FITCHBURG (WKOW) -- If it wasn't made clear enough earlier in the week, it became all but official Friday: Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes will be the Democrat who challenges Sen. Ron Johnson in November.
State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski ended her campaign Friday morning. Making her announcement with Barnes at her side, she became the third candidate in the Democratic primary to bow out this week and subsequently endorse Barnes.
"If there's one thing we know about Mandela Barnes, it's he's no stranger to running statewide, and he has done well," Godlewski said. "He's gonna show, like he did in 2018, again in 2022, that he is the best candidate and he will defeat Ron Johnson."
Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson dropped out Monday before Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry followed suit Wednesday.
In an interview with 27 News, Barnes said he didn't expect to see the field clear so quickly, so close to the August 9 primary election.
"I was surprised," Barnes said. "There's no way you could've predicted the past week would've played out the way that it did. But again, these are people who fought hard. They have taken the fight directly to Ron Johnson."
Republican sources, both on and off camera, have said Barnes is the candidate they hoped would advance to the general election. They believe they can portray him as too far to the left for most Wisconsin voters.
Paul Farrow, chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said Barnes in Washington would be a rubber stamp for President Joe Biden's agenda.
"When you look at the track record that Mandela's bringing in, as far as I'm concerned, he's jumping from one losing leader in Governor Evers to another one," Farrow said. "Joe Biden's right now approval rating is about 39 percent."
If Democrats can swim upstream and gain seats in the Senate during an election cycle favorable to Republicans, it will allow them to pass parts of the Biden agenda that are more popular, such as higher taxes on the wealthy to fund more social programs like child care credits and expanded health care benefits.
To take Johnson's seat, however, Barnes will have to weather attacks over past remarks he's made about the nation's founding. Last fall at a candidate forum, he said, "The United States is the most wealthy, the most powerful nation on earth, and it's because of forced labor on stolen land."
"The only way that we overcome the challenges that we currently face is to acknowledge how we overcame the challenges of our past," Barnes said when asked about those comments.
Republicans, however, have made clear they will hammer away at those comments, as well as those critical of police in Kenosha following the 2020 shooting of Jacob Blake.
"No amount of gaslighting or flip-flopping will make Mandela Barnes appear like a viable candidate to Wisconsin voters this fall," Republican National Committee Spokesperson Rachel Reisner said in a statement Friday. "By making Barnes the face of their race days before the August primary, Wisconsin Democrats have set off the catalyst ensuring victory for Senator Ron Johnson.”
Barnes countered the continued attacks were a meant to take attention away from Johnson's admitted involvement in an effort to pass a fake slate of presidential electors to former Vice President Mike Pence on January 6.
Johnson told a conservative talk radio host last month he'd put a lawyer for former President Donald Trump in contact with his chief of staff. Johnson said the lawyer, Jim Troupis, indicated he wanted to pass along paperwork related to the fake electors.
"[The attacks are] a sad attempt to try to distract from the fact that Ron Johnson literally tried to overthrow our democracy," Barnes said. "That point cannot be lost on people."
The Senate general election figures to draw tens of millions of dollars from all over the country. The Cook Political Report rates the contest as a "toss up," one of five Senate races currently placed in that category. 35 Senate seats are up for election this year.
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