Coverage spread: 2 sources — 1 center · 1 right
Lean ratings via AllSides / Media Bias-Fact-Check. How this works.
Where they agree
- Both sources identify Francesca Hong as a Wisconsin Democratic socialist lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate with a history of controversial 2020-era social media statements.
- Both reference her past comment about wanting to “cancel Thanksgiving” over its colonial history as part of the controversy surrounding her.
- Both treat her past remarks as a subject of ongoing political scrutiny as her campaign gains visibility.
Where they differ
- Fox News provides substantial detail on Hong’s podcast reversal on policing, quoting her directly on public safety, accountability, and denying police exist to uphold white supremacy; The Hill’s provided text does not cover this exchange.
- Fox frames the story explicitly as a “flip-flop,” tying it to a pattern of past controversial positions including abolishing the Senate and eliminating ICE; The Hill’s brief item leans toward mocking commentary rather than detailed reporting.
- Fox includes campaign context — a Milwaukee rally with Rep. Ilhan Omar and Hasan Piker, and rising poll numbers — that is absent from The Hill’s excerpt.
What Hong said, then and now
Francesca Hong, a Wisconsin state lawmaker and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is running as a leading Democratic candidate for governor of Wisconsin. In 2020, she posted on social media that “police exist to uphold white supremacy” and said she supported “defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police.” Those posts have resurfaced as her campaign has gained attention, alongside another 2020 comment in which she called for “canceling Thanksgiving” over its colonial history.
In a Pod Save America podcast episode released on a recent Tuesday, a host asked Hong how her views on policing had changed since 2020. She replied that her views had “only become stronger” in the sense that she is now “serious about public safety” and “will not abolish the police.” She said her priority is making sure people’s basic needs are met, stopping violent crime, and giving law enforcement proper resources and training, while still holding officers accountable when they break the law. When asked directly whether she still believes police exist to uphold white supremacy, she said no. Asked what changed her thinking, Hong said she has since talked with people more directly affected by policing issues — including, she noted, a mother who lost a child to police violence — and concluded that practical, sensible solutions are what keep communities safe.
The campaign context
Hong’s remarks came amid a broader look at her record as her gubernatorial campaign has drawn notice. Fox News reports she has recently seen a rise in polling and points to a campaign rally in Milwaukee on August 2, 2026, where Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and left-wing commentator Hasan Piker appeared alongside her. Fox also references separate criticism Hong has faced over past comments describing “whiteness,” which reportedly drew scrutiny for involving her own family. During a Fox News interview on “America’s Newsroom,” host Dana Perino pressed Hong on multiple past positions, including her calls to defund police, abolish the U.S. Senate, and eliminate ICE. Hong told Perino the comments need context and stressed her focus on supporting working-class families in Wisconsin.
How the coverage differs
The two sources here take very different approaches to the story. Fox News treats Hong’s shift on policing as the central news item, framing it explicitly as a “flip-flop” and setting it against a backlash over her other past statements — the Thanksgiving comment, the “whiteness” remarks, and her stances on the Senate and ICE. Fox’s account is detailed, drawing on both the podcast exchange and a separate cable interview to paint a picture of a candidate under sustained pressure to explain a string of provocative past remarks.
The Hill’s piece, by contrast, is a brief opinion item that opens by mocking the idea of Hong wanting to “cancel Thanksgiving,” but the text provided cuts off almost immediately and does not develop the policing reversal, the podcast exchange, or any of the other specifics Fox covers. Based on the available text, The Hill’s contribution is largely tonal — signaling that Hong’s past comments are being treated by some commentators as fodder for mockery — without supplying the same factual detail on her current statements about public safety.
Why this matters
Hong’s case is part of a familiar pattern in American politics: candidates who rose to prominence around the 2020 racial justice protests, when “defund the police” was a widely debated slogan on the left, are now recalibrating that language as they seek broader electoral support. How primary and general-election voters respond to that recalibration — whether they see it as a legitimate evolution or an opportunistic reversal — could matter for a closely watched Wisconsin governor’s race, especially with national Democratic figures like Omar campaigning alongside her. The scrutiny also reflects a broader media dynamic in which conservative outlets like Fox News highlight past statements from left-leaning candidates as evidence of inconsistency, while other commentary, including from The Hill, treats those same statements as easy targets for satire.
Sources
Featured photo: LaShawnda Jones via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)