In the Democratic Primary for Wisconsin Governor, State Senator Kelda Roys finished well behind both David Crowley and Francesca Hong.
Roys would have been Wisconsin’s first openly LGBTQ Governor if she had won on Tuesday and then prevailed against MAGA candidate Tom Tiffany this November.
Roys ultimately garnered 7.5% of the vote. Crowley, the Milwaukee County Executive, and Hong, a Wisconsin State Assemblywoman, battled it out for most of the night in a down to the wire finish.
Crowley won by only 0.49% or 3,850 votes. Wisconsin has a rich tradition of such squeaker elections.
Assemblywoman Hong led the polling going into Tuesday, sometimes by wide margins, suggesting that undecided voters broke for Crowley at the last minute.
In Dane county, which both Roys and Hong represent, Roys only won 10% of the vote. And Hong bested Crowley by eight points. But, in Milwaukee county Hong only lost by less than 1.5%.
When it came to fundraising, Roys’ teams announced in July that she had out fundraised Hong according to the data from that month’s campaign filing deadline.
“The numbers are in and it’s clear that this is a two-person primary,” said Jalen Knuteson, the spokesperson for Roys in a statement. “Roys and Hong have equivalent cash on hand (just over $400k), and overall fundraising totals for the cycle are similar (Roys at $1.2m and Hong at $1.086m).”
In her concession speech on Tuesday night, Roys said that her focus now is to flip the Wisconsin legislature blue by helping Democrats win their races in November.
Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford Wins Primary
After Hong announced her run for Governor, she vacated her seat in the Wisconsin Assembly (District 76). Five candidates vied for the nomination in the Democratic primary, including out transgender candidate Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford.
She won the tight race with 29% of the vote. Juliana Bennett won 27% and Isaia Ben-Ami had 21%.
In 2023, Martinez-Rutherford became the transgender women to serve on Madison’s Common Council. If she wins in November she will be the Assembly’s first out transgender member.
After her win, Martinez-Rutherford posted on Instagram, “Our community elected someone who has lived the policy failures of our government. Someone who has been homeless, gone without healthcare, and worked for a tipped wage in the service industry. Someone whose rights continue to be debated by politicians in the Capitol. That’s the perspective that I’ll bring to the Assembly.”
In a statement, Executive Director of Fair Wisconsin Abigail Swetz said, “[Martinez-Rutherford]Â will be an important voice for inclusion and an important vote for equality in our legislature, where she will work as a part of a pro-equality majority to ensure LGBTQ+ protections in our state.”
Assembly District 76 is a reliably blue district, all but ensuring that Martinez-Rutherford will win this November.
