A growing democrat backlash took center stage Tuesday as former Wisconsin lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes launched his 2026 gubernatorial bid despite increasingly vocal resistance from prominent Democrats and the state’s oldest Black newspaper. Barnes enters a crowded primary field and, according to Politico, “is not expected to clear the primary field” as he did in 2022.
His failed 2022 Senate challenge to Republican Sen. Ron Johnson continues to haunt him. The Milwaukee Courier’s editorial board blasted his decision to run again, writing, “That Senate seat was ours to win… And still—he came up short.” Former Democratic lieutenant governor Barbara Lawton echoed similar sentiments, telling the New York Times, “He proved to us beyond a shadow of a doubt that he can’t run hard enough and give us a winning campaign on a statewide basis.”
Even Barnes-friendly voices appear surprised by the mood. Progressive journalist Dan Shafer told the Times he was “genuinely surprised” that only 21 percent of his followers on X support Barnes’s new bid. Quentin James, who leads a PAC backing Black Democrats, warned the candidate “will have to explain his 2022 performance should he undertake a 2026 bid.”
Barnes attempted to reframe his image in his announcement video, promising to “reject the Washington way and get things done the Wisconsin way.” But the Courier rejected that narrative, asking, “Who’s asking for Mandela to run again?… They should not assume that Mandela Barnes has a lock on Black Milwaukee. Because he doesn’t.”
Barnes’s past controversies—including remarks that the U.S. must “stymie capitalism,” praise for Ali Khamenei, and criticisms of “God, country, and guns”—continue to alarm many voters as the democrat backlash intensifies ahead of a critical 2026 race.
