Mandela Barnes

Mandela Barnes (born December 1, 1986) is an American politician who has served as the 45th Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the Wisconsin State Representative for the 11th district from 2013 to 2017. Barnes, the first African American to assume the state's lieutenant governorship, is a candidate in the 2022 U.S. Senate election in Wisconsin.

Career

He worked for various political campaigns and in the office of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, eventually becoming an organizer for M.I.C.A.H., a Milwaukee-based interfaith coalition that advocates social justice. Barnes served as the Deputy Director of Strategic Engagement for State Innovation Exchange, a national progressive public policy organization based in Madison.

'People's House Party'

Nse Ufot, Cliff Albright, Beth Howard, Mandela Barnes, Brittany DeBarros, Ro Khanna, Sulma Arias.

Common Defense

Common Defense endorsed Mandela Barnes for Senate in 2022.

CLW support

Our Revolution

People's Action

Netroots Nation 2021

NETROOTS NATION 2021 OPENING KEYNOTE Plenary; Thu, 10/07/2021 - 05:00pm (Eastern)

Pundits talk about COVID and getting “back to normal,” but we progressives have a message: Normal isn’t good enough. We want bold, progressive solutions on issues like economic policy, climate change, immigration and more. Hear progressive leaders discuss their vision for progressive change on key issues and discuss how we can build momentum for 2022 and beyond.

You’ll hear from DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison; Rep. Joe Neguse with immigration activists Tania Chairez and Marissa Molina; Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and Rep. Rashida Tlaib. We’ll end the session with a special conversation with Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, and Mustafa Santiago Ali.

Led by: Cheryl Contee

Panelists: Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Tania Chairez, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Jaime Harrison, White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, Marissa Molina, Rep. Joe Neguse, Joe Sanberg, Mustafa Santiago Ali, Rep. Rashida Tlaib

People's Charter endorser

The People's Charter was released by the Working Families Party shortly before the 2020 election.

Endorsers included Mandela Barnes.

Gwen Moore endorsement

Rise Up 2020

Mandela Barnes, Nelsie Yang, Raquel Teran.

Post Primary Get Together

New Florida Majority with Asia Samson, Rashida Tlaib and Mandela Barnes.

2018 Lieutenant Governor campaign

In January 2018, Barnes announced his candidacy for lieutenant governor of Wisconsin in the 2018 election. He was endorsed by U.S. Representative Mark Pocan, State Senators Tim Carpenter, Jon Erpenbach, La Tonya Johnson, Chris Larson, and Bob Wirch, and over 23 Democratic members of the Wisconsin State Assembly, including former gubernatorial candidate Dana Wachs. Barnes was also endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers Local 212, Communications Workers of America, Democracy for America, the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters, MoveOn.org, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin (PPAWI), International Brotherhood of Teamsters, United Auto Workers WI State CAP Council, and the Wisconsin Working Families Party.

In June 2018, Barnes won the Democratic Party of Wisconsin straw poll with 80.9% of the vote, earning 617 out of 763 votes. During the primary, his name was omitted from three newspaper election notices in different counties. The day before the election, his picture was used in a local news report about a fatal motorcycle crash.

On August 14, 2018, he won the Democratic primary in a landslide against Sheboygan businessman Kurt Kober, and became the running mate of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Tony Evers. Evers and Barnes went on to win the November 2018 election, defeating incumbent Republicans Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch. Barnes became Wisconsin's first African American lieutenant governor.

Left influence

According to Lizeth Chacon:

In Wisconsin, too, we have “one of our own” in office: newly elected Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes brings experience as a community and faith-based organizer with Citizen Action of Wisconsin, which, like CPA, is affiliated with the national People's Action network..

Cuban caravan

Cuban Caravan @ Central United Methodist Church (633 N. 25th St.), 6 p.m. 2019.

Welcome Father Luis Barrios of Pastors for Peace (PFP) with a potluck dinner. Barrios, a native of Puerto Rico, is a pastor in New York City and a former prisoner of conscience for challenging the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas, which has trained military torturers throughout Latin America.

President Donald Trump and National Security Advisor John Bolton recently announced an attempt to further tighten U.S. restrictions on the right of our people to travel to Cuba. Trump also authorized lawsuits in U.S. courts (that no American president had ever allowed) against American and other companies doing business in Cuba.

The event is sponsored by the Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba, Peace Action Wisconsin and End the Wars Coalition MKE. The program includes a potluck dinner. Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes is among the speakers.

Peace Action Wisconsin

During Mandela Barnes’s first year as a state representative in 2013, he listed himself as a member of Peace Action Wisconsin in the "Blue Book," the state government’s official handbook that includes legislator biographies.

"He used to come here and sit at our meeting table and be part of our meetings," Pam Richard, Peace Action Wisconsin’s office manager, told the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday.

She said Barnes’s involvement ended around the time he became Wisconsin lieutenant governor in 2019.

BLOC forum

BLOC endorsement

In 2020 Black Leaders Organizing Communities endorsed Tammy Baldwin, Tony Evers, Mandela Barnes, Josh Kaul.

BLOC support

Working Families Party endorsement

After operating mostly on the fringes of left-leaning politics, the Working Families Party saw nearly two-thirds of its 1,036 endorsed candidates win state and local offices in 2017. Buoyed by a renewed interest in alternative candidates, as evidenced in the success of Bernie Sanders on the left and Donald Trump on the right, Maurice Moe Mitchell led a midterm cycle with some notable wins — defeating conservative Democratic incumbents in New Mexico, Rhode Island and Maryland and contributing to candidates who ended Republican control of the Colorado Senate. Under his leadership, the WFP joined other progressive groups in helping flip the U.S. House of Representatives while supporting insurgent Democrats such as Antonio Delgado in New York and Jahana Hayes in Connecticut.

While other organizations receive flashy accolades for endorsing ascendant Democrats such as, say, Georgia gubernatorial hopeful Stacey Abrams (which, to be fair, the WFP also did), the party is much more focused on the quiet, down-ballot races that lead to change down the line. It helped build the early political careers of New York Attorney General Letitia James (the first African-American and first woman to hold the post) and 32-year-old Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. In June, the party sprang an upset with another rising star, when WFP-endorsed public defender Tiffany Caban, 31, won the Democratic primary for Queens district attorney.

Black Lives Matter event

Gilbert Johnson January 24, 2015:

With Maureen W. Keyes, Gwendolynne Moore, Pat A. Robinson, Brandi Grayson, Solana Patterson-Ramos, Maria A. Hamilton, Brian Woods, James Edward Cunningham, Bryan Pfeifer, Milele A. Coggs, Anthony Rainey, Emily Sunshine, Lena C. Taylor, Brian Verdin, Jonathan Brostoff, David DB Bowen, Mandela Barnes, Mike Maass, Alan Eisenberg, Jennifer Epps-Addison, Gary Goyke, Ron Taylor, Nate Hamilton, Emilio De Torre, Jayme Montgomery, Rob Biko Baker, Sowande Omokunde, Robert Smith, Jeremy Anapto Triblett, Khalil Coleman, Gary Cooper-Sperber, Mike Erdmann, Berthina Joseph, Babette Grunow, David Muhammad, Gail Williams, Joan Prince, Angela Lang, Gary Mitchell, Eric D. Graff, Martin Weddle and American Federation of State, County, Municipal Employees Local 82.

Collective PAC

Launched in August of 2016, the Collective PAC is backing several statewide races in 2018, including Stacey Abrams Governor of Georgia, Andrew Gillum Governor of Florida, Benjamin Jealous Governor of Maryland, Aaron Ford Attorney General of Nevada, Anita Earls North Carolina Supreme Court, Deidre DeJear Secretary of State Iowa, Kwame Raoul Illinois Attorney General, Mandela Barnes Wisconsin Lt. Governor, Rob Richardson, Ohio Treasurer .

Campaign manager

Justin Bielinski was Mandela Barnes' campaign manager.

Voces de la Frontera Action

Mandela Barnes for Lieutenant Governor October 28 2018:

Wisconsin is a state that needs to work for all of us; including hard-working immigrant families who help strengthen our economy, like the folks we heard from at the Voces de la Frontera Action early vote rally yesterday.

DSA T Shirt

Fighting Bob Fest

Fighting Bob Fest speakers 2018: Jim Hightower, Randy Bryce, Mandela Barnes, John Nichols, Rep. Chris Taylor, Sarah Godlewski, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Ruth Conniff, Will Durst, Karin Wolf, Kim Wright, Paula Bezark, Lauren Peterson, Raging Grannies, Danny Chicago, Norman Stockwell.

YEO Network Black Caucus Supports Michael Brown's Family

Black Caucus of YEO Network X Post dated November 27, 2014

On November 27, 2014, the People for the American Way's YEO Network's "National Black Caucus Young Elected Officials" posted a statement on X in support of the family of Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by police after fighting for the police officer's weapon after he shoplifted. The black elected officials responded in the wake of the verdict in favor of the police officer by stating in part that there is a "very real problem of racial inequality that African-Americans have been subject to for centuries". Mandela Barnes was one of the signatories.,