Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, candidate for U.S. Senate, has continued to connect with Wisconsinites of every background who have been left behind by self-serving multi-millionaire Ron Johnson. From seniors to moms to students, the Barnes campaign has remained dedicated to building grassroots coalitions from all corners of the state.
Read More on the Barnes Campaigns’ Coalitions Work Below:
Associated Press: Barnes’ Senate bid may ride on Milwaukee’s Black turnout
- “I’m asking you to help talk to some other people — some friends, some family, some neighbors. If we get five to 10 people out each, we can win this thing,” Barnes told the congregants.
- Gordon, 32, met Barnes at a campaign event on Black maternal health in mid-October. As his girlfriend, Makoria Morrow, joined the discussion, Gordon sat to the side with their 2 1/2-month-old daughter and said he “didn’t know too much” about Barnes. He said he hadn’t voted since Barack Obama was running for president.
- “Just like everyone else in the community, we don’t really care about voting or care about the race or anything like that because we feel like our voice is not going to get heard anyways,” he said.
- After seeing Barnes in person, Gordon said he planned to vote for him.
- “I just felt something different to come and just meet him and just to see that he actually is a genuine human being. He’s just like us. He could be my neighbor,” Gordon said.
- For Michelle Wilkins, a 27-year-old doula who took part in the discussion on maternal health that Gordon attended, this election is the first time in a while she’s felt like her vote could make a difference. Barnes’ strong support for abortion rights and for Black mothers resonated with her, she said.
Read the full story here.
Milwaukee Courier: Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes Reaches out to Connect with Milwaukee’s Black Voters
- Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes is someone who is deeply embedded in the Black community and working to turn Black voters out this election cycle.
- He has done the work as a community organizer in the city, as a local state representative, and as Lt. Governor to connect and build trust with voters in the city. He has continued to prioritize outreach efforts to the Black community. As Lt. Governor, he helped deliver historic investments in Black-owned small businesses.
- “When people talk about issues and challenges we have with school and issues and challenges we have in the community, most of the time this is from people that have no idea what’s going on and right now we have a chance to elect people who actually understand our values,” said Barnes.
Read the full story here.
USA Today: ‘All gas, no brakes’: In Wisconsin Senate race, students key to final push for votes
- Until this year, Cameron Knoll never thought about midterms; she cared about presidential elections, and “that’s it.”
- The first political rally she attended was headlined by Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, now the Democratic nominee in Wisconsin’s Senate race. After hearing Barnes speak and meeting him, Knoll decided to get involved with his campaign.
- “It was like, I definitely want to volunteer for him and give some time for him,” said Knoll, 21 and a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “This is worth it.”
- “People are looking for elected officials, for representatives, who actually get what they’re going through, who understand their struggles – people who don’t make excuses for everything that’s gone wrong,” Barnes, who would be the second millennial elected to the U.S. Senate, told USA TODAY in an interview.
- With some 500 young volunteers organizing events and actions, students are one of the Barnes campaign’s largest coalitions, said Nina Harris, coalitions director for the Barnes campaign.
- “A lot of people feel disconnected from politics, politicians and government in general,” Barnes said. “(We) want people to know that elected officials are supposed to be there to answer calls, to take in the concerns and to do something about it.”
Read the full story here.
ABC News: Suburban women could be key in Wisconsin’s Senate race
- In Wisconsin’s high-profile Senate race, an army of mothers 500 strong is canvassing and door-knocking for the Democratic candidate, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, in an effort to get out the vote on Election Day.
- The group, dubbed “Moms for Mandela,” started independent of his campaign with the aim of mobilizing women to make their views clear on abortion access and gun reform.
- “I was so frustrated seeing Ron Johnson celebrating the overturning of Roe and kind of refusing to do anything about the continued mass shootings that have been happening in this nation,” said Kate Duffy, a 35-year-old mother from a suburb of Milwaukee, referring to the Republican incumbent, Sen. Ron Johnson.
- “The fact that [Johnson] was so callous as to say women who don’t like the laws of their state, like our 1849 criminal abortion ban, can just move did not sit well with a lot of people and it pushed them into action,” Barnes said in an interview with ABC News.
Read the full story here.
Los Angeles Times: Mandela Barnes’ rise is a true ‘Wisconsin story.’ But is it enough to win a Senate race?
- “There is definitely a path,” Lang said, whose group has endorsed Barnes. “One thing that I mention to folks is that whether you’re from the north side of Milwaukee or you’re in the North Woods of Wisconsin, people see themselves in him and his campaign.”
- “He’s not just talking to Black and brown folks,” Lang said. “He’s building a strong coalition of working-class folks, of farmers, of teachers, of grassroots organizers. And I haven’t really seen an intentional, broad coalition like that basically since [former President] Obama.”
- Kisha Shanks, a policy director at Milwaukee’s Black Child Development Institute who attended a Black maternal health round table hosted by the lieutenant governor’s campaign, said Barnes’ ties to the north side of Milwaukee are part of his appeal. She grew up in the east and north parts of Milwaukee when the area’s major manufacturing plants were still open and providing jobs. Like Barnes, she witnessed the loss of those jobs and the effect that had on Milwaukee’s Black middle class.
- “We need representation on the Senate floor that understands that,” she said.
Read the full story here.
