MILWAUKEE — The 2026 World Series went through Wisconsin for the first time in 44 years and provided the most surprising champion Major League Baseball produced in more than a decade. The Milwaukee Brewers, the sport’s smallest market with a middling payroll, forged one of the hottest runs in postseason history — an 11-2 march from divisional winner to last team standing after the Fall Classic.
Playoff games, watch parties, and obsessed fans dominated the Badger State’s headlines, pushing the gubernatorial race timed with the 2026 midterms down the front page. However, when the confetti cleared from the avenues of downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin had a governor-elect even more unlikely than the Hometown Nine hefting the Commissioner’s Trophy in this dawning age of the accidental candidate.
Throughout most of the primary season in the open seat race to replace retiring Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI), Democrat and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley was an afterthought in the race for Madison’s statehouse. Polling below 10%, he dropped out of the field on July 8.
Then-Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez was polling well and seemed a strong candidate in tune with the Democrats’ platform — a safe bet who would appeal to enough moderate Republicans outside of Milwaukee or Madison to keep the governor’s office blue. During the later stages of campaign season, a finance report unveiled questionable funding activity, forcing Rodriguez to fire her campaign manager and eventually abandon the race.
That left Democratic Socialists of America star Francesca Hong as the Democrats’ front-runner. Seeing an opening in a moderate Wisconsin landscape less likely to follow New York or California to the far left, Crowley jumped back into the campaign and won the nomination. On Nov. 3, Crowley completed his journey from zero to hero by defeating a plodding campaign from Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) and will become Wisconsin’s first black governor.
Gov.-elect David Crowley (D-WI) and Lieutenant Gov.-elect Sarah Godlewski (D-WI) celebrate their win on Nov. 3 at an Election Night event in Milwaukee; Milwaukee Brewers catcher William Contreras holds the MVP trophy after the team won the World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Oct. 28. (Nam Y. Huh/AP; Ashley Landis/AP)
" data-large-file="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/WB.Campaign.111826.jpg?w=1024" height="658" width="1024" src="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/WB.Campaign.111826.jpg?w=1024" alt="Gov.-elect David Crowley (D-WI) and Lieutenant Gov.-elect Sarah Godlewski (D-WI) celebrate their win on Nov. 3 at an Election Night event in Milwaukee; Milwaukee Brewers catcher William Contreras holds the MVP trophy after the team won the World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Oct. 28. (Nam Y. Huh/AP; Ashley Landis/AP)" class="wp-image-4803684" srcset="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/WB.Campaign.111826.jpg 1400w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/WB.Campaign.111826.jpg?resize=300,193 300w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/WB.Campaign.111826.jpg?resize=768,494 768w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/WB.Campaign.111826.jpg?resize=1024,658 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px">
Gov.-elect David Crowley (D-WI) and Lieutenant Gov.-elect Sarah Godlewski (D-WI) celebrate their win on Nov. 3 at an Election Night event in Milwaukee; Milwaukee Brewers catcher William Contreras holds the MVP trophy after the team won the World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Oct. 28. (Nam Y. Huh/AP; Ashley Landis/AP)
A couple thousand miles to the west, California saw a similar intraparty war of attrition and another unlikely gubernatorial winner who survived by staying out of major scandals. The campaign of Gov.-elect Xavier Becerra (D-CA) got off to a disastrous start with a series of awkward interviews. Despite decades in the public eye as a 24-year congressman representing downtown Los Angeles and surrounding areas, California attorney general, and Health and Human Services secretary in President Joe Biden’s administration.
John Phillips, former CNN commentator and political host for KABC radio in Los Angeles, said a single phrase threatened to doom Becerra early in his run.
“Most of Becerra’s in-depth conversations about California have been crash and burn,” Phillips said. “Look at his rollout interview with Fox 11’s Elex Michaelson [now with CNN], during which he whiffed on obvious questions such as, ‘Which specific Democratic policy would you change to make the state more affordable?’ Instead of answers, Becerra just kept robotically repeating the phrase, ‘Scrub it,’ over and over again.”
According to a Daily Mail report, Becerra originally credited the motto to his mother, saying: “Te lavaste bien los dientes? Did you brush your teeth? Did you scrub right? You scrub it, and then whatever is left, whatever is clean and survives, that’s what you do.”
No amount of scrubbing helped for months as Becerra continued to poll at 5% or lower ahead of the June 2 all-party primary. The runaway leader as of April was Bay Area Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell. When a sexual assault allegation metastasized into multiple predatory accusations and an ongoing federal investigation, Swalwell resigned from Congress and ended his gubernatorial campaign.
Meanwhile, notable candidate and former Democratic congresswoman Katie Porter never recovered from leaked videos revealing her verbal mistreatment of young staffers, making her campaign for governor untenable. Once again, with the major players out of the game, a flailing candidate in Becerra found himself the unlikely front-runner and eventually California’s governor-elect.
In an age of 24/7 media and activist journalists, it seems impossible to keep a scandal hidden. As a result, boring candidates who can stay out of trouble can become more appealing than more forceful and charismatic options.
Mike Fahey is a political strategist and crisis communications expert. Emerging from the busy midterm season, he’s accustomed to seeing the chosen candidate often seeming far from the best candidate.
“Democracy has always rewarded timing, but now it’s rewarding survival,” Fahey said. “Sometimes the winning campaign strategy isn’t about climbing to the top. It’s about being the last person standing when everyone else falls off the ladder.”
While party vetting was always an important element of the nomination and election process, Fahey insists it’s now absolutely essential for Democrats and Republicans alike to investigate candidates carefully.
“Political parties spend millions figuring out whether a candidate can win an election, but sometimes fail to ask whether that candidate can survive one,” he added. “In the age of screenshots, opposition research, and instant scandals, the skeletons don’t stay in the closet. Parties need to stop confusing electability with popularity.”
George Carrillo served as the Oregon Health Authority’s director of social determinants of health and is a former Democratic candidate for governor in that state. His own experience taught him that getting attention and earning trust were two different jobs.
“A candidate can struggle to raise money or gain coverage and still have something valuable to offer,” Carrillo said. “That is why I would not dismiss Crowley or Becerra as ‘accidental candidates.’ An opponent’s collapse creates an opening.”
Carrillo celebrates the idea that voters still decide who deserves the given political office.
“That is the system adapting, but [voters] should also force parties to examine how they choose their favorites,” he said. “Vetting needs to happen before the endorsements and major financial commitments. Look at how candidates manage money and treat employees when something goes wrong. A party should never become so invested in a candidate that it stops asking difficult questions.”
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Less than a week after the 2026 World Champion Brewers drew 750,000 fans to their downtown Milwaukee parade (in a city with an official population of less than 600,000), Crowley swept into office to significantly less celebration and fanfare. Pledging to continue the policies of his outgoing Democratic predecessor, Crowley’s victory taught a similar lesson as the baseball team winning its first championship after a 57-year wait: Sometimes you win by keeping it clean and outlasting your rivals.
Wisconsin-based John Scott Lewinski (@johnlewinski) writes from Milwaukee.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
