An ultra-woke, single mom who is being compared to New York's  Zohran Mamdani is leading the Wisconsin polls ahead of a packed gubernatorial race - but some worry she may be too liberal for the Midwest. 

Francesca Hong, 37, is currently polling at 44 percent of Democratic voters in the state, a new poll by State Navigate showed on Tuesday. 

Her next biggest competitor is Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who has garnered 15 percent of the pollsters. 

However, despite the strong lead from her supporters – who call themselves Hongheads – Democrats worry the 37-year-old, who is a Democratic Socialist like Mamdani, may be too liberal to clear the final vote.

Much like her liberal counterparts, like Mamdani and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Hong wants to bring Wisconsinites free school lunches and universal childcare. 

She also wants to deeply fund school programs, such as special education, and give more money toward higher education, provide living wages, cheap healthcare, and limit data centers. 

Although some voters are ready to ring in an era of socialism in the Midwest, others are more hesitant to embrace her policies, as they're unsure if she'd be able to defeat a Republican candidate in November. 

'They’re asking, what is the strategy?' Karen DeSanto, a Democratic state representative, told The New York Times. 

With the prospect of Democrats taking the governor's seat, as well as the state legislative, liberal strategists are going full steam ahead trying to get Hong in the seat, but up until this week, many voters were not in agreement with who the frontrunner should be. 

A Marquette University poll last week saw Hong with only 26 percent of the vote, while former Lieutenant Governor, Mandela Barnes, had 15 percent. 

'The pressure that the left is feeling is part of why you are seeing this disarray in the last couple of weeks,' strategist Joe Zepecki told The Times. 'People are very afraid of missing the opportunity ahead.' 

Jim Doyle, a Democrat and former governor of Wisconsin, has been shocked by her momentum. As a centrist Democrat, he believed that was the way to make gains, but Hong is doing the opposite. 

'I was a pretty centrist candidate, and I think that that generally is how you win in Wisconsin, but that may be old-time thinking,' he told The Times. 

Hong is currently a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, where she was elected in 2021. 

She had previously worked in the restaurant industry, including as a private chef, for a decade prior, according to The American Prospect.  

Despite her unconventional career ladder, Hong is certain that 'voters are telling us that they are ready for a new type of leadership,' she told the magazine. 

'One that prioritizes the issues that working-class people care about and that requires transformative change from new leaders,' she said. 

Her campaign has revitalized Wisconsin politics, with the Republican Governors Association spending more than $2 million on attack ads boosting her only because they believe a conservative candidate will blow her out of the water in November. 

'It requires a candidate and a campaign like ours to make sure that we’re delivering for Wisconsinites at the scale and speed in which their struggles are growing,' Hong told The American Prospect. 

And as for her comparison to Mamdani, Hong told the Daily Mail: 'I have tremendous respect for Mayor Mamdani and the movement he built and the way he’s already delivering big wins for working people in New York City. 

'I think the excitement and momentum around our campaign in Wisconsin comes from that same hunger for a politics that actually speaks to working people.

'People are sick of concentrated corporate power and a political system that too often puts wealthy interests first. Our campaign is deeply Wisconsin and has been built by traveling across the state, listening to people and finding common ground. That’s how we’re bringing together a broad, diverse and durable coalition.

'What they tell me is that people are ready for something different, and that a campaign powered by working people and rooted in economic populism can compete – and win – anywhere in America.'