Overview
- CNN’s KFile review published May 22, 2026 documented Hong’s 2020–2021 social media posts in which she wrote that she supported “defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police” and said “police exist to uphold white supremacy.”
- Hong did not renounce those past statements when asked and described them as part of a “wider conversation around police abolition,” saying she sees abolition as a long-term vision while she focuses now on building “systems of care.”
- The review found Hong has deleted some earlier posts but kept others and that she updated her Twitter bio after March 2023 from “Occupied Ho-Chunk Land” to “Wisconsin, USA.”
- Hong is a leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate, polling at about 14 percent in a March Marquette Law School poll that also showed a large share of undecided Democratic primary voters.
- Wisconsin Republicans have begun highlighting the resurfaced posts to portray Hong as too far left, and the coverage comes as Democrats nationally have largely distanced themselves from 'defund' and 'abolish' rhetoric after 2020 protests and subsequent electoral backlash.