Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham once shouted, "And call off Christmas!"
Francesca Hong apparently chose another holiday. In November 2020, the Wisconsin state representative posted, "Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621."
"Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621."
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 1, 2026
That's the resurfaced message from Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong as she closes in on the Democratic nomination.
Another old post also has critics talking after Hong said she was on the verge of… pic.twitter.com/RA92kL5jbM
She called the holiday a celebration of colonialism and described the first feast as a deadly "superspreader event."
The post might have faded into the fog of pandemic-era anger if Hong were still just another Madison activist.
Conservative podcaster Stephen Miller flagged the post, quoting a single word back at her.
“‘Folx,'” Miller posted on X, noting the term used to signal inclusivity of LGBTQ and other groups.
Another widely shared account said Hong is all but certain to be the Democrat nominee for governor and questioned what is happening in Wisconsin.
The Thanksgiving message was not the only old post resurfacing as Hong closes in on the nomination. She also faced mockery over a 2019 tweet about a Wisconsin fast-food stop.
But she isn't just another Madison activist.
I ate two bites of my kid's cheeseburger at a Culver's in black river falls and told him they ran out of ice cream. Mostly just wanted to leave bc I was on the verge of a anxiety attack...to many old white people who didn't think we spoke english
— Francesca Hong For Governor (@FrancescaHongWI) July 2, 2019
Hong represents Wisconsin's 76th Assembly District, calls herself a Democratic Socialist, and now leads the Democratic primary for governor. A late July poll put her at 38%, more than twice the support of her nearest rival, although 34% remained undecided.
Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes then left the race and said the party's nominee had become clear.
The former lieutenant governor made the announcement in a video posted on his Facebook page as democratic socialist Francesca Hong has garnered strong support from the liberal wing of the party.
Barnes’ decision to drop out came a day after the release of a Marquette Law School poll of Wisconsin Democratic primary voters that found Hong leading Barnes and the other candidates by a significant margin, although about one-third of primary voters remained undecided.
“It’s become very clear who our nominee is going to be,” Barnes said.
Barnes’ move came on the same day that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that it had asked him about allegations of inappropriate behavior lodged with the state Democratic Party, local party officials and others against him.
Wisconsin has a long progressive history. Robert La Follette built the Wisconsin Idea around cooperation between state government and the university. Gaylord Nelson helped launch Earth Day. Victor Berger became the first Socialist elected to Congress.
Those men pushed ideas meant to reform institutions and improve public life. Hong's old message aimed at erasing a shared tradition.
Wisconsin's story also includes Ripon, where the Republican Party was born, and Watertown, where Margarethe Schurz opened America's first kindergarten.
The state has always held competing ideas at once. Progress here once meant building something, testing it, and asking whether it worked.
Related: Tiffany Brings the Receipt, Hong Brings Emily Litella
Canceling a national holiday because its history is complicated requires no such effort.
Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving in 1863, while the Civil War was still tearing the country apart. He didn't pretend America was innocent or peaceful. His proclamation spoke of blessings, suffering, repentance, widows, orphans, and healing.
Lincoln saw gratitude as a duty during a national crisis, not a prize reserved for nations without sin.
Wisconsin has never elected a woman governor, not counting Tony Evers. It will someday, and it should. But breaking the barrier doesn't require voters to ignore a candidate's judgment. Hong's sex doesn't excuse her politics, and opposition to her doesn't become prejudice merely because history might be made.
Gov. Tony Evers isn't seeking another term; his nearly eight years in office have already tested Wisconsin's patience, but Hong would be a major step down and pull the state farther left.
Her old words reveal how casually she dismissed a tradition shared by millions. People outside Madison and Milwaukee should take her seriously, because the Democratic primary may soon make her their problem.
Hong, a self-described democratic socialist, led her opponents in the third consecutive Marquette University Law School poll released last week, which was conducted prior to Rodriguez’s exit from the race. Internal polling released by Barnes and Crowley’s campaigns also showed Hong in front.
A fractured field means support continues to be spread out across the remaining five candidates and could result in a winner on primary Election Day with far less than 50% of the vote. Meanwhile, Republicans have coalesced around likely nominee U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany for months.
“Hong could certainly win the nomination with 35 to 40% of the vote,” said Anthony Chergosky, an associate professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. “All available evidence indicates that Hong is below 50% of the vote, but she doesn’t even need 50% of the vote if the field remains so fragmented and divided.”
At the same time, the percentage of undecided voters continues to be higher than those who have selected any specific candidate. The Marquette poll found nearly half of registered voters surveyed in mid-July were undecided.
Thanksgiving survives because Americans understand something Hong's post missed. A nation can confront cruelty, mourn injustice, and still give thanks for family, faith, food, and the chance to repair what's broken.
Lincoln knew it during the bloodiest years of the Civil War. Wisconsin voters should know it before they hand Francesca Hong the governor's office.
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