After dropping out, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley completed the comeback to earn the Democratic nomination in chaotic fashion.
The victory sets up the official Wisconsin Governor’s race between the U.S. Rep. and GOP nominee Tom Tiffany and David Crowley. Crowley’s victory was announced early Wednesday morning, with discrepancies in voting systems. Five of the nine memory sticks delivered to the Milwaukee County Courthouse did not actually have election results on them. Officials said they had to return to Milwaukee’s central count location to re-download the results.
Crowley served in the state Assembly before becoming Milwaukee County Executive in 2020, and winning re-election in 2024. Before Crowley’s withdrawal in July, he was polling in the single digits. The Marquette Law School Poll had Crowley at seven percent compared to Hong’s 38%, although he had announced his withdrawal at the time of polling. (RELATED:Crowley Completes Stunning Comeback, Wins Democratic Nomination for Wisconsin Governor)
Crowley withdrew on July 8th and endorsed Sara Rodriguez shortly after. Rodriguez was then forced to withdraw weeks later, as she fired her campaign manager and was facing a scandal with her messy campaign finances. Crowley announced the same week he was going to reenter back into the race off of the Rodriguez withdrawal. This time, Crowley had the endorsement of Governor Tony Evers, who previously said he was going to abstain from endorsing a single candidate.
During his primary campaign, Crowley dealt with scandals of his own. His administration let a massive employee health insurance contract expire while there were still questions surrounding a roughly $450 million, 5-year agreement. The plan ensures claims are paid and processed for the county’s self-insured employee health plan.
A 16-year-old social media account called “Dirt McGirk” was linked to him and contained offensive comments involving women, race and LGBTQ people. Crowley acknowledged registering the account with his personal email and writing some posts, but denied writing the offensive material. (RELATED:Tom Tiffany Wins Landslide victory in Republican Primary for Wisconsin Governor)
Crowley himself has said that his policies aren’t that different from Hong’s, who has supported a full socialist agenda. Video has surfaced of Crowley showing his support for a conversation about defunding police. Crowley said in an interview that “defunding or divesting from the police is a conversation we’re going to have to have together.” Despite his win, Crowley will now have to step into the limelight to answer for his record.
