‘Let’s Send Ron Johnson Packing’: Mandela Barnes Wins Wisconsin Senate Primary
Wisconsin’s progressive Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes handily won the state’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary on Tuesday, advancing to take on Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in a November matchup that could play a key role in determining which party controls the upper chamber next year.
“This is the honor of a lifetime,” Barnes said following his landslide victory, which was expected after his top Democratic rivals dropped out last month.
“Now, we take the fight to Ron Johnson,” Barnes declared on social media. “We’re going to the Senate to rebuild the middle class…to protect the right to choose…to fight to make the American Dream an American reality. Are you with me?”
Also, Barnes, a supporter of Medicare for All, won the backing of high-profile lawmakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who celebrated the lieutenant governor’s victory as a win for efforts to reshape a chamber that has long stood as an obstacle to progressive change.
“We need strong progressives like Mandela in the Senate to fight for an agenda that looks out for the working class of this country, not billionaires and corporations,” Sanders tweeted. “On to November!”
A survey conducted ahead of Tuesday’s primary showed Barnes leading by two percentage points in a hypothetical general election matchup against Johnson, a Trump loyalist who recently said he would favor turning Social Security and Medicare into “discretionary spending” programs, further opening the door to cuts.
“Wisconsinites pay into Social Security through a lifetime of hard work, and they’re counting on this program and Medicare—but Ron Johnson just doesn’t care,” Barnes said in response to Johnson’s remarks last week.
Moreover, in a statement late Tuesday, Barnes declared that Johnson “has spent his decade in Washington serving the special interests who donate millions to his campaign while he calls to repeal the Affordable Care Act and slash Social Security funding.”
“Plain and simple: if it doesn’t support his wealthy donors or his own self-interests, you can’t count on Ron Johnson to support it,” Barnes added that Wisconsin deserves leaders who have a firsthand understanding of the challenges they’re facing and their hopes for the future.
Originally published at Commondreams.org.
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