Over the weekend, Senator Cory Booker penned an op-ed highlighting the hope Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, candidate for U.S. Senate, is bringing to Wisconsin on his campaign as the best candidate to unseat Ron Johnson in November.
Key Points:
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But I see hope rising in Wisconsin. It’s a hope that is inspired by Mandela Barnes, the product of a union household in which the parents worked as a public school teacher and a third-shift auto worker.
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That’s the power of Mandela Barnes. He brings people together. And he does this because his experiences are the same experiences as the folks standing in the crowd, struggles and all.
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Voters and leaders across Wisconsin and across the Democratic Party are coming together to respond to the heartbreak we feel — a heartbreak caused by cynical politicians who will put party before people, and power before country. We are coming together to respond, and our response is Mandela Barnes.
The Cap Times: Opinion | Hope is rising in Wisconsin
[By: Sen. Cory Booker, 08/06/22]
I have this saying: If America hasn’t broken your heart, you don’t love her enough.
This is a heartbreaking and difficult time for so many. Many of us are feeling the consequences of the division and the fighting that have dominated our politics in recent years. And dark clouds continue to hover over the horizon.
But I see hope rising in Wisconsin. It’s a hope that is inspired by Mandela Barnes, the product of a union household in which the parents worked as a public school teacher and a third-shift auto worker.
Recently, I visited Milwaukee to campaign for Barnes, whom I believe will be Wisconsin’s next U.S. senator. On a hot and rainy Friday afternoon in the middle of summer, I saw his former high school gymnasium jam-packed with supporters who braved the elements just to cheer him on.
I went to a house that was filled to the rafters with friends and supporters who couldn’t wait to tell me about why they were backing Barnes.
I saw people who might not otherwise be in the same room together, let alone supporting the same campaign, describing what it would mean to them to have Barnes as their next U.S. senator.
Those people included farmers and activists, teachers and mechanics, members of public sector unions and private sector unions, and people who had long given up on politics as a means to make real change. They were all coming together behind the son of a middle-class family who has given a real, genuine voice to working people from every corner of Wisconsin — and will hopefully soon bring that voice to the Senate.
That’s the power of Mandela Barnes. He brings people together. And he does this because his experiences are the same experiences as the folks standing in the crowd, struggles and all.
Voters and leaders across Wisconsin and across the Democratic Party are coming together to respond to the heartbreak we feel — a heartbreak caused by cynical politicians who will put party before people, and power before country. We are coming together to respond, and our response is Mandela Barnes.
I know of no better response to the out-of-control Supreme Court and the national Republican Party’s attempt to take away our rights and our voices than Barnes. And it’s clear from the unprecedented outpouring of grassroots support and enthusiasm from broad swaths of the state that Barnes is Wisconsin’s response.
In the face of ballot drop box bans and antiquated abortion bans, Wisconsin has chosen to respond with Mandela Barnes.
In the face of gerrymandered maps and Supreme Court rulings to undo the progress our nation has fought so hard to make, Wisconsin is responding with Mandela Barnes.
We are fighting a tough fight. But if Barnes comes into the Senate, he will instantly change the game. Because as the hard-working son of a union family from one of the most impoverished and incarcerated ZIP codes in America, he is driven by a compassion for all people who have been left behind — whether from an urban neighborhood or a rural community, and everywhere in between. He embraces and embodies the American spirit to do the best he can, with what he has, where he is.
After all, what better person can Wisconsin choose to defend the American dream than the very person who is here today because he’s lived it?
