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Mandela Barnes
Wisconsin
"It’s time to change the game"
Challenging Ron Johnson
“My favorite number? 51. Because this fall, I’ll become the 51st vote we need in the Senate to pass fair tax laws, restore Roe, and rebuild our middle class.”
Mandela Barnes’s story is uniquely American. He grew up in Milwaukee, in one of the most economically depressed neighborhoods in the country. Born to a public school teacher and a General Motors floor worker who both took an active role in their respective unions, Barnes learned the importance of fighting for workers’ rights. He finished high school at 16 and got a scholarship to Alabama A&M University. After leaving college, he went back to his community, taking active roles in the local NAACP chapter and with Citizen Action Wisconsin. In 2012, Barnes challenged incumbent Jason Fields (who supported school voucher programs and opposed limiting interest rates on predatory loans) for the Democratic nomination for the 11th district of Wisconsin’s state assembly and won. In 2016 Barnes primaried for State Senate against centrist Lena C. Taylor and lost by a wide margin. Many in the state said the election reflected a larger struggle in the Democratic party between generations — older moderates versus younger progressives. Regardless, Barnes didn’t let a loss keep him down. Two years later, he ran in the primary race for Wisconsin’s Democratic lieutenant governor and won by a landslide against businessman Kurt Kober. When Tony Evers defeated Scott Walker for the governor’s seat, Barnes became Wisconsin’s first Black lieutenant governor and the second Black person ever to hold statewide office. As lieutenant governor, Barnes’s passion project was serving on the Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change, which submitted 55 policy proposals focused on clean energy, pollution, and other environmental issues.
When Barnes spoke to jam-packed supporters and press at his first 2022 campaign stop, he said, “This is a real opportunity, not just to get rid of one of the most cynical destructive politicians we’ve seen since Joe McCarthy, it’s also an opportunity for us to turn the page, lead with a vision, lead with our values.”
—Caitlin Lent
Caitlin Lent is a staff writer and media director for Weekly Senator. She is also a photographer and filmmaker. Born and raised in Deep River, Connecticut, she now lives and works in New York City.
Policy Positions
Climate Change
“Climate change is one of our greatest national security threats. Makes sense that on this #FourthofJuly we commit to energy independence for good jobs, public safety, and healthy communities.” (Twitter)
Income Inequality
“It’s been over 50 years since minimum \[wage] and inflation parted ways, then over a decade since the federal minimum went up at all. It’s not a new problem, but it’s definitely getting worse. Raising wages is the first step to ending the scourge of income inequality.” (Twitter)
Healthcare
“It shouldn’t be taboo to say that you think everybody should have health insurance.” (Huffington Post)
Endorsements
Move On
People For The American Way
Working Families PartyEnd Citizens United
National Asian American PAC
Democracy for America
The Collective PAC
Elizabeth Warren, Senator
:"Growing up in a proud union family, Mandela knows that to rebuild the middle class we need to change the game in Washington. In the Senate, we will work together to root out the corruption and special interest influence that delivers handouts to the wealthiest people and largest corporations while leaving working people and small businesses behind."
Cory Booker, Senator
:"Mandela’s story is only possible here in America. It shows how hard work, faith, and opportunity can transform a family and a community... In the Senate, Mandela will champion opportunity, accountability, and justice, the way he has always done. He’ll expand opportunities for working people, stand up for good union jobs, and protect the right to vote."
Challenging Ron Johnson
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson is a racist. This fact was reiterated when he went on ultraconservative talk radio and opined about the January 6 insurrection, “I never felt threatened… I knew those were people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement. Had the tables been turned and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned.” Like his close ally Donald Trump, who believes right-wing extremists are “good people” and civil rights activists are “violent thugs” with “evil intentions,” Johnson openly favors white supremacists over BIPOC activists.
Growing up in an idyllic college town, Johnson worked small-time jobs for a few extra bucks and attended one of the top public schools in the country. Right out of college, he got a job handed to him by his wife’s father at their family’s plastics manufacturing company. Johnson became CEO of the company in the mid 1980s, and sold the company off to Bowater Industries for a payday of over 18 million dollars. He racked up overblown paychecks in the corporate world until 2010, when he ran a self-financed campaign (purporting himself as a “political outsider”) for the United States Senate and won, defeating Democratic incumbent Russ Feingold by a slim margin. He ran again in 2016, this time taking money from corporate super PACs, and won by only 0.2 percent.
While in the Senate, Johnson has taken extreme positions, even for the far-right wing of the Republican Party. The New York Times called Johnson “the Republican Party’s foremost amplifier of conspiracy theories and disinformation now that Donald Trump himself is banned from social media and largely avoiding appearances on cable television.” He called the idea of human-caused climate change “bullshit” and even went so far as to say that carbon dioxide is good for the environment — “because it helps the trees grow.” Johnson agreed with Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, and claimed that “half the country would not accept a Biden win.” He peddled conspiracy theories about Covid vaccines, claiming they’ve led to thousands of deaths. He has also voted against every Covid relief bill, citing his belief that they would increase the deficit, despite strongly supporting Trump’s corporate tax cuts that sent the deficit skyrocketing. To top it all off, Johnson has given credence to the “Great Replacement Theory,” a racist conspiracy theory spread by white supremacists, purporting that white people in the West are purposely being “replaced” by people of color.
Current Polling
Date: Oct 31 2022
Source: FiveThirtyEight.com
State: Wisconsin
Known as America’s Dairyland, Wisconsin produces almost 15 percent of the milk consumed in America. Their largest city, Milwaukee, is considered a mecca for beer lovers, with over 30 breweries within the city limits. The University of Wisconsin’s Madison campus is one of the top-ranked public research universities in the country. The state has coastlines on two of the Great Lakes and the interior is heavily forested, which has led to the presence of a robust logging industry.
Wisconsin has a rich political history, spiritually represented by two opposing figures — the infamous “Red Scare” perpetrator Joe McCarthy and the lesser-known (at least to most Americans, in Wisconsin he’s a legend) Progressive Party founder Robert M. “Fighting Bob” La Follette. Milwaukee was home to some of the nation’s first socialist leaders, though their influence faded after anti-Communist sentiment gained traction in the 1950s. Since 1988, the state has only gone for one Republican presidential nominee — none other than Donald Trump. Joe Biden took the state back for the Democrats in 2020, but by an incredibly slim margin of less than 0.7 percent. Senator Ron Johnson is the only Republican in Wisconsin to hold statewide office, which puts a target on his back that Democrats are aiming to shoot.