crowley's comeback to Francesca Hong's campaign to how the race was won to the looming electability question and everything in between.
The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer.
The Aug. 11 partisan primary has come to an end. David Crowley pulled off a remarkable comeback victory to win the Democratic nomination.
But there’s much more going on, to learn from, to analyze, to break down, as we reflect on the results of this discombobulating Democratic primary.
We’ve livestreamed, we’ve podcasted, we’ve covered the news, we’ve taken photos, video, and posted all over.
Now, it’s time — as per tradition here at the Recombobulation Area — to really dive in.
These are our 12 takeaways from the primary. Let’s recombobulate.
Note: This piece is really like 12 columns in one. It will be available in full now for paid subscribers, with more to come for free subscribers in the coming days. But if you want the full column now, support our work and subscribe.
1. Crowley’s campaign rises from the ashes
David Crowley’s campaign was over. The July 8 press release didn’t say he “suspended” his campaign — it said “David Crowley Ends Campaign For Governor.”
Thirty-five days later, Crowley formally accepted the Democratic nomination for governor, capping a remarkable comeback for the 40-year-old from Milwaukee.
The location — the Sherman Phoenix on Milwaukee’s north side — felt like a not-so-subtle metaphor: the Sherman Phoenix is a Milwaukee story of resilience, of rising again in the face of adversity.
Crowley’s campaign rose from the ashes, too. His July 18 relaunch event at 3rd Street Market Hall kick-started a 25-day mad dash to Election Day — a Hail Mary, a wild, audacious gambit.
But it worked.
Crowley proved to be the man for the moment. Had he campaigned this way for the first nine months of the race instead of just the final three-and-a-half-weeks, he might not have needed the comeback at all. But maybe it had to happen exactly this way.
That was certainly true down the stretch. He needed Tony Evers’ endorsement. He needed the field to shrink. He needed to raise a whole lot of money. He needed to catch a favorable news cycle. He needed to see early-vote numbers come in disproportionately low (since, you know, he’d been out of the race for a while). He needed Joel Brennan’s number to land on the low end, needed to stay close in Dane County, and needed nearly pretty much all the undecided voters to break his way.
That all happened.
It’s a remarkable turnaround for someone who, at the very beginning, I wrote was the candidate with the highest upside in the race. I still thought in June, when I wrote that his campaign was a “huge disappointment” and needed “a wake-up call.” I suppose there’s no bigger wake-up call than coming back after literally ending your campaign.
But wake up he did. His campaign relaunch event went exceptionally well; the energy in the room was palpable. And even though his name was not in this particular poll, the breadcrumbs leading to this path to victory were there in the July 22 Marquette poll — I wrote “there’s a non-zero chance this could actually work.” The odds were against him, but he pulled it off, doing just enough to win by an extraordinarily close, less than 1% margin. It was impossible, then it was improbable, then it happened.
Beyond the rising-phoenix symbolism, the words Crowley spoke at that 9 a.m. event — surrounded by exhausted staff, supporters, and political media running on just a few hours of sleep — are worth listening to, particularly his closing remarks:
“Because what we do, it isn’t just about winning elections. It’s about improving the lives of our neighbors. Because we know the most patriotic thing that we can do as Wisconsinites, as Americans, is to see those who disagree with us as human beings — deserving the same rights and the same opportunities as everyone else.
Instead of fearing those we cannot understand, and letting that fear divide us, patriotism is going to work to see the humanity in all of our neighbors. It is our work that puts our future generations first and prioritizes progress for all of us.
So today, we begin a new chapter. Today, we get back to work. We’ll knock on more doors. We’ll have more conversations. We’ll welcome Democrats, Republicans, independents, and every Wisconsinite who believes in democracy, who believes in opportunity, in moving our entire state forward.
Together, we will build the broad coalition that this moment absolutely demands. Together, we will reject division. Together, we will reject extremism. Together, we will make history and write the next chapter of Wisconsin’s story — one built on opportunity, compassion, hard work, and hope. And together, we will defeat Tom Tiffany.”
This is a message that can win in November. Crowley pulled off the impossible in the primary and now has about 80 days to win the general. It won’t be easy — this is Wisconsin, after all — but neither was winning a primary five weeks after declaring the campaign over. Crowley could go from failed, sidelined candidate to the state’s next governor.
