Socialist Wisconsin Gubernatorial Frontrunner Francesca Hong’s Long Record of Trashing America’s Holidays and Traditions

Wisconsin state Rep. Francesca Hong, the self-described democratic socialist leading the Democratic primary for governor, has spent years on social media airing grievances against the very American holidays and traditions that bind communities together. With the August 11 primary days away, those posts are back under the spotlight—and they paint a clear picture of a candidate more interested in dismantling cherished customs than celebrating them.

Hong, a Madison assemblywoman and dues-paying Democratic Socialists of America member, has positioned herself as the progressive insurgent in a crowded field. A victory would be hailed by socialists as another breakthrough for their movement in a key battleground state. Yet her digital trail reveals a consistent disdain for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, fireworks, and more.

In a now-deleted 2020 X post, Hong demanded: “Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621. If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indegenous folx [sic] and women so be it.” She framed the holiday through a revisionist lens of conquest and disease, ignoring the historical reality that the first Thanksgiving followed the Pilgrims’ abandonment of a failed communal (socialist-style) farming system in favor of private property, as documented by Plymouth Governor William Bradford. The result was abundance and cooperation with Native allies—not the cartoon villainy Hong peddles.

She didn’t stop there. In another 2020 post she labeled it “the colonizer holiday” and urged people not to gather. When pressed on CNN this week about whether she still stood by canceling it, Hong refused a clean disavowal. She pivoted to her background as a chef who once prepared a community Thanksgiving meal as a teen, then added that the holiday is “incredibly painful for many people in our communities” and that “views can evolve.” Only after the backlash intensified did she tell Politico that Thanksgiving is actually her “favorite holiday” and that she doesn’t want to cancel it—while still calling herself “kind of a curmudgeon when it comes to holidays in general.” The sudden conversion rings hollow.

Christmas fared little better. In a 2019 post, Hong complained that an “IT bro” working remotely on “our” computer had changed the background to snow and Christmas trees: “I feel slightly attacked…” The complaint came on December 17—scarcely a week before the holiday. Later posts showed her posing with a tree she called a “massive air freshener” and offering a generic “Merry Christmas to all who celebrate,” but the earlier grievance fits a pattern.

Valentine’s Day drew similar scorn. On February 14, 2022, she wrote: “I miss working in a restaurant every day… except on VDay. As if we weren’t invisible enough to those who don’t recognize the emotional & physical labor of service work, the worst of humanity comes out from folks ‘celebrating’ on another day capitalism tells you how to show love.” Capitalism, of course, is the real villain in her telling—never mind that service workers often rely on the holiday for tips and business.

Fireworks and the Fourth of July also irritated her. “Why isn’t there a curfew on fireworks?” she asked in the early hours of July 5, 2020. In 2019 she simply declared, “I do not enjoy fireworks.” Halloween was off-limits too: she said she wouldn’t work that weekend and would ask costumed people to leave.

These are not isolated gaffes or youthful indiscretions. They form a pattern of cultural hostility that aligns with Hong’s broader record—calls to abolish the police (which she has since softened), defund institutions, and advance socialist policies that many Wisconsinites view as extreme for a statewide race. Republicans, including likely general-election opponent Rep. Tom Tiffany, have seized on the posts as evidence of disdain for the “hardworking people of Wisconsin” and the traditions that unite them.

Hong’s defenders dismiss the controversy as manufactured outrage over old “jokes.” Yet the posts were public for years, some deleted only after scrutiny, and her CNN performance left the door open to the original radical position. In a swing state where voters value common sense and shared customs over ideological purity tests, this record is more than a sideshow. It is a window into the mindset of a candidate whose movement sees American holidays not as sources of gratitude and unity, but as obstacles to be canceled.

Wisconsin Democrats will decide Tuesday whether that worldview belongs in the governor’s office. Conservatives already know the answer.

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