Fringe-left candidate Mandela Barnes, who has spent millions to “defund the police,” won Wisconsin’s Democratic Senate primary on Wednesday.
Barnes will go head-to-head against incumbent Republican Ron Johnson, who also won his primary. The Democratic lawmaker has already targeted Johnson with smear ads ahead of the November matchup.
According to a Marquette University Law School poll from June, 46 percent of the respondents said they would vote for Barnes, while 37 percent show a favorable opinion of Johnson, a two-term incumbent.
Barnes has attracted controversy in recent years over his stances on abolishing ICE, defunding the police, ending cash bail, and imposing the Green New Deal.
“I can say, you know, in my hometown of Milwaukee, the police budget has exceeded the entire property tax levy for five consecutive years,” he said in an interview. “I can say that 45% of all departmental allocations go towards the police department in the city of Milwaukee while libraries get about 3%. We need to invest more in neighborhood services and programming for our residents, for our communities on the front end. Where will that money come from? Well, it can come from over bloated budgets in police departments, you know?”
However, the 35-year-old Democrat did not use his “defund the police” agenda during his campaign early in the primary, but Republicans are certain to keep up the attacks in the general election.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin recently launched mandelabarnesforsenate.com, a website where Wisconsinites can learn about Barnes’ extremist views.
“After nearly a decade of fighting for fringe-left policies, it’s laughable that Mandela Barnes thinks he’ll convince people that he’s a moderate,” said Republican Party of Wisconsin Communications Director Anna Kelly. “Barnes wants to BS his way through the general election, but Wisconsinites have watched him fight for fringe-left policies like defunding the police and ending cash bail while socialists like AOC and Bernie Sanders have lined up to endorse him. Voters will see through Barnes’ attempts to mislead the public and reject him in November.”
Despite disappointing projections for Johnson, Republicans are still expected to win back control of one or both houses of Congress during the midterm elections.
