MADISON, Wis. — Francesca Hong’s opponents in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor largely ignored her trove of social media posts pushing for abolishing the police, calling for canceling Thanksgiving and saying White people in a fast-food restaurant were putting her “on the verge” of an anxiety attack.
Republicans are far more willing to highlight them, especially now that she leads polls for Tuesday’s primary. Hong, a democratic socialist state representative, has been responding in recent interviews — including one this week where she called Thanksgiving her favorite holiday.
“I don’t want to cancel it,” she told Politico. “I actually love it.”
As people sought to limit gatherings in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, Hong posted, “Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621.” In the same post, which has since been deleted, she referred to Thanksgiving as a day “celebrating colonialism.” In another post around the same time, she called Thanksgiving a “colonizer holiday.”
Hong has deleted the post about canceling Thanksgiving but has left up others.
In one, she called for abolishing the U.S. Senate; in others, defunding and abolishing police. In another, Hong, the daughter of South Korean immigrants, described discomfort in a Culver’s restaurant in Black River Falls, Wisconsin.
“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,” she wrote.
Hong this week called such posts jokes in a statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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