Milwaukee North News

Mandela Barnes, Wisconsin's lieutenant governor, is a frontrunner in the state’s Democratic Senate primary.

Critics said that Barnes' positions have changed, moving from his support of last year's Defund the Police movement to this year's support for law enforcement. 

Barnes' shifting views, along with the news that Chesa Boudin, San Francisco's district attorney, is being recalled, raise questions about which Democratic party message regarding the police will gain traction during the election.

"I am not a part of the Abolish ICE movement because no one slogan can capture all the work we have to do," Barnes said, as reported by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "But, I do support comprehensive reform in our immigration agencies that protect our borders while establishing a pathway to citizenship and ensuring no one coming to this country has to experience traumas like family separation."

Barnes has tried to position himself as an advocate for law enforcement in this year's Senate race, according to The Washington Free Beacon. His history complicates that position. He sits on the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council's Race Equity and Inclusion Subcommittee, a group that some claim investigates ways to eliminate prisons and promote alternatives to incarceration. Barnes' stance has upset Republican supporters of a robust prison system.

"The lieutenant governor does not support defunding the police," Barnes' spokeswoman, Maddy McDaniel, said in February.

Yet, the Senate candidate accumulated nearly $30,000 in fundraising money from Lead the Way 2022, according to campaign finance records. The Washington Free Beacon reported that Lead the Way is a joint-fundraising PAC that Barnes joined during the last election cycle. The website claimed that the group's leaders support the Defund the Police and Abolish ICE movements.

A photo on Reddit, a social media platform, showed Barnes holding a T-shirt featuring the slogan "Abolish ICE" in 2018. The photo incensed Republicans because the shirt seemed to call for the eradication of ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

Barnes spoke in November at the Center for Popular Democracy; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel claimed that the group supports defundpolice.org.

FOX6 News in Milwaukee reported in March that 75% of Milwaukee residents view crime as a serious problem in the city. Most poll respondents (60%) support increased police funding. Milwaukee has seen 92 homicides so far in 2022 – 20 more than last year at this time. 

Wisconsin voters will elect one candidate to the U.S. Senate in the November general election, according to Ballotpedia. The primary vote will occur on August 9. The top Democrats (Barnes, Sarah Godlewski, or Alex Lasry) hope to unseat Republican Sen. Ron Johnson.