Democratic candidate for governor Francesca Hong, who was sued late last month for nearly $30,000 she owed to Capital One, has paid off the debt, according to court records and correspondence from the debt collector provided to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
State court records show a lawsuit filed by Capital One against Hong to recover the debt was dismissed Friday, June 26.
“She was able to pay it off through family support and personal sacrifices,” Hong campaign spokeswoman Becky Cooper told the Journal Sentinel in a text. “She’s grateful to have a strong community to help navigate the system. But we have to fix the system.”
Cooper has said Hong paid the debt on June 2, the same day a Journal Sentinel reporter called her campaign to ask about the lawsuit.
Hong has been a leader in the Democratic primary field in recent statewide polls among decided voters ahead of the Aug. 11 primary election. As governor, Hong would oversee the state’s financials, including through building a state budget that is crafted, in part, on borrowing.
Capital One filed a lawsuit May 26 in Dane County Circuit Court against Hong seeking to be repaid the $29,344 she charged on a Discover credit card since 2011 and for which Hong had stopped making minimum payments, according to court filings.
Hong, 37, has represented Wisconsin’s 76th Assembly District in the heart of Madison since 2021. The democratic socialist earned acclaim in her early 20s as a chef in the capital city, becoming co-owner and co-chef of Morris Ramen, which closed in 2024 after seven years in business.
“I’m an ordinary working Wisconsinite living in an America where too many people have been robbed of their American dream and a life of dignity,” Hong said in a statement. “I’m not ashamed to have accrued debt in pursuit of my dream. I am disappointed debt is portrayed as a moral failing, especially when people can’t afford the basics of daily life.”She said people should instead be ashamed of letting “working people struggle to feed their families or simply put gas in their cars while billionaires and corporations are making record profits off of our hard work.”
Hong urged people focus on her campaign platform instead of her personal debt.”This is yet another distraction because my opponents don’t want the focus to be about my platform for permanent affordability. They know when we talk about policies like universal childcare, fully funded public schools, fairer, cheaper healthcare, universal paid leave, and protecting Wisconsin from AI Data Centers, that voters see how their lives could be better and we win,” Hong said.
“We’re going to keep talking about those things and we won’t stop fighting for everyday people who power this state to have power and security for themselves.”
In recent days, Democrats have reported receiving a survey asking about the debt as a campaign issue. In one survey, respondents were asked: “Francesca Hong knows firsthand what the affordability crisis is doing to working families. She was recently sued by a big bank over credit card debt for the business expenses she incurred during the pandemic.”
Respondents were then asked how the lawsuit affects their chances of voting for Hong.
Hong has continued to work as a chef and a bartender in addition to serving full-time in the Assembly. Hong is paid about $61,000 a year for her work as a state representative.
Asked whether any campaign funds were used to pay off the debt, Cooper has repeatedly said, “Absolutely not.”
Mary Spicuzza, Molly Beck and Jessie Opoien can be reached at mspicuzza@jrn.com, molly.beck@jrn.com and jessie.opoien@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Democrat governor candidate Hong pays credit card debt after lawsuit
Reporting by Mary Spicuzza, Molly Beck and Jessie Opoien, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Mary Spicuzza, Molly Beck and Jessie Opoien, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
