Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson will face Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes in November after Barnes cleared the primary field and secured a quick win Tuesday night.
Barnes, 35, emerged from a crowded field after his top competitors dropped out in the last weeks of the primary campaign, pledging support for him and opening the path for his nomination. The swing state’s Senate race will be one of the most contested in the country and is the only Republican-held Senate seat rated a “toss-up” by the Cook Political Report.
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If elected, Barnes would be the first black senator from Wisconsin. He is a progressive who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) presidential bid in 2016 and 2020 and whose endorsements include Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) as well as Reps. Mondaire Jones (D-NY), Ro Khanna (D-CA), and Eric Swalwell (D-CA). He made a name for himself in Wisconsin politics supporting unions and workers.
“[Ron Johnson]’s a self-serving, out-of-touch, ultramillionaire politician who cares about himself more than the rest of the people in Wisconsin,” Barnes said of Johnson’s recent comments about changing funding entitlement programs. “It’s exactly why I decided to run for the U.S. Senate, to kick him out of office because people are going to continue to be left behind as long as he’s in office.”
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Johnson is heading into the general election for his third term with over three times the war chest of Barnes. As the incumbent, Johnson has an advantage with name recognition and fundraising, as well as President Joe Biden’s tanking poll numbers that may boost Republicans in the midterm elections. However, recent polling gave Barnes a slight edge over Johnson, meaning the two are already neck-and-neck.
“Tonight it became official,” Johnson said in response to Barnes’s win Tuesday. “The leaders of the Democrat party have chosen their most radical left candidate for the U.S. Senate race.”
