Senator Ron Johnson to Face Democrat Challenger Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin General Election

Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes has won the state’s Democrat U.S. Senate primary and will face Republican Senator Ron Johnson in the state’s midterm election in November, according to an Associated Press projection.

BREAKING: Mandela Barnes wins Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin primary election. #APRaceCall at 8:27 p.m. CDT. https://t.co/2nlgpjzI1K

— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) August 10, 2022

Barnes became the Democrat front runner after his top opponent, Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry, dropped out of the race with less than two weeks until the primary election.

“Thank you. This is the honor of a lifetime. Now, we take the fight to Ron Johnson,” Barnes tweeted after he became the projected winner. “We’re going to the Senate to rebuild the middle class. We’re going to protect the right to choose. We’re going to fight to make the American Dream an American reality.”

Thank you. This is the honor of a lifetime.

Now, we take the fight to Ron Johnson.

We’re going to the Senate to rebuild the middle class. We’re going to protect the right to choose. We’re going to fight to make the American Dream an American reality.

Are you with me?

— Mandela Barnes (@TheOtherMandela) August 10, 2022

Senator Johnson, who easily won the state’s GOP primary on Tuesday, is the only Republican senator running for reelection in a state that President Joe Biden carried in 2020.

Although Biden carried Wisconsin, between his record low approval ratings, increasingly high levels of inflation, and disastrous Afghanistan pullout, Biden’s presence may harm Barnes’ chances of defeating Johnson.

However, Barnes is one of several Democrat candidates who are trying to distance themselves from Biden.

Barnes diverged from Biden’s timeline for lifting Title 42 and reportedly “dodged” the question of whether he would support Biden’s reelection campaign in 2024.

Barnes has also tried to distance himself from the “defund the police” and other anti-law enforcement movements, despite some of his biggest financial backers being “defund the police” advocates.

Wisconsin Democrat Senate candidate Mandela Barnes wants to abolish ICE. pic.twitter.com/Rw1jRkWy8l

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 10, 2022

For example, Lead the Way, a far-left fundraising committee that supports other pro-defund the police candidates like Rep. Cori Bush (R-MO), donated $28,000 to his 2022 Senate campaign, making it the largest single donation his campaign received.

Further, Barnes came under fire during the primary campaign for calling America’s founding “awful” during Independence Day weekend.

As Breitbart News reported:

He said, “things were bad, things were terrible,” when talking about the nation’s origins.

“The founding of this nation? Awful,” Barnes added, noting that Americans need to “commit” themselves to repairing the “harm” and “damage” done in the past.

He then added that the impact of colonialism and slavery is still felt today, and that “[t]hey’re going to continue to be felt unless we address it, in a meaningful way.”

As a Wisconsin state senator, Barnes advocated for radical gun control legislation that would have made selling, transporting, or possessing “any bullet that expands or flattens easily in the human body” a felony.

In addition, Barnes reportedly uses his TikTok account to advocate for ending the Senate filibuster and codifying Roe v. Wade.

Wisconsin residents also launched an effort to recall Barnes, along with Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D), after violence erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during the summer 2020 Black Lives Matter riots.

Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.