The Centrist Independent Voter Political Action Committee endorses Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley in Wisconsin’s August 11 Democratic primary for governor
Crowley offers the strongest combination of executive experience, political realism, bipartisan accomplishment and general-election appeal in the Democratic field.
Wisconsin is one of the most closely divided states in the country. The Democratic nominee will probably face Republican Representative Tom Tiffany, a strong supporter of Donald Trump. Democrats should nominate someone capable of holding together Milwaukee, Madison, the suburbs, smaller cities and enough rural voters to win a competitive statewide election.
Crowley is the candidate best equipped to build that coalition.
A Record of Governing
Crowley has served as Milwaukee County executive since 2020 and was reelected in 2024 with 85 percent of the vote. He runs one of Wisconsin’s largest units of government and has worked on affordable housing, public health, public safety, tax relief and modernization of county operations.
His most important accomplishment may be his role in negotiating and securing Wisconsin Act 12.
Milwaukee County faced an increasingly dangerous structural fiscal problem involving stagnant state assistance, pension obligations and limited authority to raise revenue. Crowley worked with Democratic Governor Tony Evers and Republican legislators on a compromise that increased state shared revenue, gave Milwaukee County additional sales-tax authority and helped stabilize county finances. The agreement also increased assistance for local governments across Wisconsin.
The law contained provisions Crowley and other Democrats would not have written themselves. That is the nature of divided government. Crowley accepted an imperfect agreement because failure would have meant cuts to transit, public safety, health services and other essential county functions.
That ability to distinguish an imperfect solution from no solution is one of the principal reasons for our endorsement.
Willingness to Accept a Reasonable Compromise
The same quality appeared during the Democratic gubernatorial debate.
The candidates were asked whether they would have signed a bipartisan package combining additional education funding, property-tax relief, rebate checks and an exemption for tipped income. Crowley was the only candidate who said yes.
He acknowledged that the bill included provisions he disliked but argued that Wisconsin families and schools needed relief and that elected officials should not reject useful legislation merely because it was imperfect.
That answer reflects a governing philosophy CIVPAC strongly supports.
Politics should involve principles, but it must also involve arithmetic, tradeoffs and an understanding that no faction gets everything it wants. A governor who refuses every compromise containing an objectionable provision will accomplish little in a closely divided state.
Crowley has already demonstrated that he can negotiate with Republicans without becoming one.
The Alternative Offered by Francesca Hong
State Representative Francesca Hong has run an energetic campaign and has successfully attracted voters who believe conventional Democratic politics has been insufficiently ambitious.
But Hong’s answers generally involve a much larger and more ideological expansion of state government than we can support. Her platform calls for universal childcare, universal paid leave, new taxes on affluent residents and estates, additional local income-tax authority, major changes to business taxation and aggressive state resistance to federal immigration enforcement. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, although she says she does not support the organization’s entire national platform. It would be helpful if she would explicitly state which portions of the DSA platform she rejects. She appears to be hoping that voters will assume it’s the ones the voters find most offensive.
Wisconsin voters deserve more than a choice between Trump-aligned conservatism and democratic socialism.
Crowley offers a center-left alternative grounded in experience, fiscal reality and the practical responsibilities of running a large government.
A Complicated Primary, Not an Indecisive Candidate
Crowley is now a long-shot candidate, but his position in the polls is partly the product of an extraordinarily confused primary process.
He initially withdrew after Democratic leaders appeared to be consolidating around Sara Rodriguez, Wisconsin’s current lieutenant governor. Under those circumstances, leaving the race rather than further dividing the mainstream Democratic vote was a reasonable and responsible decision.
Events then changed.
Rodriguez withdrew after questions arose about her campaign finances. Governor Evers concluded that Crowley was the strongest remaining candidate and encouraged him to reenter the race. Crowley did so with Evers’s endorsement. Evers later said he regarded Crowley as the best candidate even while Mandela Barnes, who served as Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor from 2019 to 2023, remained in the race. Barnes has since withdrawn as well.
Crowley’s withdrawal and return therefore should not be viewed as personal indecision. He responded logically to two very different political circumstances: first, an apparent effort to consolidate the party behind another mainstream candidate, and later the collapse of that effort.
The result is nevertheless a difficult campaign. A recent Marquette Law School poll placed Hong well ahead, while Crowley remained unfamiliar to most Democratic primary voters. But that poll was conducted before Barnes withdrew, and approximately one-third of voters were still undecided.
CIVPAC does not endorse only front-runners. Indeed, there is little purpose in an endorsement organization that merely predicts the result and joins the winner.
The complicated history of this primary explains Crowley’s long odds. It does not make him less qualified to govern.
Our Reservations
Crowley is not a fiscal conservative. He supported additional sales taxes to address Milwaukee County’s financial problems and would probably support spending increases in several areas.
CIVPAC would want a Crowley administration to distinguish carefully between programs that provide measurable public benefits and those that simply satisfy established constituencies. Wisconsin must adequately fund education, infrastructure and essential services without assuming that every desirable program can be financed indefinitely.
We would also like more detail about his statewide tax policy, education reforms, energy costs and the standards he would use when considering subsidies for major developments such as data centers.
Those are important questions. But Crowley has already shown that he understands budgets, administrative responsibility and the need to make tradeoffs. That distinguishes him from candidates whose programs consist principally of promises to spend more and tax someone else.
The Best Choice for Wisconsin Democrats
David Crowley has governed a large and complicated county, negotiated successfully with a Republican legislature and accepted imperfect compromises when they produced meaningful results.
He is progressive enough to pursue Democratic priorities, moderate enough to compete statewide and experienced enough to understand that governing involves more than declaring what ought to happen.
Francesca Hong offers ideological intensity. David Crowley offers a realistic prospect of effective government.