State Representative Francesca Hong: The Political Landscape (Part 2 of 2)
Francesca Hong was the first Asian American elected to the Wisconsin Legislature in November 2020
by Jonathan Gramling
When Francesca Hong was elected as the WI Representative for District 76 in November 2020, she became the first Asian American to serve in the Wisconsin Legislature. Representing much of the east side of Madison, Hong has also become a strong Progressive voice in the legislature and the city of Madison.
With redistricting, there are now 45 Democrats in the Assembly and 54 Republicans. While the Assembly is still dominated by Speaker Robin Voss — who has promised to not consider Democratic sponsored legislation, Hong is still pushing for Governor Tony Evers’ biennial budget, which is under consideration this session. There is a lot at stake, especially in the area of healthcare.
“There is always an opportunity for the majority party to do the right thing and increase access to affordable healthcare,” Hong said. “But given the risk of losing that federal reimbursement and Speaker Voss really holding a firm line on not expanding Badger Care, I do not anticipate it passing this budget cycle. But we are going to continue to fight for it because a lot of people in Wisconsin want this expansion. And we know it would help hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites access high quality and affordable healthcare.”
Hong is concerned about the double whammy of state and federal cuts to Medicaid.
“The majority of Wisconsinites who rely on Badger Care, which is one of the Wisconsin Medicaid programs — a lot of folks are not aware that Badger Care is Medicaid — would be impacted by federal cuts to Medicaid, 1.2 million people, I think,” Hong said. “These folks include low-income, pregnant women, low-income working adults, older adults on long-term care, children, and people with disabilities. Another important thing to know is if we see significant cuts to Medicaid, we’re going to see hospitals, clinics and nursing homes struggle to maintain services. And we may even see hospitals close. Those are places that get paid by Medicaid. In rural areas here in Wisconsin, we can anticipate even more people would be impacted by the cuts.”
The high cost of childcare directly impacts peoples’ ability to fully participate in Wisconsin’s workforce. Evers’ budget wants to increase state funding for childcare.
“I think it is important to mention pieces in the Governor’s budget that make significant increased investments in making childcare more affordable like removing co-payments,” Hong said. “It’s making sure that we continue to fund the Childcare Counts Program, which has been instrumental in ensuring that providers can make childcare costs affordable to working families in addition to being able to make sure that their staff has a living wage and they can pay fair wages to their staff. The Governor says this is the most pro-kid budget in Wisconsin history. And when we make investments in our youngest Wisconsinites, we know that all working families are stronger, our economy is stronger and we’re collectively investing in our shared future. Democrats are going to continue to fight to include as many measures from the Governor’s budget into the budget that we’ll be voting on in June.”
As was earlier stated, Hong is concerned about what is going on on the federal level with massive layoffs and the slashing of funding to make room for Trump’s tax cuts for the rich.
“Right now, we have to make sure that we are informing the public about what is going on at the federal level as well and what is going on at the federal level is a continuation of trying to become an oligarchy and making sure that the government only works to benefit billionaires off the backs of working people,” Hong emphasized. “It is important that everyone stays engaged and continues to do what they can to organize with local groups who are trying to make sure that we can target vulnerable Republicans in districts who need to answer to folks. More folks are coming out demanding the government work for them and not the billionaires. And we need Democrats to be very strong on policies like increasing Medicare for all or housing for all and investing in the care economy like childcare and public education. While we can do a lot at the state, I’m asking all Wisconsinites to continue to get involved however they can and make sure they vote on April 1st.”
“Whether it is Social Security and Medicaid and their health insurance, it’s the firing of federal workers who are public servants working in a non-partisan manner to ensure that we can fund important cancer research,” Hong emphasized. “Not only are there folks being fired, but people are also being demanded to provide proof of what they have done when it only adds to the stress and makes things less efficient for folks who are working in these offices, trying to help our veterans, trying to help our seniors. I think we have a president and the richest man in the world who don’t understand how the federal government works, who don’t understand how government works and their only aim and their only goal is to make sure the wealthier get richer and that working families continue to pay the price.”
Hong feels that we are at an important crossroads in American politics and the time to push back is now.
“It is going to take a lot of folks calling out Republicans,” Hong said. “It’s going to take Democrats who are willing to fight. I always say, ‘Right now, we need brawlers and we need folks who are going to make sure that we can organize and give people the opportunity to make their voices heard.”
State Representative Francesca Hong is sending out the message loud and clear. Stand up Wisconsinites.