For Immediate Release–July 15, 2026

Contact: Robert Kraig, (414) 322-5324, robert.kraig@citizenactionwi.org

Citizen Action of Wisconsin Endorses Francesca Hong for Governor

Statewide: Citizen Action of Wisconsin is endorsing Francesca Hong for Governor as the best candidate to lead Wisconsin at a time of unprecedented threats to basic freedoms when democracy must deliver again for most people. 

“Wisconsinites in every region and walk of life are fed up with the artificial constraints placed on what the state government can accomplish to improve people’s lives and provide the best opportunity to thrive,” said Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin.

Citizen Action is a statewide and multiracial organizing group which works to make democracy produce tangible improvements for working and middle class Wisconsinites struggling to afford health care, utilities, and other basics, and a decent standard of living.

The endorsement of Francesca Hong is the culmination of an intensive grassroots process which deeply engaged Citizen Action members and the major candidates for governor. Citizen Action leaders and members reached a consensus that Francesca Hong is the candidate most firmly committed to using the full democratic power of state government to wrestle control from the massive corporate monopolies that have for too long held a hammerlock on state policy. 

The corrupting power of these monopolies is making the basics of life unaffordable and suppressing wages. It is why the state government is greenlighting deeply unpopular data centers rammed through by an unholy alliance of Big Tech and utility monopolies. It is why massive hospital monopolies, big insurance and Big Pharma are left in control to set grossly inflated prices, effectively leaving foxes in charge of the hen house. It is why a massive income redistribution to the ultra wealthy and the most well-connected corporations has left a stunning 60% of Americans worrying about affording the basics of life, while in Wisconsin 35% of all households, and 60% of Black households, make less than a survival income. 

Francesca Hong has staked out strong positions on Citizen Action’s top public priorities: affordable health care, the climate and energy affordability crisis, and raising wages.

• Hong is the only candidate who supports pausing data center construction until there is a strong regulatory framework in place that assures they will not accelerate the climate crisis or raise utility rates, are powered by cheap 100% clean renewable energy, and are only built and operated by union workers with the approval of local residents.
• Hong supports dramatically expanding access to affordable health care by enacting a BadgerCare Public Option which doubles eligibility for BadgerCare and guarantees all individuals and small businesses a public alternative to unaffordable corporate health insurance.
• Hong is the only candidate who supports capping utility rates at 2% of income, guaranteeing that every Wisconsinite can afford to keep the lights, heat, and air on.
• Hong strongly supports raising the minimum wage to $20 per hour to ensure no matter where you work in Wisconsin, you will earn a living wage.
• Hong is committed to taking pricing power away from the big hospital and health insurance monopolies by setting a fair affordable price for medical care.

“In our intensive grassroots endorsement process Citizen Action leaders concluded that Francesca Hong is the best candidate to meet the moment by restoring a vibrant popular democracy that acts in the interest of average Wisconsinites, not the corporate monopolies that dominate state government,” said Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “Hong understands that the threat to democracy is both an increasingly lawless federal administration and the deep corruption of all levels of government by monopoly interests that are pricing working and middle class Wisconsinities out of the American dream. As Fighting Bob La Follette did over 100 years ago, Hong will fight to restore a popular democracy that breaks the power of corporate monopolies and delivers for average Wisconsinites.”

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