Did Wisconsin Democrats Just Halt a Left-Wing Surge?

Summary

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WSJ What’s News – AM Edition

Episode: Did Wisconsin Democrats Just Halt a Left-Wing Surge?

Date: August 12, 2026
Host: Luke Vargas (The Wall Street Journal)

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Episode Overview

This episode covers major political and business developments, focusing on the results of the Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary, their implications for the national progressive movement, and key market news, including Bank of America’s infrastructure push and Paramount’s potential departure from California. Also covered: state ballot proposals on property taxes, data center investment, and recent primary upsets across several states.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. New York City Investigation of Prediction Markets

• Investigation Targets: NYC is investigating four popular prediction markets—Polymarket, Kalshi, Coinbase, and Gemini Titan—for deceptive marketing and possible targeting of minors.
• City Council Actions: Council Speaker Julie Menon has sent letters demanding information, especially concerning promotional videos that may have depicted fake trades and encouraged insider trading (01:13).
  • “In a letter addressed to Polymarket, she asked for details about promotional videos ... promoted insider trading on social media, some of which may have targeted minors.” – Caitlin McCabe (01:13)
• Unique Use of Powers: The NYC council may issue subpoenas and hold public hearings—rarely used actions for private companies (01:58).

2. Wisconsin Democratic Primary: Centrist Pushback

• Election Outcome: David Crowley (a centrist) narrowly beats Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong for the Democratic governor nomination—despite Hong’s prior lead in the polls and bold progressive platform (02:26).
• Party Dynamics: The result is framed as a sign that the left-wing surge within Democratic primaries may be slowing.
  • “This centrist strike back in Wisconsin... Francesca Hong, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, was predicted to win by polls by more than 10 points... she ends up losing.” – Damian Paletta (03:26)
• Comparison to National Trends: Parallels drawn to close progressive wins elsewhere (e.g., Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan) and different outcomes reflecting local voter sentiment (04:03).
  • “Mamdani might work in New York, AOC’s politics might work in New York, Bernie Sanders’ politics might work in Vermont. But we’re not really seeing that work in states like Wisconsin.” – Damian Paletta (04:32)
• Analysis of Voter Sentiment: The episode suggests Midwest voters are wary of “very bold ideas” and progressive platforms, preferring more moderate approaches (04:32).

3. Other notable primary outcomes

• Minnesota: Progressives did well; Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, a progressive, became the Democratic nominee for Senate, beating centrist Rep. Angie Craig (05:14).
• South Carolina: Trump’s endorsement didn’t hand Darlene Graham an outright Senate primary win; she faces a runoff (05:14).
  • “He [Trump] chose who he did, and that’s fine. South Carolina’s gonna decide the next senator.” – Rep. Ralph Norman (05:14)
• Minnesota Governor (GOP Primary): Trump-backed Mike Lindell (MyPillow founder) lost; House Speaker Lisa Damuth will face Amy Klobuchar in November (05:14).

4. State Ballot Proposals: The Property Tax Debate

• Overview: North Carolina, Wyoming, Florida, and Oklahoma have ballot measures to lower property taxes (06:35).
• Backdrop: Property taxes have risen 34% since 2016, placing average single-family bills over $4,400 (07:22).
  • “Property taxes composed almost 30% of total US collections in 2023.” – Sanai Rashid (07:22)
• Economists’ View: Tax experts generally favor property taxes for their transparency and role in community funding; local officials worry about pressure to cut essential services if taxes fall (08:08).
• Wyoming Case Study: Candidate Brent Behan aims to maintain vital services but scale back other government spending, while states like Florida are already preparing for tighter budgets (08:30).

5. Markets and Business

Bank of America’s Infrastructure Investment

• Big Move: Investing $250B in data centers, energy, and minerals—similar to Morgan Stanley’s approach (10:17).
• National Security Play: JP Morgan likewise investing directly in infrastructure for national economic self-sufficiency (10:17).

CoreWeave and the AI Data Center Boom

• Company Performance: CoreWeave posts record revenue, citing high demand for AI chip leasing (11:28).
  • “Our sales backlog now exceeds $100 billion.” – Mike Intrader (paraphrased from summary, 11:28)
• Community Concerns: Moratoriums on new data centers likely to alter locations, not slow demand (11:28).
  • “Moratoriums...are going to impact where this infrastructure gets built.” – Mike Intrader (11:36)
• Industry Strategy: Companies encouraged to bolster local support by funding grid upgrades and jobs (11:40).

Paramount’s Possible Exit from California

• Context: Ongoing antitrust lawsuit over $81B Warner Bros. Discovery merger faces state resistance (13:08).
• Relocation Threat: CEO David Ellison floats moving to Tennessee or elsewhere to reduce costs during legal battle (13:08).
  • “A so-called ticking fee will begin in which Paramount will be responsible to pay Warner shareholders approximately $7 million a day until the deal closes.” – Joe Flynt (13:42)
• CA Political Response: Governor Newsom and candidate Becerra both warn that Paramount’s exit would significantly impact the state (13:42).

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On the shifting Democratic Party landscape:
  “Here in Wisconsin, the governor’s race, voters said, no, thank you, because that kind of progressive Democratic Socialist candidate was just not what they were looking for.” – Damian Paletta (04:32)
• On property taxes:
  “Most tax economists are actually in favor of keeping property taxes where they are as opposed to cutting them.” – Sanai Rashid (08:08)
• On Paramount’s pressure tactics:
  “California Attorney General Rob Bonta yesterday described talk of leaving the state as an attempt to blackmail regulators.” – Luke Vargas (13:42)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• Prediction Markets Investigation: 00:41–02:26
• Wisconsin Primary Recap & Analysis: 02:26–05:14
• Primary Highlights (MN, SC, MN-Gov): 05:14–06:35
• Property Tax Ballot Proposals: 06:35–09:31
• Markets Update & Bank of America Moves: 10:17–11:28
• CoreWeave and AI Chips Discussion: 11:28–11:40
• Inflation & Earnings Preview: 11:40–12:59
• Paramount’s Potential Move: 12:59–13:42

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Summary Table

| Segment | Key Topic | Timestamps | |---------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------| | Prediction Market Investigation | NYC probes deceptive marketing and underage targeting | 00:41–02:26 | | Wisconsin Democratic Primary | Centrist beats progressive; Left-wing momentum in question | 02:26–05:14 | | Primary Roundups | Highlights from MN, SC GOP, and MN governor's race | 05:14–06:35 | | Property Tax Ballot Measures | Proposals to cut taxes, expert views, state responses | 06:35–09:31 | | Bank of America Infrastructure | $250B pledge, national security angle | 10:17–11:28 | | CoreWeave / AI Data Centers | Demand, moratorium impacts, local benefits | 11:28–11:40 | | Paramount vs. California | Possible studio relocation amid legal pressure | 12:59–13:42 |

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Overall Tone

The discussion is brisk, news-focused, and analytical, drawing contrasts between local and national trends, voicing both quotes and expert commentary. Each segment maintains a business-like, fact-based delivery true to the Wall Street Journal’s reporting style.

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Transcript

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[Luke Vargas]

New York City dials up the pressure on prediction markets plus, we'll look at whether last night's Democratic primary suggest a left wing surge is stalling and Paramount floats leaving Californ as its antitrust battle with the state drags on.

[Joe Flynt]

Could one of Hollywood's oldest studios be relocating from Tinseltown to Music City? It's a distinct possibility.

[Luke Vargas]

It's Wednesday, August 12th. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of what's news, the top headlines and business stories moving your world. Today, New York City is launching a sweeping investigation into four prediction markets, with the city's council probing polymarket, Kalsheet, Coinbase and Gemini Titan for alleged deceptive marketing practices and the targeting of minors. Reporter Caitlin McCabe has the latest.

[AWS Advertiser]

So City Council Speaker Julie Menon has sent letters to these prediction markets, and in a letter addressed to Polymarket, she asked for details about promotional videos that appeared to depict fake trades and promoted insider trading on social media, some of which may have targeted miners. This this comes after our colleagues published a story earlier this summer analyzing more than a thousand videos from Poly Market creators, which found that about 70% of them featured these dummy sites that the company used to film fake traits.

[Luke Vargas]

And while Caitlin said that the council has no power to bring criminal charges, its actions could still force company practices into the light.

[AWS Advertiser]

So what City Council can do is issue subpoenas forcing companies to turn over documents which, you know, it's worth noting, has rarely if ever been used on a private firm. But what City Council can also do is hold public hearings on the issue, which it says it intends to do. And Menon says she's also considering legislation around this that would authorize increased enforcement, public education campaigns, things like that.

[Luke Vargas]

Couchee and Gemini Titan didn't respond to requests for comment. A Coinbase spokeswoman said that the company fully complies with applicable laws, and a spokeswoman for Polymarket said the company looks forward to engaging with the City Council. We should note that polymarket has a data partnership with Dow Jones, the publisher of the Journal. Turning to yesterday's primaries, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has narrowly defeated Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong to win Wisconsin's Democratic nomination for governor. Hong had been leading in the polls, and her Loss to Crowley, who scored a late endorsement from Governor Tony Evers, suggests that an intraparty fight over how Democrats position themselves ahead of November's general election is far from over. With more, I'm joined by the Journal's Washington coverage chief, Damian Paletta. Damian, good morning. Would it be premature after these results to say that the left wing surge that we had been seeing in Democratic primaries of late may be ebbing now?

[Damian Paletta]

Not at all. This centrist strike back in Wisconsin, I mean, if you just remember last week in Michigan, the real progressive candidate Abdul EL Sayed was predicted to win the US Senate primary for Democrats by double digits. Instead, he won by just one point. And here we a similar result in Wisconsin where Francesca Hong, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, was predicted to win by polls by more than 10 points. And there on Election Day, the only poll that really matters, she ends up losing. David Crowley closes the gap and makes up all that distance and ends up edging her out. Damon.

[Luke Vargas]

We'd reported just a few days ago that the GOP may be losing its edge with voters on the economy polling revealing some skepticism over whether they can address cost of living concerns. And into that void, Hong, who's a partner, part time bartender, had presented herself as knowing what people are going through, saying she had the bold solutions to lower costs. I guess New York City voters maybe who got behind Zoran Mamdani might validate that premise. But has Wisconsin shown us there's a split here about the electoral wisdom of going so bold?

[Damian Paletta]

Exactly. And I think, you know, she has a lot of, quite frankly, really bold ideas that I think made people very nervous in Wisconsin. So, yeah, Mamdani might work in New York, his politics might work in New York, AOC's Politics Network in New York, Bernie Sanders Politics Network in Vermont. But we're not really seeing that work in states like Wisconsin. It did narrowly work in Michigan. Now, El Sayed really got a big uphill battle to win the November general election against Mike Rogers. But we saw in Wisconsin and the governor's race, voters said, no, thank you, because that kind of progressive Democratic Socialist candidate was just not what they were looking for.

[Luke Vargas]

That was the Journal's Damian Paletta. Damian, appreciate you getting up early for us.

[Damian Paletta]

My pleasure. Thank you.

[Luke Vargas]

While progressives did nacho in in neighboring Minnesota last night with Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan besting centrist Representative Angie Craig to become the Democratic nominee for an open Senate seat, in other races, President Trump's endorsement failed to propel Darlene Graham, the sister of the late Lindsey Graham, to an outright victory in the Republican primary to fill his South Carolina Senate seat. Despite finishing first, Graham fell short of a majority, forcing her to go up against Representative Ralph Norman in a runoff later this month. Speaking to supporters, Norman expressed hope that he could win without the president's backing. He chose who he did, and that's fine. South Carolina's gonna decide the next senator. And in Minnesota, Trump's backing proved little help to MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, who lost a Republican primary for governor. Instead, state House Speaker Lisa Damuth will face Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar in Nove. Well, as we saw there in Wisconsin, the cost of living is on a lot of people's minds this year. But even just on housing, the Journal's Sanai Rashid reports that states are approaching the issue in starkly different ways. Sanai Case in point, four states that you're highlighting, North Carolina, Wyoming, Florida and Oklahoma remind us what voters will be deciding there come November.

[Sanai Rashid]

Yeah, come November, all of these states have ballot proposals on the ballot for voters to decide about lowering property tax costs in their respective states. So in recent years, especially since the pandemic, property taxes have risen enormously across the U.S. especially in Wyoming, where, you know, a lot of retirees have been moving into the state and house prices have increased. And when house prices increase, property taxes also increase in those kind of respective states. So we've kind of seen a push, mostly by Republican led states, to lower property taxes of Homeowners have become more frustrated with the amount that they're paying each year when they get their reassessments.

[Luke Vargas]

I'm sure many homeowners are intimately familiar with their own property tax bills, but just remind us what kind of run up we've seen in recent years in

[Sanai Rashid]

the US between 2016 and 2025, average annual property taxes for single family homes rose about 34%, reaching more than $4,400, according to Atom, a property data company. And property taxes are super important in the US property taxes comp almost 30% of total US collections in 2023, the Tax foundation saw. So they are really critical revenue sources for state and local tax revenue. But again, because they've risen so quickly, homeowners are kind of caught in a front where they feel like they're paying so much more in their property taxes, but they're still critical for the state and for our local governments.

[Luke Vargas]

I'm glad you brought that up because I can imagine the prospect of rolling back property taxes will go over pretty well with voters. But what are tax experts and Local officials who you've spoken to saying about this prospect.

[Sanai Rashid]

Yeah. So most tax economists actually really like property taxes. They're a very transparent tax because you as a homeowner are directly paying these taxes which go back into your local communities to fund schools, to fund firefighters, emergency services. So most tax economists are actually in favor of keeping property taxes where they are as opposed to cutting them.

[Luke Vargas]

Local officials, where do they land on this?

[Sanai Rashid]

Yeah. So in Wyoming, Brent Behan, who's running for governor this fall, who's a Republican, is saying that in order to cover for lost property tax revenue, he's been a one of the biggest proponents about cutting property taxes in the state. He wants to scale back on government spending in general and kind of ensure that local counties are reprioritizing the programs that they fund. He still plans to protect funding for essential programs, but in general, he does want to scale back on government spending so that local counties don't have to rely on property taxes as much. And we already see in other states like Florida that cities are already starting to prepare that if property taxes are cut, how to reutilize the tax revenue that they currently have in their local counties. We see some people freezing, hiring, cutting travel and just railing back expenses in order to reprioritize the revenue that they do have. So I'm sure if property taxes do end up getting cut in some of these states, come this fall, we'll definitely hear more from local officials about how it's affecting their counties and the citizens.

[Luke Vargas]

I've been speaking to the Journal's Sanay Rashid. Sanai, thanks so much for bringing us this story.

[Sanai Rashid]

Thank you.

[Luke Vargas]

Coming up, we've got the day's top markets news as Paramount considers uprooting from California. That story and more after the break.

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[Luke Vargas]

Bank of America is joining the likes of Morgan Stanley in boosting US Investments into data centers, energy and critical minerals. We exclusively report that the bank is planning to deploy a quarter trillion dollars as part of that infrastructure push. And while a company executive said it doesn't intend to focus on equity investments. It hasn't taken that option off the table. That's as JP Morgan has announced it'll use its own capital to invest directly into that it sees as critical to national security and economic self sufficiency. Well, speaking of the data center buildout, shares of cloud computing company CoreWeave have jumped off hours after it posted a fifth consecutive quarter of record revenue. CoreWeave's business model involves buying advanced AI chips, installing them in data centers and leasing them to hyperscalers. Its shares fell late last year as concern mounted over an AI bubble and have yet to recover that lost ground. But Speaking to investors, CEO Mike and Trade said its sales backlog now exceeds $100 billion, and he projected confidence that demand won't erode even as some cities and states hit pause on new data center construction.

[Damian Paletta]

We feel like moratoriums are they're not

[Luke Vargas]

going to impact the demand for this infrastructure.

[Damian Paletta]

They are going to impact where this infrastructure gets built.

[Luke Vargas]

To win community trust, Intraders said that companies should pay for grid upgrades and emphasize the jobs and tax base benefits of new data Cent infrastructure, he said was necessary to retain America's AI leadership. Well, it's poised to be a relatively quiet earnings day on Wall street, with results from Cisco leading the slate this afternoon. The tech conglomerate's results come after it said in May that it would shed thousands of jobs as it goes all in on AI. But front and center for investors today will be the release of US inflation figures for July at 8:30am Eastern. Economists are projecting the report to show consumer prices up 3.4% from a year earlier, well above Fed's 2% target. And finally, could one of Hollywood's oldest and most storied studios pack up and leave California? Paramount is saying that a move out of the state is definitely on the table as it tries to settle an antitrust lawsuit filed by California and 11 other states aimed at blocking its $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. California Attorney General Rob Bonta yesterday described talk of leaving the state as an attempt to blackmail regulators in considering other new homes. Journal Media and Entertainment reporter Joe Flynt says that Paramount chief Executive David Ellison has often mentioned Tennessee, which is also home to Oracle, the company co founded by his father, Larry Ellison.

[Joe Flynt]

Paramount is talking about relocating to Tennessee, perhaps as early as this October or maybe Georgia or Texas. Moving to Tennessee won't exactly make the case go away, but it will be cheaper for Paramount to operate while this legal battle goes on. And the longer the legal battle goes on, the more Paramount could potentially owe Warner shareholders who are waiting for the deal to close. Starting in October, a so called ticking fee will begin in which Paramount will be responsible to pay Warner shareholders approximately $7 million a day until the deal closes.

[Luke Vargas]

We reported last month that California Governor Gavin Newsom's office is pushing for a settlement, a move echoed by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Javier Becerra, who said it would be devastating for California if Paramount left. And that's it for what's news for this Wednesday morning. Today's show was produced by Daniel Bach. Our supervising producer is Sandra Kilhoff and I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.

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