Francesca Hong has gone from flipping ramen bowls in a small Madison kitchen to leading one of the most closely watched governor’s races in the country — and as of today, she is the single hottest name in American politics. If you’ve landed on this page because you just heard her name on the news and want the full story — her age, her family, her ex-husband, her career, her net worth, and how a former chef became the front-runner to be the next Governor of Wisconsin — you’re in the right place. Here is everything currently known about Francesca Hong, laid out in one place.
Quick Facts: Francesca Hong Bio Table
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Francesca Hong |
| Date of Birth | November 4, 1988 |
| Age | 37 years old |
| Birthplace | Madison, Wisconsin, USA |
| Nationality | American (Korean American) |
| Profession | Politician, Chef, Restaurant Owner, Bartender |
| Political Party | Democratic Party (Democratic Socialists of America member) |
| Current Office | Wisconsin State Assembly, 76th District |
| Running For | Governor of Wisconsin (2026) |
| Education | Madison West High School; University of Wisconsin–Madison (Spanish and journalism, did not complete degree) |
| Marital Status | Divorced |
| Ex-Husband | Matt Morris (chef) |
| Children | One son |
| Years Active in Politics | 2020–present |
| Restaurant Founded | Morris Ramen (2016–2024) |
| Estimated Net Worth | Approximately $500,000 (modest, driven by legislative salary and past restaurant earnings) |
Who Is Francesca Hong? The Basics
Francesca Hong is a 37-year-old Wisconsin state legislator, former professional chef, and now the front-running Democratic candidate in the 2026 race for Governor of Wisconsin. She made history in 2020 as the first Asian American ever elected to the Wisconsin State Legislature, and she is now on the verge of making history again — this time as a leading contender to become the state’s next governor, running not as a cautious establishment pick but as an unapologetic democratic socialist backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
Her story has become one of the defining political narratives of 2026 for one simple reason: nobody expected it. Hong entered the crowded Democratic primary as what she herself called a “wild card” candidate. Within months, two better-funded, more conventional rivals had dropped out of the race, national donors and pundits started paying attention, and outside Republican groups began spending millions of dollars on ads — not to defeat her, but seemingly to help her win her own primary, betting she’d be the easiest Democrat for their candidate to beat in November. That gambit, and everything swirling around it, is why her name is trending today.
Early Life and Family Background
Francesca Hong was born on November 4, 1988, in Madison, Wisconsin, to parents who had immigrated from South Korea. Her mother ran a restaurant while Hong was growing up, giving her an early, up-close view of the pressures small business owners and working-class immigrant families face — a theme that would eventually define her entire political career.
Hong attended Madison’s public schools and graduated from Madison West High School, where she co-captained the varsity soccer team and worked as a server at a local restaurant while still a student. She went on to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she studied Spanish and journalism. She never finished that degree. Partway through, while filling out an application for the university’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Hong realized her heart wasn’t in it anymore — it was in the kitchen. She left school to pursue food full-time.
From Dishwasher to Executive Chef: Francesca Hong’s Culinary Career
Long before she was a state representative, Francesca Hong was a fixture of Madison’s restaurant scene — and her rise there was just as fast as her rise in politics has been.
She started at the very bottom, washing dishes, before working her way up through a series of kitchen jobs across Madison and, for a period, in New York City, where she has said she personally experienced wage theft and a lack of basic workplace protections common in the restaurant industry. That experience shaped her thinking about labor rights years before she ever ran for office.
Back in Madison, Hong’s talent moved her quickly. By age 23, she had become the executive chef at 43 North, making her one of the youngest — and one of the only — female executive chefs in the city at the time. It was a rare feat in an industry still dominated by men at the top.
In December 2016, Hong took the biggest leap of her culinary career: she and her then-husband, chef Matt Morris, opened their own restaurant, Morris Ramen, in downtown Madison, working alongside mentor and restaurateur Shinji Muramoto. The restaurant quickly became more than a place to eat — it became a genuine community hub in Madison, known for its broths as much as for Hong’s outspoken advocacy for fair wages and respectful treatment of restaurant staff.
In 2017, Hong co-founded the Culinary Ladies Collective, a support and advocacy network for women and nonbinary workers in Madison’s food industry, aimed at helping them enter and advance in an industry that has historically frozen them out of leadership roles.
Then came 2020. When COVID-19 hit Wisconsin, Morris Ramen — like restaurants everywhere — was forced to shut its doors. Rather than simply riding it out, Hong co-founded Cook It Forward Madison, an organization that pulled together local restaurants, farms, nonprofits, and grassroots groups to keep feeding people who had lost access to food during the pandemic. She also wrote a public statement on behalf of Wisconsin’s chefs and restaurant owners demanding emergency unemployment support, tax relief, and rent and loan abatement for workers and small business owners left stranded by the crisis.
It was that frustration — watching leadership fail the people she worked alongside every day — that pushed Hong from the kitchen into politics for good.
Francesca Hong’s Entry Into Politics: A Campaign Launched on Mother’s Day
Fed up with what she saw as inaction from elected officials during the pandemic, Francesca Hong launched her campaign for Wisconsin’s 76th Assembly District on Mother’s Day 2020. It was an unusual candidacy from the start: a sitting restaurant owner and chef running in a packed Democratic primary against six other opponents, most of whom had far more conventional political résumés.
She won. In November 2020, Hong was elected to represent Madison’s liberal Isthmus neighborhood in the Wisconsin State Assembly, becoming the first Asian American ever elected to the Wisconsin Legislature in the state’s history — a milestone that made national headlines at the time and remains one of the signature achievements of her career.
As a state representative, Hong quickly aligned herself with the Assembly’s Socialist Caucus and became a visible member of the Democratic Socialists of America. She built a legislative record around a consistent set of priorities: paid family leave, higher wages, tenant protections, and support for the same working-class and immigrant communities she grew up around. She was later appointed to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s Board of Directors and continued pushing legislation, including efforts requiring Wisconsin schools to teach Asian American history — a bill that ultimately passed into law in 2024.
Throughout her time in the legislature, Hong never fully left the restaurant industry behind. Even after becoming a state representative, she continued picking up shifts as a bartender in Madison — a detail she still points to on the campaign trail as proof she understands the economic pressures facing ordinary workers because she still lives them.
Marriage, Divorce, and Family Life
Francesca Hong married chef Matt Morris in 2012. Their personal and professional lives quickly became intertwined: four years later, in December 2016, the couple opened Morris Ramen together, building both a business and a family at the same time. The two welcomed a son around the same period they launched the restaurant, meaning Hong was navigating new motherhood and a demanding restaurant opening simultaneously.
For years, Hong and Morris ran the restaurant side by side while raising their son, balancing marriage, parenthood, and small-business ownership all at once. Eventually, the marriage ended in divorce. In interviews, Hong has spoken candidly about how the long hours of restaurant life and, later, political life left little space for the relationship itself — describing an amicable but disappointing split, one where constant togetherness at work didn’t leave room for intentional time together as partners.
Despite the divorce, Hong and Morris continued co-parenting their son and kept running Morris Ramen together for years afterward. The restaurant finally closed permanently in February 2024, after roughly seven years in business, as rising costs and the broader economic pressure facing independent restaurants caught up with it — the same kind of pressure Hong had been fighting against politically for years.
Today, Hong is a single mother raising her son in Madison. She has been open on the campaign trail about what it’s like to balance single parenthood with serving in the legislature and now running a statewide campaign, often describing herself simply as a mom, a service worker, and a former small business owner rolled into one candidate.
The 2026 Race for Governor: How Francesca Hong Became the Front-Runner
Wisconsin’s 2026 governor’s race opened up when Governor Tony Evers announced he would not seek reelection. What followed was one of the most unpredictable primary fights in the country.
The Democratic field initially included several candidates with more traditional political résumés: former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes (who narrowly lost a 2022 U.S. Senate race), Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, and Francesca Hong. The race reshuffled dramatically in July, when Crowley dropped out and threw his support behind Rodriguez as the more “establishment” choice — only for Rodriguez to drop out herself days later, after her campaign discovered it had significantly less money in the bank than previously believed.
That left a primary that increasingly became a two-person race, with Crowley re-entering after Rodriguez’s exit, going head-to-head against Hong, whose grassroots, DSA-aligned campaign had continued to build momentum throughout.
Hong’s rise unsettled many mainstream Democrats. Her critics inside the party worry that a self-described democratic socialist — one who has previously called for abolishing the police and, in past comments, even joked about abolishing Thanksgiving — is simply too far left to win a genuine swing state in a general election. Evers himself has publicly suggested Hong would likely struggle against the eventual Republican nominee, and has indicated he sees Crowley as Democrats’ safer bet in November.
But Hong’s campaign has tapped into something many pundits didn’t anticipate: genuine grassroots energy. Her rallies have drawn crowds chanting her name in packed venues, complete with campaign events that feel more like community gatherings than typical political stump speeches — Hong has been known to dance with supporters at her own rallies, at one memorable event moving to the “KPop Demon Hunters” soundtrack as the crowd joined in. Her Madison campaign headquarters, tucked between a bike path and railroad tracks on the city’s east side, is decorated with a mural reading “The sun will find us: an excavation of love,” which Hong has said represents finding healing amid crisis and chaos — a message that has resonated with a base hungry for something different from politics as usual.
Today’s Headline: The Ad War, and Why Republicans Are Boosting a Democratic Socialist
Here is the twist that has turned Hong’s race into a genuinely wild story, and the reason her name is dominating headlines right now, on primary day itself.
Nearly $3 million in ads from a group linked to the Republican Governors Association has poured into Wisconsin — not attacking Hong, but boosting her, branding her as “too liberal for Wisconsin” in a transparent effort to help her win her own Democratic primary. The Republican logic is straightforward and cynical: they believe Hong, as a proud democratic socialist, would be the easiest possible opponent for their eventual nominee to beat in the general election, so they’re spending real money trying to hand her the nomination.
Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, the fight has only recently turned negative. Until last week, outside groups backing her chief rival, David Crowley, had stuck almost entirely to positive advertising. That changed when a pro-Crowley outside group launched Wisconsin’s first Democratic-aligned attack ad of the entire primary season, declaring that “Francesca Hong’s record is a distraction we can’t afford” — a sign of just how anxious establishment Democrats have become as Hong has continued to lead in the closing days of the race.
Today, six states — including Wisconsin — are holding primaries. The Democratic nominee who emerges from the Hong-versus-Crowley battle will go on to face Trump-endorsed Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany, who is expected to easily win the GOP nomination, setting up a marquee general election matchup in one of the nation’s most important swing states.
Francesca Hong’s Political Platform
Hong’s campaign is built around a core message of what she calls “permanent affordability” for working people in Wisconsin. Her stated policy priorities include:
- A state-level version of Medicare for All, expanding public health coverage across Wisconsin
- Abolishing ICE, reflecting her broader immigration and criminal-justice reform positions
- Higher taxes on corporations and billionaires, to fund public services and reduce the tax burden on working families
- Expanded access to gender-affirming care
- A pause on new AI data center construction in Wisconsin, until the state has a clearer understanding of the true costs — economic, environmental, and otherwise — that these facilities bring
- Paid family leave and stronger labor protections, priorities she has pushed since her earliest days in the Assembly
- Support for small businesses and restaurant workers, drawing directly from her own experience as a chef and business owner
Supporters describe her as a candidate who is “building the movement to meet the moment,” a phrase Hong herself has used at campaign rallies to describe what she sees as a rising wave of grassroots political engagement, distinct from establishment politics as usual.
Health, Honesty, and Public Life
Hong has also spoken candidly in past interviews about her mental health, disclosing that she experienced a mental health crisis at age 18 that led to a week-long hospitalization and, eventually, a bipolar disorder diagnosis. She has discussed this publicly as part of her broader advocacy for stronger mental health resources and has framed it as part of what shaped her empathy for the struggles working people face — treating it as one piece of a public record she has chosen to share rather than something hidden.
Personal Life: Sports, Community, and What Makes Francesca Hong, Hong
Away from the campaign trail, Hong is known around Madison for a few distinctly personal touches that have become part of her public persona:
- She is a devoted fan of the Milwaukee Bucks and got a tattoo reading “Bucks in Six” after the team’s 2021 NBA championship run.
- She’s also a supporter of Forward Madison FC, the city’s local soccer club — a nod back to her own days as a high school soccer co-captain.
- She still occasionally works bartending and bakery shifts in Madison, something she brings up frequently on the campaign trail as proof that she hasn’t drifted away from the working-class life she’s campaigning to protect.
- Colleagues and supporters describe her campaign events as having a distinct, almost communal energy — grounded in food, music, and neighborhood connection rather than traditional political showmanship.
Francesca Hong’s Net Worth
Unlike career politicians or celebrities with corporate deals and major real estate holdings, Francesca Hong’s finances remain modest and largely unremarkable by design. Her income is drawn primarily from her legislative salary — roughly $50,000 annually as a Wisconsin State Assembly member — along with her past earnings as co-owner and executive chef of Morris Ramen. She has no major outside business ventures, endorsement deals, or significant real estate holdings on record. Campaign finance filings show her gubernatorial run has leaned heavily on small-dollar grassroots donations rather than major donor money, consistent with her political brand. Estimates place her net worth at approximately $500,000, though as with most state legislators, no major financial outlet has published an independently audited figure.
Frequently Asked Questions About Francesca Hong
How old is Francesca Hong? Francesca Hong was born on November 4, 1988, making her 37 years old.
Is Francesca Hong married? No. Hong was previously married to chef Matt Morris, with whom she co-founded Morris Ramen and shares a son. The couple later divorced and she is currently single.
Who is Francesca Hong’s ex-husband? Her ex-husband is Matt Morris, a chef she married in 2012. The two opened Morris Ramen together in 2016 and continued running the restaurant and co-parenting their son even after their divorce, until the restaurant’s closure in February 2024.
Does Francesca Hong have children? Yes, she has one son, whom she is raising as a single mother in Madison.
What did Francesca Hong do before politics? She was a professional chef and restaurant owner. She became an executive chef at age 23, later co-founded the Culinary Ladies Collective, and co-owned Morris Ramen, a well-known Madison restaurant, from 2016 to 2024.
What political party is Francesca Hong in? She is a Democrat and an active member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), aligned with the Wisconsin Assembly’s Socialist Caucus.
What office is Francesca Hong running for? She is running for Governor of Wisconsin in the 2026 election, currently serving as the front-runner in the Democratic primary.
Why is Francesca Hong trending today? Because today is primary day in Wisconsin, where Hong faces Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley for the Democratic nomination for governor — a race that has drawn national attention due to Hong’s grassroots momentum, her status as a democratic socialist front-runner, and millions of dollars in outside spending from groups on both sides trying to influence the outcome.
The Bottom Line
Francesca Hong’s story is one of the more genuinely unusual political trajectories in recent American politics: a dishwasher-turned-executive-chef, a small business owner who lived through the exact economic hardships she now legislates against, and a first-generation daughter of Korean immigrants who became the first Asian American ever elected to the Wisconsin Legislature. Whether she wins today’s primary and goes on to challenge Tom Tiffany in November, or whether the establishment’s fears about her electability prove correct, Francesca Hong has already reshaped what a winning Democratic campaign in Wisconsin can look like — one rally, one bowl of ramen, and one grassroots donation at a time.
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