Yesterday, Wisconsin's former Lt. Governor and failed Senate candidate, Mandela Barnes, announced he was entering the race to replace outgoing Governor Tony Evers. This move came despite the fact that the Milwaukee Courier and The New York Times cautioned Barnes against a run, citing his lackluster performance in that aforementioned Senate race.
But now Barnes is a declared candidate, and he may have the most name recognition of all the candidates, perhaps except for Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, so we have to take his campaign as a serious threat. Because a Mandela Barnes win would spell doom for Wisconsin.
Barnes is a radical Leftist who supports ending cash bail and defunding police departments across the state.
Newly announced Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Mandela Barnes (the overwhelming favorite to win the Democrat nomination) supports ending cash bail and defunding police departments across the state. Yikes! pic.twitter.com/QZ9Vrxbgra
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) December 2, 2025
"Defunding isn't as necessarily as aggressive as a lot of folks paint it," Barnes said. "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?" Barnes asked. "Well, it can come from over-bloated budgets in police departments."
"I can say in my hometown of Milwaukee, the police budget has exceeded the entire property tax levy for five consecutive years. I can say that 45 percent of all department allocations go towards the police department in the city of Milwaukee, while libraries get about three percent."
Homicides in the city of Milwaukee are up over this time last year and the city has a violent crime rate of 1,430 per 100,000 residents, three times the national rate and four times the rest of the state. Meanwhile, the literacy rate for Milwaukee County is about 25 percent, while about one in seven adults in the rest of the state is illiterate. So it makes sense that libraries would get less funding than police departments. Then again, Barnes attended Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), so math isn't his strong suit.
Barnes also supports giving illegal immigrants driver's licenses and in-state college tuition.
Mandela Barnes, who just announed his candidacy for governor of Wisconsin today and is widely considered the overwhelming favorite to win the Democrat nomination, supports giving driver's licenses and reduced college tuition to illegal aliens. pic.twitter.com/sZrkLEbNm4
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) December 2, 2025
"We need an immigration system that treats all people with dignity and respect," Barnes said, "a system that says no human being is illegal. In our states, we can start by making sure immigrants have access to driver's licenses and in-state college tuition because they too are part of the community."
Barnes also promised to repeal Act 10, the legislation passed by Governor Scott Walker in 2010. That move would be devastating to Wisconsin.
Hours after launching his campaign today, Mandela Barnes promises to repeal Act 10 in announcing a new endorsement from the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1473 and to ensure “every union in our state has the full right to organize and collectively bargain” pic.twitter.com/9pCVyQWKAJ
— Matt Smith (@mattsmith_news) December 2, 2025
Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) Research Director Will Flanders said the move "would be so harmful to Wisconsin at this point that to even consider it should be laughable" and shared a thread of WILL's reporting on the damage repealing Act 10 would do.
Act 10 has given school districts the flexibility they need to hire and reward the best teachers, rather than just rewarding service time. Implementation of Act 10 worked to improve student outcomes—something we need to be concerned about more than ever.https://t.co/1wr0RqzUTt
— Will Flanders (@WillFlandersWI) December 2, 2025
Nearly one-third of students can't read on grade level, and Black students in MPS rank at the bottom nationally on math and reading standardized tests.
That public sector unions are not concerned about students was made clear during COVID, where school districts w/ unions were more likely to remain closed despite no evidence of harm to kids. We are still suffering the consequences of that decision today.https://t.co/o0U3xvghYH
— Will Flanders (@WillFlandersWI) December 2, 2025
Perhaps most critically, reversing Act 10 would blow an annual hole of more than $2 billion in local govt and school district budgets. This would lead to either service cuts or enormous tax hikes.https://t.co/LS5GQ3MwyI
— Will Flanders (@WillFlandersWI) December 2, 2025
Repealing Act 10 likely makes for nice talking points, but it’s time to be serious. This is idea is untenable and impossible, no matter how far left you might be.
— Will Flanders (@WillFlandersWI) December 2, 2025
Former Governor Scott Walker, the man behind Act 10, also warned Barnes would take money from classrooms for the pockets of union bosses.
A repeal of Act 10 would be so harmful to Wisconsin at this point that to even consider it should be laughable. WILL has highlighted many reasons that this should be off the table over the years. 🧵 https://t.co/QySldICx2V
— Will Flanders (@WillFlandersWI) December 2, 2025
Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is running for Wisconsin Governor, also chimed in on what a Barnes governorship would mean for the Dairy State.
Republican gubernatorial candidate @TomTiffanyWI has some pointed thoughts about radical socialist Mandela Barnes entering the race. pic.twitter.com/wv4kSqk9tt
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) December 3, 2025
O'Donnell played a 2020 Zoom meeting featuring Barnes, and in that clip, Barnes said, "The United States of America is the most wealthy, it is the most powerful nation on Earth, and that is because of forced labor on stolen land. We have to teach the reality of why we are where we are, or else people will just assume it just happened this way because of hard work, because of pulling up by your bootstraps. The reason why we haven't seen an increase in the minimum wage since 2009 is because again this is a nation where the wealth was built off of free forced labor. And the fact is low wages are what's going to keep millionaire and billionaire wealth intact. And this all has a racial component."
Tiffany had the perfect response.
"They're going to try to tell everyone out there that you are a victim, and we are the only ones that are going to save you. But I would remind Mr. Barnes he belongs to the party that was the party of slavery. I happen belong to the party, the Republican Party, that was started in 1854 right here in Wisconsin that ended slavery and we were the ones that all men should be created equal. Why he belongs to the Democrat Party, if he believes those things that he was just saying, I don't understand it."
"By the way, he talks about the minimum wage, that's not what I'm seeking for the people of the state of Wisconsin. I want you to make as much money as you can!" Tiffany said. "Let's have people not just make $15 an hour or $20 an hour, I want people to have jobs that make $30 an hour, and you can't have that if you have a highly regulated state like we are here in Wisconsin, which Mandela Barnes contributed to as Lt. Governor. I mean, you can't have that if you're going to have this command and control economy, better known as socialism, which Mandela believes in."
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