Wisconsin State Representative Francesca Hong, the presumptive Democratic gubernatorial nominee, was recently pressed on whether she still supports abolishing police despite past comments aligned with defund-the-police positions. Dan Proft played audio in which Hong emphasized reinvesting resources into public education, victim services, and youth programs rather than directly answering whether her long-term goal remains police abolition, arguing her reluctance to give a clear denial reflects unresolved ideological commitments. Proft also referenced a Michigan Senate race controversy involving Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who faced bipartisan criticism after leaked audio revealed him describing a desire to put an “ogre on a pike” to send a message within the party, a comment he later clarified referred to Senator John Fetterman rather than his primary opponent.
Proft welcomed Evan Barker, a former Democratic political operative and author of the newly released book Nothing Left: Confessions of a Democratic Operative, to discuss her departure from progressive politics. Barker, who gained public attention in 2024 for a viral video explaining her inability to support Kamala Harris, said she previously worked directly with Hong’s campaign team, having helped train some of its members in fundraising, and confirmed she personally worked for El-Sayed’s campaign as well. Barker characterized both figures as reflecting what she called identitarian socialism rather than genuine economic socialism, arguing their political focus centers more on cultural flashpoints such as police funding and Israel-Palestine positioning than on substantive economic policy.
Barker drew on her own experience living in the San Francisco Bay Area during a period of significant public safety deterioration, describing personal encounters with open drug use, retail theft, and violent crime that she said shaped her firsthand skepticism toward progressive criminal justice reform. She credited San Francisco’s Asian American community, along with working-class Latino residents and the local tech industry, with successfully pushing back against permissive prosecutorial policies, resulting in the recall of former District Attorney Chesa Boudin and the election of a more centrist mayor, a political shift she said has not been replicated in most other major American cities.
Barker traced the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America’s current influence back to the movement’s origins around Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 primary victory, arguing that unlike a decade ago, DSA-aligned candidates now benefit from substantial independent campaign infrastructure and financial backing, including significant super PAC funding supporting recent successful candidates. She argued this represents a meaningful shift from the movement’s earlier, more improvisational fundraising capacity. Barker also argued that mainstream Democratic voters’ frustration with establishment figures like Senator Chuck Schumer and former Vice President Harris, following repeated electoral losses to President Trump, has left the party’s progressive wing as the primary visible alternative for disaffected voters, even though she believes DSA-style candidates ultimately threaten Democrats’ ability to compete in swing districts and Rust Belt states.
Barker predicted that progressive candidates are strategically prioritizing strong midterm performances to set the tone heading into the 2028 presidential primary, potentially forcing eventual nominees, regardless of their personal ideology, to adopt more progressive positions in order to secure the party’s base, a dynamic she compared to pressures President Biden faced during his own administration. She closed by expressing concern that neither the Republican Party’s current focus nor sufficient pushback from moderate Democrats has effectively addressed the trend, noting that only a small number of moderate Democratic lawmakers have publicly challenged the party’s leftward shift, a reluctance she attributed partly to fear of primary challenges and generational shifts among younger campaign staff more sympathetic to progressive politics.