Dem Socialist ADMITS to Being Bipolar

Wisconsin’s leading Democratic candidate for governor once told a magazine, in her own words, that she was hospitalized as a teenager, cut herself on purpose, and overdosed on lithium after a bipolar diagnosis.

Quick Take

State Representative Francesca Hong, the frontrunner in Wisconsin’s 2026 Democratic gubernatorial primary, described a teenage mental health crisis in a 2023 interview that resurfaced this month.
Hong said she was hospitalized for a week at a child psychiatric hospital, self-harmed, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and overdosed on lithium.
The old interview spread widely after conservative commentators reposted it alongside her record on policing, immigration enforcement, and prisons.
Hong has also called to defund and eventually abolish police, opposed hospitals restricting transgender treatments for minors, and campaigned as a democratic socialist.

What Hong Told a Food Magazine in 2023

The interview ran in Meal Magazine’s “Soup Lefty” series in 2023, long before Hong entered the governor’s race. She said that at 18 she “had a mental breakdown” and missed her own high school graduation because she was hospitalized for a week at a child psychiatric hospital. She described the period as “a numbness that took over, and a pain that I couldn’t describe,” and said she began self-harming during that time.

Hong went further in the same conversation, saying doctors diagnosed her with bipolar disorder, placed her on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and that she later overdosed on lithium. Those details sat largely unnoticed for two years until conservative outlets and social media accounts pulled the transcript back into the spotlight in August, framing it as a fresh disclosure from a rising statewide candidate.

The resurfaced quotes spread fast on social media, with commentators including Jack Posobiec sharing the details to hundreds of thousands of followers within hours. The renewed attention came as Hong solidified her position as the clear frontrunner in a crowded Democratic field to replace retiring Governor Tony Evers.

From Assembly Kitchen Table Democrat to Statewide Frontrunner

Hong, a former chef and restaurant owner, has represented Madison’s 76th Assembly District since 2021. She built her political identity around economic populism and democratic socialism, and her rapid rise in the governor’s race caught even national outlets off guard. Wikipedia’s entry on Hong confirms her background as a restaurateur turned legislator now running to lead the state.

Her mental health history is not the only thing drawing scrutiny. A separate 2023 incident, in which Hong described feeling uneasy at a Culver’s restaurant surrounded by “old white people,” resurfaced around the same time and drew national coverage of its own, adding to a pattern of old remarks resurfacing as her profile grows.

Her Positions on Police, ICE, and Prisons Remain the Bigger Flashpoint

Hong’s mental health disclosure has landed alongside long-standing criticism of her policy record. She has said she supports defunding police “as a first step towards abolishing” departments altogether, a position she softened during a tense Fox News interview with Dana Perino, insisting “the governor cannot defund the police, and I won’t defund the police”. Critics argue her past statements tell a different story than her campaign-trail walk-back.

A Townhall analysis pointed out that even if Hong insists she personally cannot abolish police and prisons as governor, she could sign legislation doing exactly that if a Democrat-controlled legislature sent it to her desk. That distinction matters in a state where governors hold veto power but rely on lawmakers to write the underlying bills, meaning her personal restraint promises depend entirely on who controls the statehouse.

Here is who each is, based on public records, their own statements, campaign materials, and reporting:
•Top left (Asian woman): Francesca Hong, Democratic state representative and leading candidate for Wisconsin governor in 2026. She is of Asian descent. In a 2023 interview she…

— 🇺🇸🇺🇸 Vance-Rubio ‘28 🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@idrcmJD) August 2, 2026

Wisconsin voters now face a candidate who has been remarkably candid about a painful chapter of her youth, paired with a governing agenda built on abolishing police, prisons, and immigration enforcement as currently structured. Voters deserve compassion for anyone who has struggled with mental illness, but they also deserve a clear-eyed look at what a Hong administration would actually do with legislative power in Madison. Both truths can and should be weighed together heading into 2026.