Hong, the socialist state representative leading the Democratic primary for governor in Wisconsin, called to ‘Cancel Thanksgiving’ one year after hosting the ‘celebration of menstruation’
It was a true period piece.
One year before Wisconsin gubernatorial hopeful Francesca Hong called to “Cancel Thanksgiving,” the socialist state representative, who is a professional chef, in October 2019 hosted an event she dubbed a “Feast of the Feminine,” a “6course [sic] dinner inspired by menstruation.” An invitation posted to the events website Eventbrite describes the “feast” as a “celebration of menstruation with conversation and dinner.” It also lists a menu featuring on-theme ingredients like “Soondae-Korean blood sausage.”
“I’m doin a 6course dinner inspired by menstruation alongside my friends Autumn and Kel,” Hong tweeted at the time. “There will be booze too. Come hang.” Accompanying the post was a “Feast of the Feminine” logo complete with a pomegranate drawn in a way that resembles the female anatomy.
Hong is infamously less fond of a more traditional feast: Thanksgiving. In a since-deleted tweet sent one week before Thanksgiving Day in 2020, Hong wrote, “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 [sic] folx [sic] and women so be it.” Four days earlier, she posted, “Please DON’T gather for the colonizer holiday.”
Those posts have come back to haunt Hong as she runs for governor in the Badger State. Though Hong, a 37-year-old member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is the favorite in Tuesday’s Democratic primary—she holds a 22-point lead over Milwaukee county executive David Crowley, according to a State Navigate poll released Friday—establishment Democrats in the state have argued that her radical rhetoric precludes her from beating the de facto Republican nominee, congressman Tom Tiffany, in November. Asked whether Hong could defeat Tiffany in a general election, Democratic governor Tony Evers, who is supporting Crowley, said, “Probably not.”
“She spends a lot of time, from what I understand, talking on Twitter and all these other extraneous issues,” Evers said of Hong during an August 3 campaign event. “People in this room … have seen tornadoes destroy the city, and we’re going to spend time on that bullshit that others are talking about on Twitter? Please.”
Hong’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Hong held the “Feast of the Feminine” at Morris Ramen, the restaurant she and her ex-husband, Matt Morris, co-owned in downtown Madison from 2016 to 2024. It was the only event the restaurant hosted through Eventbrite, and it garnered 17 total attendees, according to the webpage, which no longer lists a ticket price but does note that “Tax $ Gratuity Not included in Price of the Ticket.” A Reddit thread marking the restaurant’s closing included mostly positive reviews, though some commenters complained about poor service and at least one appeared to criticize Hong.
“Having worked for Matt … I’ve never seen him talk rudely to anyone,” the Reddit user wrote. “The other half of ownership, on the other hand… good grief. You couldn’t pay me enough money to work for her again.” Another commenter wrote, “Well shit! Where am I going to get mid ramen?!”
Hong has emphasized her background in the restaurant industry while running for governor, describing herself in campaign literature as a “state representative,” “single mom,” “restaurant worker,” and “chef.” She has also cited it as proof that she does not want to “cancel” Thanksgiving.
“I’m a chef, and one of the first meals I made that was for the community when I was 16 was a Thanksgiving meal, so I always think my hospitality background and owning a restaurant for seven, eight years, that bringing folks around the table to share conversation and build community, is always a good thing,” Hong said after CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked whether she “still believe[s] Thanksgiving should be canceled.”
“But Thanksgiving is also a time that’s incredibly painful for many people in our communities,” she continued. “And the position that I’m running for right now—and I think my background as a chef will actually help me become a better governor that’s able to bring more people to the table.” Shortly thereafter, Hong told Politico that Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday. “I actually love it,” she said.
Hong has also railed against “old white people,” tweeting in July 2019, “I ate two bites of my kid’s cheeseburger at a Culver’s in black river falls and told him they ran out of ice cream. Mostly just wanted to leave bc I was on the verge of a anxiety attack…to [sic] many old white people who didn’t think we spoke english.” Wisconsin is the 12th-oldest and 10th-whitest state.
It’s not the only bizarre race remark Hong has made involving her son. In a 2021 interview with Listen MKE, a project of Milwaukee’s NPR station, she said, “My proximity to whiteness continues, right? My son is biracial. He’s half-white and half-Korean. And I think navigating what his identity is and how people perceive him is always at the back of my mind as well.”
Hong first ran for the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2020. She sparred with restaurant industry groups during the campaign, most notably the Tavern League of Wisconsin, which represents thousands of restaurants and bars in the state. When the group attempted to block an October 2020 executive order from Evers limiting the size of public gatherings, Hong tweeted, “Please note that the corrupt, crooked, cunts at The Tavern League do not represent the interests of all bars and restaurants.”
Hong has also been quick to note that, despite owning a small business, she is not a capitalist.
“The nuances of inflation are also that those who are controlling a lot of the supply chains dictate the cost, and consumers absorb that cost,” she told Meal Magazine in 2023. “So capitalism has not been working for consumers or workers. There has to be transformative change in those economic structures … I am a business owner who is anti-capitalist.”
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