The Democratic frontrunner in Wisconsins gubernatorial primary is leaning on a campaign strategist whose rsum includes OnlyFans content and a top honor from Penthouse, underscoring just how far left the state party has drifted on questions of public morality and law enforcement.
Renee Faust, who previously worked under the name Renee Olstead, now serves as deputy campaign manager for state Assembly member Francesca Hong, the leading Democrat in the race, according to Western Journal. As reported by Western Journal, Fausts role was highlighted after the Daily Wire, citing the Heartland Post, noted that Hong already a vocal advocate for legalizing prostitution has placed a former OnlyFans model at the center of her bid for the governors mansion.
Faust, who had television roles as a child, later pivoted into the world of online adult content. After opening her OnlyFans account in 2020, she rose to the heights of being January 2023s Penthouse Pet of the Month, while rising still higher to the rarefied level of being honored as the 2024 Pet of the Year in March 2025.
Her activism has followed the same trajectory as her career in adult entertainment. Faust founded the Coalition for American Sex Workers, which is very much in favor of decriminalizing prostitution, an agenda that dovetails neatly with Hongs own legislative priorities.
As a member of the Wisconsin Assembly, Hong introduced a bill to legalize adult prostitution and solicitation and to create a sex workers bill of rights. For many conservatives, that proposal is not criminal justice reform but an open invitation to expand vice industries and weaken protections for vulnerable women and communities.
The Hong campaign, however, has tried to frame Faust as a humanitarian professional rather than a controversial figure from the porn industry. The campaign called Faust a licensed mental health clinician who has spent her career providing care to trafficking survivors and said she has helped build the largest grassroots campaign in Wisconsin history, according to Fox News.
Wisconsin Family Action, a conservative advocacy organization, has sounded the alarm over what it sees as the normalization of pornography and prostitution at the highest levels of state politics. Wisconsinites deserve to have serious people leading the state. It is unbelievable to see that the likely Democratic nominee for governor has an active sex worker leading her campaign, Daniel Degner, president of Wisconsin Family Action, said in a statement.
Degner went further, warning voters about what a Hong administration might look like if this is how she staffs her campaign. Voters deserve to know whether if Hong is elected, she will elevate a porn star to leadership in her administration, the statement said.
Hongs radicalism is not confined to sex-work policy. She has tried to distance herself from a 2020 social media post urging people to cancel Thanksgiving in order to stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indegenous [sic] folx and women.
Her ideological home is equally telling. Hong is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, placing her firmly on the far-left flank of her party at a time when many Wisconsinites are looking for stability, public order, and respect for traditional institutions under President Trumps second administration.
Despite the controversies, Hong currently enjoys a commanding position in the polls. According to RealClearPolling, Hong is riding a series of surveys giving her double-digit leads as Tuesdays Wisconsin primary approaches, a sign that the Democratic base is embracing her brand of social and cultural extremism.
That momentum is unwelcome news for veteran Democratic strategist James Carville, who has publicly fretted over his partys drift into fringe ideology. In a recent X post, Carville labeled Hong a font of zany liberal, faculty lounge exotica, a stinging rebuke from within her own political camp.
The stakes in November will be high for Wisconsin voters who must decide whether they want a governor aligned with socialist groups and sex-work decriminalization or a Republican committed to law, order, and family values. As noted by Ballotpedia, Hong will face the winner of the GOP primary between Andrew Manske and Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, setting up a stark ideological contrast in a state that could again prove pivotal in the national political landscape.
Login