Overview
- The five remaining Democratic candidates met for their only televised debate Tuesday night, and the hourlong event featured few direct attacks and several moments where frontrunner Francesca Hong softened or clarified past positions.
- A State Navigate poll taken July 23–26 shows Hong with a commanding lead over rivals while a Marquette survey found roughly 45 percent of Democrats remained undecided, leaving the outcome open to late movement.
- Early in-person voting opened the same day that a judge heard arguments in a lawsuit seeking to let voters who already returned absentee ballots cancel and recast them because candidates left and re-entered the race.
- Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley re-entered the contest on July 17 and picked up Gov. Tony Evers’s endorsement but continues to face scrutiny over years-old incendiary posts tied to a pseudonymous social account.
- Coverage differs across outlets: some focus on Hong’s insurgent, democratic-socialist appeal and poll strength while others stress establishment worries about electability and the GOP’s likely general-election opponent, Rep. Tom Tiffany.