David Crowley, a Democratic candidate for governor, says voters “aren’t worried about tweets” from 2010 linked to an account registered to Crowley that included racist, homophobic and sexist posts.

The Milwaukee County executive told WISN 12’s “UpFront,” which is produced in conjunction with WisPolitics, that the account created more than 15 years ago could be accessed “by many individuals.” He acknowledged that it included “offensive and cruel comments.”

“I want folks to understand I don’t condone that type of language, and anybody who knows me knows that I wouldn’t use this type of language,” Crowley said.

NBC News first reported on the account.

“I would always tell people to go back and read the story itself because it really, it was corroborated with other individuals,” Crowley said, referring to his assertions that other people wrote the offensive posts. “But again, we’re talking about these tweets when we have a current sitting president who has said a lot more outlandish things, even in recent memory.”

Crowley also said he doesn’t regret first dropping out of the race and endorsing Sara Rodriguez before upending the primary and reentering the race after the lieutenant governor dropped out.

“I made my decision, and I think I made the right decision,” Crowley said. “But where we are today, so much information has changed.”

Crowley received Gov. Tony Evers’ endorsement immediately after reentering the race.

When asked whether he believed Francesca Hong, the democratic socialist leading in the polls, could win statewide, Crowley said, “I mean, this is up to the voters to make the decision, but I do think that it can become distractions as we think about socialism here in the state of Wisconsin, and we’ve seen in the Marquette polls how that is polling negatively. And so my goal is focusing on bringing Democrats together.”

Ahead of Tuesday night’s debate, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan is warning Democratic gubernatorial candidates that they’re misreading the primary electorate and are getting bad advice from national consultants “who rarely get off the chair they’re sitting in.”

“They want to see the strongest possible response,” Pocan told “UpFront” about Dem primary voters. “They also want to make sure we’re winning these races, so especially in Wisconsin, we’ve seen that in the polling. But if you listen to your consultant, then you show that you can play basketball, ride a bike, make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, whatever, you’re not talking to the voters this cycle.”

So far in the primary, former DOA Secretary Joel Brennan has run a TV ad showing him playing basketball, while state Sen. Kelda Roys has run one showing her riding a bike with her kids. Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes ran an ad in the 2022 U.S. Senate race that showed him making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

When asked if he was talking about a specific candidate or campaign, Pocan said, “All. I’ll be fair, I think Fran has probably done the best, Francesca Hong, of understanding where the electorate’s at, and we’re seeing that in the polling. But literally every single other one, and to be fair, we’re seeing this around the country, it’s not unique to Wisconsin. The consultants are just getting it wrong, and don’t let the consultants make you the second or third-place finisher in a Democratic primary.”

Pocan also addressed the ongoing police shooting investigation underway in Madison and the governor candidates’ responses, including Hong, who called the death an “execution.”

“I’ve seen the video I think that other people have seen,” Pocan said. “I can say this, I mean a property crime should not be a death sentence, right? You know that. I think we all understand, and let’s get the information and then comment based on that, but I understand why people are very upset … I get why there’s frustration, but I think it’s also incumbent on us to get all the information.”

Marquette University Law School Poll Director Charles Franklin will release a new Democratic primary poll Wednesday.

“It was definitely not planned,” Franklin told “UpFront.” “This is entirely because of the chaos in the primary field, the changes of candidates and the fact that we didn’t have (David) Crowley in at all because he wasn’t a candidate when we did the last poll.”

Franklin said the new poll will only look at the Dem gubernatorial primary now that Crowley is in the race.

“We’ll look at the voter choice in the primary,” Franklin said. “We’ll also look at awareness of Gov. Evers’ endorsement of Crowley and whether voters say that makes them more likely to vote for him. We’ll also be reinterviewing people that we interviewed this week, and that will let us know whether individuals have shifted, especially those people who were undecided in this poll last week.”

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