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be. Anthony Chergosky,
thanks very much.

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>> Thank you.
>> This week's Inside

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Wisconsin politics took up
Barnes, dropping out this

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week's candidate debate and
also new poll results that

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helped inform Mandela
Barnes decision to suspend

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his campaign. Here's NPR's
Shawn Johnson, Anya van

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Wagtendonk, and "Here& Now"
reporter Zac Schultz.

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>> His departure kind of
leaves the race in some

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ways, where it was, where
there seems to be this

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growing consensus out there
that this is Francesca Hong

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race to lose. She is a
democratic socialist, which

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is sort of defined this
campaign. Anya, you've

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covered her campaign. You
profiled her for Wisconsin

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Public Radio. How is she
presenting her brand of

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politics to primary voters
and also potentially

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critics as this primary
closes out?

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>> Yeah, I think she's been
really consistent, not just

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throughout this campaign,
but throughout her

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political career. I think a
little bit what we saw on

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the debate stage was her
trying to nuance some of

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that, perhaps for a more
general election, again, as

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she is this kind of runaway
favorite at the moment. I

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saw some criticism actually
from national DSA members

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on social media who were
saying essentially, oh,

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she's not socialist enough,
but I think she understands

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that there is going to be a
pretty ready made line of

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attack from Republicans
based on some of her past

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statements based on calling
for defunding the police,

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based on aligning with
certain, you know, sort of

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far left, more like
agitated sort of online

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figures that that gives
them easy things to kind of

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clip, which can really kind
of be hard to oppose from a

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more kind of nuanced
position. And so I think we

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saw her on the debate stage,
kind of trying out some of

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these more bitable,
clippable ways of

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approaching her politics.
>> Zac, we had a couple

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polls out this week. They
both showed Francesca Hong

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with at least a 20 point
lead. You know, one of them

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showed Mandela Barnes.
Marquette showed Mandela

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Barnes in second, David
Crowley down at about 7%.

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But in the Marquette poll,
we're looking at a third of

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voters still undecided. Now
Mandela Barnes is out of

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the race. You got all those
undecided voters. David

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Crowley is still there.
Could this race shake up

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and change in the closing
days?

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>> Well, every time we say
no, we're proven wrong. It

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does get shaken up by
larger events than what we

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probably could have
the question is, is there

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enough room for anyone to
gain enough ground to catch

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the lead that Francesca
Hong looks like she has?

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Just talking about those
absentee ballots that have

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been cast, they're not
getting counted. Bakke the

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question will be, once this
race is all over, will the

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margin of votes that
Mandela Barnes and

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Rodriguez received add up
to the amount that the

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second place person took?
Or will they have made a

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difference in some spoiling
manner? That will be

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interesting math to see,
but by then we'll have a

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winner.
>> The full episode of