Governor Candidate’s Campaign Hire Gets Big Reaction
Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong has made decriminalizing prostitution part of her political record. Now one of the senior figures helping run her campaign brings an unusual background of her own to the race.
Renee Faust, formerly known professionally as Renee Olstead, serves as Hong’s deputy campaign manager, according to reports from The Daily Wire and the Heartland Post. Before entering political organizing, Faust worked as an actress, later operated an OnlyFans account, and received honors from Penthouse.
The connection has attracted new attention as Hong heads into Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary as a leading candidate.
Faust first became publicly known through acting. As Renee Olstead, she appeared on television beginning as a child and later had roles in series including “Still Standing” and “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.”
Her career subsequently moved in a very different direction.
Democratic socialist Francesca Hong is facing questions after reports that former child star and OnlyFans model Renee Olstead (aka Renee Faust) serves in a senior role on Hong’s Wisconsin gubernatorial campaign. https://t.co/6GeWQer8lL pic.twitter.com/8dgOwePTtV
— Drew Grimaldi (@Grimillionaire) August 8, 2026
Faust opened an OnlyFans account in 2020. She was named Penthouse’s “Pet of the Month” for January 2023 and was later selected as its 2024 “Pet of the Year,” an honor announced in March 2025.
But Faust’s involvement with the sex industry did not end with modeling. She also founded the Coalition for American Sex Workers, an organization that advocates for decriminalizing sex work.
That position overlaps directly with Hong’s legislative record.
Hong, a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly and the Democratic Socialists of America, introduced legislation that would remove criminal penalties involving adult prostitution and solicitation and establish what supporters described as a “Sex Worker Bill of Rights.”
The Hong campaign has defended Faust by emphasizing other parts of her professional background.
It described Faust as “a licensed mental health clinician who has spent her career providing care to trafficking survivors” and said she had “helped build the largest grassroots campaign in Wisconsin history,” according to Fox News.
The controversy, however, has provided Hong’s conservative opponents with another reason to scrutinize both her campaign personnel and her position on prostitution.
“Wisconsinites deserve to have serious people leading the state,” Wisconsin Family Action President Daniel Degner said in a statement. “It is unbelievable to see that the likely Democratic nominee for governor has an active sex worker leading her campaign.”
The conservative advocacy organization then raised the possibility of Faust receiving a government position should Hong become governor.
The Democrat nominee for governor of Wisconsin said that Thanksgiving should be canceled because it’s racist. Asked if she still believes Thanksgiving should be canceled, Hong delivers a total word salad without any answer to the question. pic.twitter.com/57u4c5wRZ5
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 4, 2026
“Voters deserve to know whether if Hong is elected, she will elevate a porn star to leadership in her administration,” the organization said.
There is no indication in the material cited that Hong has promised Faust a position in a future administration. Faust’s current role is with Hong’s political campaign.
The episode nevertheless adds to a growing collection of controversies surrounding Hong as the Democratic primary approaches.
Hong has also faced questions about a social media post from 2020 in which she called for people to “cancel Thanksgiving” in order to “stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indegenous [sic] folx and women.”
She has since attempted to distance herself from that post.