Candidates asked to co-regulate, not compete, in Wisconsin primary

Organizers urge gubernatorial candidates to decenter electoral supremacy and instead co-regulate their poll numbers.

As Francesca Hong leads the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary, progressive organizers have replaced the election with a somatic healing circle to dismantle the violence of frontrunner status. Candidates are now being asked to co-regulate their polling numbers instead of trying to win.

The Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary has officially transitioned from a competitive election to a non-hierarchical somatic healing intensive to address the systemic trauma of frontrunner status. State Rep. Francesca Hong is currently leading the four-way race to succeed Governor Tony Evers, a reality that local organizers have gently flagged as deeply problematic, win-centric behavior.

"By accumulating more votes than her peers, the frontrunner is unconsciously perpetuating a hierarchical scarcity mindset," noted Dr. Sage Meadow-Grief, Lead Facilitator for the Coalition to Decolonize the Ballot Box. "We are asking all candidates to sit in discomfort, unpack their toxic need to govern, and explore ways to co-regulate their polling data so no one feels mathematically marginalized by the electorate."

As the party prepares to face Republican Tom Tiffany in the general election—an upcoming confrontation currently being workshopped as a harmful binary dialectic—organizers are urging voters to replace their physical ballots with daily affirmations of lived experience. I want to hold space for that. True liberation in Wisconsin won't come from the patriarchal violence of electoral supremacy, but from acknowledging that the highest office in the state is the intersectional boundary work we do along the way.