The NNA Outlook: The Wisconsin Governor Primaries

The Republican Primary: A Moral & Asymmetrical Victory for the People’s Candidate

The Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial primary of August 11, 2026, should be remembered as the day a 27-year-old NNA member, and medical service technician from Milwaukee, proved that the American people are starving for an alternative to the corporate-political machine. Andrew Manske, armed with little more than his paycheck, stood against the full weight of the GOP establishment and emerged vindicated.

On its face, the result of the election indeed appears lopsided. Congressman Tom Tiffany secured the Republican nomination with approximately 95.3% of the vote to Andrew Manske's 4.6%. Tiffany received roughly 467,738 votes to Manske's 22,546. But these numbers, stripped of context, are a lie.

Consider what Manske accomplished with only $1,100 in campaign funds. That is less than the cost of a single Tiffany campaign dinner. By contrast, Tiffany raised over $8,700,000 in the first half of 2026 alone, with more than $6.2 million transferred directly from the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Tiffany's total war chest exceeded $10,000,000 by primary day. Manske's entire fundraising haul (from roughly 70 individual contributors) wouldn't cover a single Tiffany staffer's weekly salary.

And yet, against a candidate endorsed by the President of the United States, backed by the full weight of the state party apparatus, and armed with millions of dollars, Manske secured nearly one out of every twenty Republican votes.

Tom Tiffany spent $10 million to secure 95.3% of the vote. That works out to approximately $21.38 per vote. Manske spent $1,100 to secure 4.6%. That works out to $0.049 per vote. In other words, Manske was 436 times more cost-efficient than Tiffany. Manske earned his votes. Unlike his opponent, he bought none. And in the communities where voters were paying attention, Manske's 100% American message of government reform and working-class dignity found plenty of fertile ground.

In counties where voters actually heard Manske's message, he performed dramatically better than the statewide average, and in some cases, more than doubled his statewide performance.

In Trempealeau County, Manske secured an extraordinary 11.6% of the vote, nearly three times his statewide average. In Iron County, he achieved 11.7%. In Waushara County, he took 10.0%. In Monroe County, he achieved 9.6%. In Price County, he secured 9.0%. In Sauk County, he took 8.5%. In Chippewa County, he secured 8.4%. In Rusk County, he achieved 7.2%.

Though the election was not won here, these numbers show a region in which this movement, a movement for the people of America, is finding its footing. In county after county, rural, working-class voters rejected the establishment’s $10,000,000 machine and cast their ballots for a young American who had the courage to stay in the race.

WHAT WORKED?

Manske's campaign demonstrated several lessons that the NNA movement must internalize: First, Manske’s movement was completely grassroots. Manske gathered enough valid signatures to get on the ballot, collecting at least half of them himself. He spoke directly to voters at city festivals, beaches, his alma mater, and even the Janesville Renaissance Faire, while his NNA team spoke to vendors at the State Faire on August 9th. This authenticity resonated universally. Beyond this, Manske's platform drew from across the political spectrum. His advocacy for fixed property taxes after a 30-year mortgage, a ban on institutional investor housing hoarding, nuclear energy for "dirt cheap" power, the construction of a high-speed rail, a "government adjacent" universal health safety net, and the streamlining of government bureaucracy. He even proposed banning energy-intensive AI data centers, a position which both GOP establishment candidate Tom Tiffany, and Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong plagiarized.

Manske, withstanding the immense pressure, refused to drop out. This courage shows a man who was convicted enough to lose standing on principle, rather than lose kneeling to the establishment. In the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

"We, too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees."

WHAT TO IMPROVE

We have learned a lot, and we certainly know much more than we would have otherwise. And here is the knowledge that the NNA must build from: Ballot access is a battlefield, and Andrew Manske’s ballot qualification was an uphill battle. As a solution, the NNA must build a permanent infrastructure for petition-gathering to ensure that our candidates never need to scramble for signatures. The media blackout needs to be broken. Manske was systematically ignored by mainstream media. A single appearance on a major platform could have multiplied his vote share. Therefore, the NNA must develop its own media ecosystem through podcasts, digital context, and direct-to-voter communication to bypass corporate media. Manske's strongest counties were those where he personally campaigned. Therefore, the NNA must establish county-level organizers, like the NNA campaign team, which was active from August 6th-11th, who can sustain ground operations year-round. Fundraising infrastructure must improve as well. The NNA must build a small-donor network that can fund working-class candidates honestly. If Manske had the opportunity to raise even $50,000, less than Tiffany raised in a single day, he could have built a sustained digital operation.

The Democratic Primary

While the Republican primary offered a clear contrast between the people’s candidate, and the establishment candidate, the Democratic primary was a spectacle of establishment panic, progressive overreach, and ultimately, a narrow victory for the political machine.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley defeated state Rep. Francesca Hong by a razor-thin margin, approximately 0.5 percent, a race so narrow that it was not called until early Wednesday morning. This result was a stunning reversal of every pre-election poll, which predicted Hong as the clear frontrunner on election day, with a Marquette Law School poll showing her at 46% to Crowley’s 11%. She led by as much as 30 points in some surveys. And she still lost.

Crowley's victory is one of the most improbable comebacks in recent Wisconsin political history. A month before the primary, Crowley had ended his campaign. The race would become Hong’s to lose. But the Democratic establishment, terrified of nominating a communist in a swing state, orchestrated a rescue mission. Governor Tony Evers endorsed Crowley, with the party apparatus consolidating behind him. Unions poured nearly half of Crowley's July fundraising (more than $775,000) into his revived campaign. And it worked.

WHY DID HONG LOSE?

Francesca Hong demonstrated exactly how NOT to run a campaign in a swing state. In an August 3 CNN interview, Hong left the door open to "canceling Thanksgiving," a comment she was forced to walk back. In this single gaffe, Hong became the symbol of a candidate so detached from ordinary Americans that she would entertain abolishing one of the nation's most cherished family traditions. In a state where Thanksgiving is as sacred as football, this was political suicide. Hong had previously supported defunding the police, a position that Republicans were eager to weaponize against her. In a state with urban crime concerns and rural respect for law enforcement, this position was electoral poison. Beyond all of this, Hong is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. In a swing state that Donald Trump carried twice, this label proved to be a curse. As a final punch, Hong reported raising $709,000 in the first half of 2026 but entered the final month with less than $100,000 cash on hand, demonstrating significant overspending on a campaign that was never going to win the general election.

THE TAKEAWAY

The Democratic Party is in crisis. The party bosses barely won, and only by resurrecting a dead campaign with a last-minute infusion of support from the institutions. The Party is split, and has proven incapable of governing itself, let alone the State of Wisconsin. Crowley will now face Tiffany in November. Tiffany's $10 million machine, met with Crowley's narrow and divisive primary victory, will undoubtedly produce a Republican victory in the general election.

The Path Forward

The 2026 Wisconsin gubernatorial primaries have revealed the bankruptcy of both major parties. The Republicans required a $10,000,000 political machine to crush the working-class challenger, who still managed to win roughly 12% of the vote in a number of counties, with less than $1,100. The Democrats, on the other hand, showcased a party so fractured that its establishment had to resurrect a dead campaign to barely defeat a communist who spent months shooting herself in the foot. The people of Wisconsin deserve better than a choice between an establishment congressman and a puppeteer county executive. They deserve a leader who answers only to the American people, and in the future, we are certain, they will make that choice.