Francesca Hong, a Democratic candidate for Wisconsin governor, is facing scrutiny over a 2019 social media post in which she stated that anxiety drove her to leave a restaurant because of the presence of "too many old white people." The post resurfaced as Hong, currently a member of the State Assembly, launched her gubernatorial campaign.
In the July 2019 post on X, formerly Twitter, Hong wrote that she "ate two bites of my kid's cheeseburger at a Culver's in Black River Falls and told him they ran out of ice cream." She continued, "Mostly just wanted to leave because I was on the verge of an anxiety attack... too many old white people who didn't think we spoke English."
The post was shared by political commentator Matt Walsh, who noted that Hong "wants to be governor of Wisconsin, an 85 percent white state." The resurfacing of the post has drawn criticism and mockery online.
Hong, who is the first Asian to win an Assembly seat in Wisconsin, has also spoken about her history of mental health challenges. In a September 2023 interview with Meal Magazine, she discussed experiencing a "mental breakdown" at age 18, which led to a hospitalization. She revealed she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, placed on antidepressants, and experienced a lithium overdose. Hong described her past struggles with numbness, pain, and self-harm.
During the same interview, Hong addressed her use of inflammatory or aggressive language on social media, stating, "I am expressing my right to be emotional, to be personal, to be human." She added, "So this is me being a human - angry, frustrated, and scared that there are forces that I don't have control over impacting the people that I care about." She also commented on the role of politicians, suggesting a need to "redefine who a politician is: somebody with a foul mouth who works in the dish pit on a Saturday night." Hong, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Assembly's Socialist Caucus, was first elected to the State Assembly in 2020. She views X as an "engagement tool" for connecting with people, acknowledging that "relational organizing depends on me making connections with people, and it's not always going to come from a place of peaceful discourse."