You Won’t Believe What Holiday The Socialists Want To Cancel

A Wisconsin chef-turned-socialist politician went from “Cancel Thanksgiving” to “It’s my favorite holiday” in less than a week, and the way she did it tells you everything about modern politics in the age of screenshots.

Story Snapshot

Francesca Hong’s deleted “Cancel Thanksgiving” post from 2020 roared back into the spotlight during her governor run.
Pressed on CNN if she still wants Thanksgiving canceled, Hong dodged a yes-or-no answer and leaned on “views can evolve.”
Within days, she told Politico that Thanksgiving is actually her “favorite” holiday and that she loves it.
Conservatives now use the flip-flop to question her honesty, not just her holiday opinions.

From ‘Cancel Thanksgiving’ To A Campaign Headache

Francesca Hong is a Democratic socialist chef and former Wisconsin state representative now running for governor. Her trouble started with a now-deleted social media post from November 2020, when she wrote, “Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621,” and attacked the holiday as celebrating colonialism and an “original superspreader event” that killed Indigenous people. That post sat quietly for years. As her 2026 governor campaign heated up, conservative outlets resurfaced the screenshot and turned it into a symbol of the far left’s war on American traditions.

Republican critics quickly folded the old post into a larger narrative about Hong’s politics. They pointed to her ties to Democratic Socialists, her comments on policing, and other edgy tweets to claim she sees basic American rituals as hateful relics. For many Wisconsin voters, Thanksgiving is not a culture-war topic; it is the day their family gathers, prays, eats, and watches football. Calling to cancel that day hits a nerve. The controversy stopped being about one holiday and became a test: does this candidate share our values at all?

The CNN Non-Answer That Lit The Fire

The controversy really exploded when Hong appeared on CNN. Host Kaitlan Collins asked her a simple question: “Do you still believe that Thanksgiving should be canceled?” That was Hong’s chance to say one word—“No”—and move on. Instead, she delivered a long, careful answer. She said she is a chef, that her first community meal at age sixteen was a Thanksgiving dinner, and that bringing people to the table is a good thing. Then she stressed that Thanksgiving is “incredibly painful for many people in our communities” and that “views can evolve.”

What she did not say on air was the one thing normal viewers listen for: whether she still stands by “Cancel Thanksgiving.” According to network summaries and viral clips, she never gave a clear yes-or-no answer before the segment ended. That choice fit a common progressive pattern: foreground pain and historical injustice, nod to nuance, and avoid direct rejection of past activism. But for many conservatives, and frankly many moderates, that sounded like a careful dodge. When you wrote “Cancel Thanksgiving,” and now you want to lead a purple-state government, voters expect plain language.

The Sudden Pivot: Thanksgiving Becomes Her ‘Favorite’ Holiday

After the CNN interview drew criticism, Hong and her team seemed to realize the non-answer had backfired. Right-leaning commentators blasted her word salad and painted her as someone who loathes the country’s traditions but wants its top job. Within days, Hong gave Politico’s Playbook a very different message. In that interview, she said, “My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. Yep. I don’t want to cancel it. I actually love it.” Her campaign also told at least one outlet that, no, she does not want to cancel Thanksgiving.

On paper, this sounds like a clean walk-back. She now claims affection for the same holiday she once called a colonial superspreader event. Yet the timing matters. She did not make this shift quietly, years later, after reflection. She flipped only after a viral CNN moment and a round of mockery from both Republicans and skeptical Democrats. That invites a basic conservative question: are her “evolving views” real, or is she simply following polls? Common-sense standards say character shows when you face a tough question and tell the truth plainly, even when it stings. On that measure, her sequence—radical tweet, evasive answer, then enthusiastic praise—looks like political calculation, not conviction.

Why This Flip-Flop Resonates Beyond One Holiday

Hong’s Thanksgiving saga fits a wider pattern in modern campaigns. Old social media posts now act like permanent landmines. Opposition researchers dig through years of content, pull the most extreme lines, and frame them as proof of deeper beliefs. Once a post is deleted, critics hold the screenshots, and supporters cannot point to full context or tone. Hong’s “Cancel Thanksgiving” line is now part of a bundle that includes her attacks on other holidays and harsh comments about “old white people” in public spaces.

Francesca Hong: the candidate who saw America’s favorite holidays and declared war. Cancel Thanksgiving, silence the fireworks, skip Halloween. Nothing says “ready to lead” like open hostility to joy itself. Grinchmaxxing for governor – bold strategy. pic.twitter.com/q1r7BdbiNG

— Jewels Jones ® (@JewelsJonesLive) August 6, 2026

For many voters, especially conservatives, this episode is about more than mashed potatoes and turkey. It highlights a deeper divide over how the left talks about America’s past. When a candidate calls a core family holiday a harmful “colonizer” ritual, then later claims it is a cherished favorite, people reasonably wonder which version to believe. From a common-sense, right-of-center view, you can admit history’s sins without trashing the nation’s shared traditions—and you should not pretend to love those traditions only when the polls turn sour. Whether Hong’s campaign survives may tell us how much flip-flopping voters are willing to forgive in the age of receipts.