The latest polling released Wednesday indicates Wisconsin‘s new Democratic gubernatorial nominee holds a fighting chance at keeping the governor’s seat blue in November.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the establishment-backed favorite, became the Democratic Party’s nominee this week after narrowly beating socialist Francesca Hong in Tuesday’s primary. The race is now set for Crowley to face off against his Republican rival, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI), in November.
New Democratic-affiliated polling shows Crowley beating Tiffany by 3 points this fall, though the race is within the margin of error. Crowley leads 47% to 44%, according to the poll by Protect Our Wisconsin, a group backed by the Democratic Governors Association.
The development comes as Crowley, a more centrist politician, was viewed by mainstream Democrats as a safer bet than Hong, a staunch socialist, to beat Tiffany in the tight race.
Crowley became Democrats’ nominee this week after pushing through one of the most chaotic primary cycles in the country.
The Milwaukee County executive initially launched his campaign in September, but later dropped out in July after Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez appeared to have the nomination within her grasp. He endorsed Rodriguez, only for the lieutenant governor to suspend her campaign just weeks before the Aug. 11 primary following revelations of major inaccuracies in her financial disclosures.
Rodriguez’s exit led party leaders to nudge Crowley back into the race in a bid to consolidate centrist Democratic support and defeat the party’s left-wing faction.
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Though he had been trailing Hong in the polls, Crowley managed to eke out a win by around 4,000 votes.
The poll was conducted from July 30 to Aug. 3 among 800 likely voters. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.