One month after he suspended his campaign, David Crowley’s victory in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary for governor on Tuesday marked an astonishing turn around.

When the Milwaukee County executive re-entered the race 10 days after he exited it, democratic socialist state lawmaker Francesca Hong’s momentum seemed near insurmountable.

But on Wednesday morning, it was Crowley, not Hong, who was urging his party’s voters to set aside their ideological differences and unite against “something much bigger” in this fall’s race against Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany.

The stunning win opens a critical new chapter in the ongoing battle between the center-left Democratic establishment and its progressive insurgency — one that revealed voters’ hesitancy around the electability of further-left candidates in a presidential battleground.

Tony Evers, the popular outgoing Democratic governor, recruited Crowley back into the race last month and campaigned at his side as they traveled together across Wisconsin in the closing stretch of the race, mincing few words as he implored voters to weigh their choices carefully.

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“In my heart of hearts, I know David Crowley is the best chance we have of beating Tom Tiffany,” Evers said at one of his final rallies. “A lot of people have asked: Why David? David is the kind of guy who gets shit done.”

The 40-year-old has a long record in local politics. A former member of the state Assembly, Crowley was elected Milwaukee County executive in 2020 and won a second term four years later. It’s the same path that GOP former Gov. Scott Walker followed: serving in the legislature, then as Milwaukee County’s executive for eight years — where he was the first Republican to hold the role — prior to being elected governor in 2010.

Crowley also has the chance to make history. If elected in November, he would be the state’s first Black governor.

“I’m a son of Milwaukee,” he said Wednesday, seeking to introduce himself anew. “I’m a community organizer by heart who has just happened to find himself in the halls of the state capitol building and at the head of Milwaukee County government for the last six years.”