Barnes Is Too Extreme For Wisconsin

Mandela Barnes Is A Far-Left Radical, Supporting Policies That Will Only Embolden Criminals, Hurt Workers, And Crush Small Businesses

BARNES IS A RADICAL WHO IS TOO FAR-LEFT FOR WISCONSIN  

• Mandela Barnes’ record is too extreme for Wisconsin voters, having overseen rising crime and drug overdose deaths as Lieutenant Governor.
• Barnes is a “longtime leader” of the Wisconsin Working Families Party, a radical organization that supports defunding the police and letting biological men compete in women’s sports.
  • Barnes has even touted the endorsement of a far-left Wisconsin state representative that praised convicted cop killer Assata Shakur.
• Barnes has been endorsed by and refused to disavow a radical group that touts itself as the “nation’s largest online racial justice organization,” which claims police maintain “America’s fascist racial hierarchy.”
• Barnes “absolutely” supports government-run single-payer health care and Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All.
• Barnes has called for abolishing the filibuster and packing the Supreme Court with far-left activist justices.
• Barnes has refused to endorse any limits on abortion, and continues to support abortion up to the moment of birth.

BARNES WANTS TO DEFUND THE POLICE AND MAKE WISCONSIN LESS SAFE

• Mandela Barnes wants to make Wisconsin less safe, pushing for the elimination of cash bail and repeatedly supporting defunding the police.
  • Barnes said “it pains me” to see fully funded police budgets and called for defunding “over-bloated” police departments.
  • Barnes said he is “constantly pushing on a reduction of spending on corrections” and “wish[es] we could accelerate” releasing violent criminals from prison.
  • Barnes tried to downplay how radical defunding police is, saying “defunding isn’t necessarily as aggressive as a lot of folks paint it… the minute you talk about reducing a police department’s budget, then it’s like all hell breaks loose.”
  • Barnes even tried to rationalize this by saying “police don’t prevent crime from happening.”
• As Biden’s border crisis brings illegal immigration and deadly fentanyl to the Badger State, Barnes wants to abolish ICE and provide driver’s licenses and in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants.
• Barnes has resorted to faking police endorsements, finding only two of more than 13,400 Wisconsin law enforcement officers to endorse him.
• Despite Barnes’ support for defunding police who protect Wisconsinites, he hypocritically receives a personal security detail from the Wisconsin State Patrol for an average of more than 13.5 hours per day, including for personal campaign events.
  • Barnes’ personal security has cost taxpayers more than $600,000 in just three years, ten times more hours of security protection than his predecessor. 
• While Barnes wants taxpayers to pay for his own armed security, he would leave Wisconsinites defenseless, openly rejecting the Second Amendment.
  • Barnes said he “really could not care less about a Second Amendment ‘right’.”
  • Barnes even mocked Republican Steve Scalise for being shot and nearly killed by a deranged Bernie Sanders supporter.

BARNES WANTS TO EMPTY WISCONSIN PRISONS

• Not only does Barnes want to defund the police, he also wants to release half of all inmates from Wisconsin’s prisons, which he believes will “make our communities safer.”
  • The vast majority of Wisconsin inmates – 68 percent – are classified as violent criminals.
• Barnes has repeatedly advocated for cutting the Wisconsin prison population in half, saying “we have a responsibility to reduce our prison population.”
  • In 2018, Barnes said “absolutely” when asked if he would like to release half the state’s prison inmates.
  • In 2018, Barnes said “reducing prison populations is now sexy.”
  • In 2019, Barnes tweeted his support for cutting “our prison population in half.”
  • In 2021, Barnes lamented that Wisconsin wasn’t able to “reduce Wisconsin’s prison population by 11,000 inmates” (half) by 2015.
  • This year, Barnes bragged that his “11x15” campaign has resulted in the “lowest prison population” in the last twenty years.
• The Evers-Barnes Parole Commission released hundreds of criminals from prison early including a man convicted of first degree murder for randomly shooting a 76-year-old woman that was taking her dog for a walk in the park.
• Barnes claimed it is “unfortunate” people in prison do not have the right to vote.

BARNES WANTS HIGHER PRICES AND HIGHER TAXES FOR WORKING CLASS FAMILIES

• Barnes supports Democrats’ recently passed Bidenflation Scam bill that will raise taxes on Americans during a recession and increase IRS audits on small businesses and working families.
• Barnes not only supports the radical “Green New Deal,” he wants to go farther, saying “we have to think so much deeper and so much broader.”
  • In 2020, Barnes refused to say how much his radical job-killing climate proposals would cost because “a lot of people who would like to use certain numbers as a cudgel.”
• Wisconsin gas prices reached a new record high of $4.92 per gallon in June, and Wisconsinites are still paying $1.80 more for gas today than when Biden took office, but Barnes says he is “not a fan of pipelines” that make it easier to transport oil and gas.
  • Barnes went even further, claiming we “shouldn’t be in a space where we’re even encouraging new pipeline construction.”
• Barnes claimed that Biden’s student loan bailout for the wealthy will “help our economy a great deal, despite the numerous negative effects economists point to.

BARNES STANDS WITH RIOTERS AND LOCKDOWNS OVER SMALL BUSINESSES

• In 2020, Barnes claimed that if you oppose harmful lockdowns you are “selfish,” “privilege[d],” and have an “I-me mind.”
  • Pro-lockdown Barnes called small business owners “selfish” for being concerned about their businesses.
• On at least seven occasions Barnes downplayed the 2020 BLM riots, saying “protest is necessary … how do you expect people to react.”
  • Barnes even claimed these were not “riots” at all: “It’s frustration. You can’t tell people how to be frustrated…more than damage, destruction, and rebellion, it is frustration.”

BARNES DOESN’T BELIEVE AMERICA IS GREAT AND THINKS WISCONSINITES ARE RACIST

• Barnes has sought to divide Americans and believes that America is not a great country.
  • Barnes once called America’s founding “awful.” “The founding of this nation? Awful!”
  • In 2020, Barnes said “We’re still waiting for our moment for America to be great.”
  • In 2021, Barnes claims “It would be foolish to assume that the wealth of America was earned justly.”
  • This year, Barnes said America is wealthy and powerful “because of forced labor on stolen land.”
• Barnes has defended critical race theory being taught in school saying, “I liken it to learning about science — like this is what it is and people should know about it.”
  • According to Barnes, without CRT, “people will just assume it just happened this way because of hard work, because of pulling up by your bootstraps.”
• Barnes chaired a government climate change task force that recommended “implementing an anti-racism education curriculum across government entities.”
  • This report claimed “systemic racism remains embedded in our social structures” and that Americans racial literacy is “depressingly low.”
• Barnes absurdly suggested national parks are racist, saying “national parks weren’t made for the enjoyment of people who weren’t white” and that this was the case because “national parks are on land that was indigenous.”