RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Francesca Hong’s path to Wisconsin politics began, in part, at a ramen shop in downtown Madison. In December 2016, Hong and her then-husband, chef Matt Morris, opened Morris Ramen with restaurateur Shinji Muramoto. The restaurant became a fixture in Madison’s food scene as the couple built a life and business together.
Hong and Morris ran the restaurant together until it closed in February 2024. By then, they had also been raising their son and navigating the demands of a shared business and family life.
The two are no longer married, but for years the two were partners in both marriage and business. The restaurant was one of the places where Hong developed the public identity that would eventually lead her into politics.
On Tuesday, she enters the Democratic primary for governor as the front-runner.
Morris came up in Madison's Japanese dining scene, working under Muramoto at Restaurant Muramoto. "I made sushi for like 10 years," he said in a 2018 Isthmus video interview.
He spent several months at a ramen shop in Japan before returning to Madison to develop the bowl his own restaurant would be built around. He and his father constructed the space themselves, according to the Wisconsin State Journal .
Morris Ramen opened at 106 King Street, in the site that had housed a sushi restaurant called RED. The shop was named for Morris.
He and Hong had more in common than the business. Both were born and raised in Madison, both are the children of teachers and both left college without finishing.
Hong and Morris met through Madison's restaurant scene, where Morris was working for Muramoto. They married in 2012, Hong told Meal Magazine in 2025.
Hong had cooked at Muramoto as well, and became executive chef at the American bistro 43 North at age 23. She left the industry for a time, then returned in 2015 to work at Muramoto, where Morris was the sous chef.
Their son was born in 2016. Hong's water broke five hours after she came home from her last shift at the restaurant.
Later that year, she, Morris and Muramoto opened Morris Ramen. Hong said she and Morris worked 12 to 15 hours a day until the business was stable enough to run closer to a nine-to-five.
"We did really well our first couple years. Folks really embraced the simplicity of the menu, the care we had for our staff, and the fact that we were literally a mom-and-pop joint. Matt and I were on the line every day," Hong said.
They raised their son alongside it. Hong said she pumped breast milk in the restaurant's basement and described the staff as an extension of her family.
Eventually, their marriage ended. Asked whether the restaurant had contributed, Hong pointed to the hours.
"We didn't make enough time to honor each other as individuals because we were so immersed in the restaurant and our child," she told the magazine. "And when you spend time with each other all day at work, you don't always feel like there needs to be a different investment in the relationship."
They remained a strong team even as the marriage ended, she said.
The restaurant's struggles became part of Hong's political origin story.
Hong and Morris closed the dining room in March 2020 as Wisconsin's stay-at-home order took effect. The business survived the shutdown, but Hong has said the experience changed her. She began advocating for restaurant workers, pushing for eviction protections, rent assistance and forgivable loans.
"I was mouthing off on Twitter and I started letter writing campaigns," Hong told Meal Magazine .
The pandemic also gave her time to consider running for office. In late March 2020, a colleague in the industry, Jonny Hunter, asked whether she would run for an open state Assembly seat. Hong said no.
She changed her mind. She ran that fall and won Wisconsin's 76th Assembly District, becoming the first Asian American elected to the state Legislature.
The restaurant kept shaping her politics. In the Assembly, she pushed to eliminate Wisconsin's tipped minimum wage and argued that restaurant workers should be able to build sustainable careers in the industry.
Morris Ramen closed in February 2024, after more than seven years. Hong told The Wall Street Journal that the business had become "untenable with rising costs and trying to raise wages and not raising prices."
Hong still picks up bartending shifts. She has described herself as the "only wage worker" in the governor's race.
The debate around Hong's candidacy has increasingly centered on what happens after Tuesday . Republicans, Democratic rivals and some party leaders have questioned whether her progressive record would make it harder to beat Wisconsin Representative Tom Tiffany, a Republican, in November.
Democratic Governor Tony Evers had pledged to stay neutral. He endorsed Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley after Crowley reentered the race following the departure of Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez. Evers and Crowley have both argued that Democrats need a nominee who can build a broad coalition in the general election.
Much of the criticism has focused on Hong's past social media posts and her ties to the Democratic Socialists of America. Tiffany has cast her as a far-left candidate committed to abolishing the police and other institutions. Hong has drawn a distinction between her own views and the full DSA platform, saying she would not defund police and rejecting other positions associated with the organization.
Her platform is built around what she calls "permanent affordability," a phrase that has become a rallying cry for insurgent Democrats since the surprise victory of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in 2025. She says it includes free childcare, fully funding public schools, higher taxes on the ultrawealthy and corporations, and a moratorium on new data centers.
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