Mandela Barnes

---

title: "Mandela Barnes" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1986-births", "living-people", "20th-century-african-american-people", "21st-century-african-american-politicians", "21st-century-members-of-the-wisconsin-legislature", "2020-united-states-presidential-electors", "african-american-candidates-for-the-united-states-senate", "african-american-community-activists", "african-american-state-legislators-in-wisconsin", "alabama-a&m-university-alumni", "american-community-activists", "candidates-in-the-2022-united-states-senate-elections", "candidates-in-the-2026-united-states-elections", "democratic-party-members-of-the-wisconsin-state-assembly", "lieutenant-governors-of-wisconsin", "politicians-from-milwaukee"] description: "American politician (born 1986)" topic_path: "politics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandela_Barnes" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American politician (born 1986) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Mandela Barnes
image	Mandela Barnes 2022.jpg
caption	Barnes in 2022
order	45th Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin
governor	Tony Evers
term_start	January 7, 2019
term_end	January 3, 2023
predecessor	Rebecca Kleefisch
successor	Sara Rodriguez
state_assembly1	Wisconsin
district1	11th
term_start1	January 7, 2013
term_end1	January 3, 2017
predecessor1	Jason Fields
successor1	Jason Fields
birth_name	Jesse Mandela Barnes
birth_date
birth_place	Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
party	Democratic
education	Alabama A&M University (BA)
signature	Mandela Barnes signature.png
website
::

| name = Mandela Barnes | image = Mandela Barnes 2022.jpg | caption = Barnes in 2022 | order = 45th Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin | governor = Tony Evers | term_start = January 7, 2019 | term_end = January 3, 2023 | predecessor = Rebecca Kleefisch | successor = Sara Rodriguez | state_assembly1 = Wisconsin | district1 = 11th | term_start1 = January 7, 2013 | term_end1 = January 3, 2017 | predecessor1 = Jason Fields | successor1 = Jason Fields | birth_name = Jesse Mandela Barnes | birth_date = | birth_place = Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | party = Democratic | education = Alabama A&M University (BA) | signature = Mandela Barnes signature.png | website = J. Mandela Barnes (born December 1, 1986) is an American politician who served as the 45th lieutenant governor of Wisconsin from 2019 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the state representative for the 11th district from 2013 to 2017. Barnes is the first African American to serve as Wisconsin's lieutenant governor.

Barnes was the Democratic nominee in the 2022 United States Senate election in Wisconsin, losing to incumbent Republican Senator Ron Johnson.

On December 2, 2025, Barnes announced his candidacy for governor in 2026.

Early life and education

Jesse Mandela Barnes was born in Milwaukee on December 1, 1986, the son of a public school teacher and a United Auto Workers member. Jesse is his father's name, while his middle name, Mandela, is a tribute to the anti-apartheid activist and first South African black president Nelson Mandela. Barnes says he has gone by his middle name since birth. His legal name is J. Mandela Barnes.

Barnes attended Holy Redeemer Christian Academy in Milwaukee; Milwaukee Public Schools, including John Marshall High School; and Alabama A&M University. He is a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

Barnes was involved with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) during college. He has also said that Barack Obama's keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention inspired him to rethink his post-college career.

In August 2019, Barnes admitted that he had never officially completed his bachelor's degree in 2008 due to incomplete coursework in one class that he called a "minor technical issue", contrary to previous statements that he had graduated from Alabama A&M. He received his B.A. degree in communications media specializing in performance on May 1, 2020, after resolving the outstanding coursework issue with the university.

Political career

Barnes 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. He served as deputy director of strategic engagement for State Innovation Exchange, a national progressive public policy organization based in Madison, from December 2016 to December 2017.

Wisconsin State Assembly (2013–2017)

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Mandela_Barnes_2013.jpg" caption="Barnes in 2013"] ::

In April 2012, Barnes announced his candidacy for Wisconsin's 11th Assembly district, representing the north side of Milwaukee and a small part of Wauwatosa, challenging incumbent Jason Fields in the Democratic primary election.{{cite web | url =http://fox6now.com/2012/04/10/mandela-barnes-announces-candidacy-for-state-assembly/ | title =Mandela Barnes Announces Candidacy for State Assembly | last =Delong | first =Katie | date =April 10, 2012 | website =Fox6.com | publisher =Fox 6 News | access-date =December 9, 2016 | archive-date =December 20, 2016 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20161220093246/http://fox6now.com/2012/04/10/mandela-barnes-announces-candidacy-for-state-assembly/ | url-status =live

Barnes defeated Fields in the August 2012 primary with 2,596 votes to Fields's 1,206.{{cite web | url =http://elections.wi.gov/sites/default/files/Percentage%20Results_8.14.12%20primary.pdf | title =G.A.B Canvass Reporting System | date =August 14, 2012 | website =elections.wi.gov | publisher =Wisconsin Elections Commission | access-date =December 9, 2016 | archive-date =December 26, 2016 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20161226232133/http://elections.wi.gov/sites/default/files/Percentage%20Results_8.14.12%20primary.pdf | url-status =live

As a state legislator in 2013, Barnes sponsored a bill that would have banned assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Barnes was reelected in 2014 without a primary or general election challenge.

Barnes sponsored a 2016 bill to eliminate cash bail. It would have barred judges from considering the "nature, number and gravity" of the charges and required the release of a defendant unless there was "clear and convincing evidence" of flight risk or of danger to an individual or witness. In February 2022, his campaign told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Barnes still supports the proposal, and if elected to the Senate, he would support a bill to end cash bail nationwide.

Barnes served on the Assembly Committees on Corrections, Education, Jobs & the Economy, and Small Business Development. He also chaired the legislature's Black and Latino Caucus and helped lead a number of international delegations to the Middle East and southeast Asia.

2016 State Senate campaign

On April 11, 2016, Barnes announced that he would resign from the Assembly to launch a primary challenge against Lena Taylor, the Democratic incumbent in Wisconsin's 4th State Senate district. Political science professor and former State Senator Mordecai Lee expressed surprise, noting both the rarity of Democratic Senate primaries and Wisconsin's 90% reelection rate for incumbents. Lee framed the race as reflecting the broader struggle in the Democratic Party, pitting a young progressive challenger against an older, more centrist incumbent.

Barnes lost to Taylor in the August 9 election, with 7,433 votes to her 11,454.

Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin (2019–2023)

2018 campaign

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Elected_officials_and_candidates_for_political_office_lent_their_support_to_March_for_Our_Lives.jpg" caption="Barnes (at rear) with other elected officials at a [[March For Our Lives]] event"] ::

In January 2018, Barnes announced his candidacy for lieutenant governor of Wisconsin in the 2018 election. He won the Democratic Party of Wisconsin straw poll in June 2018 with 80.9% of the vote, earning 617 out of 763 votes. During the primary, his name was omitted from election notices in three newspapers in two 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, Barnes won the Democratic primary in a landslide over Sheboygan businessman Kurt Kober, and became the running mate of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Tony Evers. Evers and Barnes won the November 2018 election, narrowly defeating incumbent Republicans Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch, 49.5% to 48.4%. Barnes became Wisconsin's first African American lieutenant governor and the nation's youngest lieutenant governor.

Tenure

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Evers_inauguration_25.jpg" caption="Barnes being sworn in as Lieutenant Governor, 2019"] ::

Barnes was appointed chair of the governor's task force on climate change in October 2019. In December 2020, the task force released its report containing 55 policy recommendations to address climate change in the state. For the 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, he served as a vice chair of both the convention and the host committee.

In the first two months of his term, Barnes faced criticism for having logged more hours of security protection than the last lieutenant governor had in all of 2018, although Governor Evers's office approved the additional security. In August 2022, the issue resurfaced when Barnes (now three years into his tenure) had reportedly used ten times as many security hours as his predecessor, who had declined security while doing personal tasks and did not run for the Senate while in office.

In 2019, Barnes gave the Working Families Party response to the State of the Union address.

On August 24, 2020, the day after the shooting of Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Barnes said it was "not an accident", and "This wasn't bad police work. This felt like some sort of vendetta taken out on a member of our community." On January 5, 2021, he condemned the district attorney's decision not to prosecute the officers who shot Blake, tweeting, "The non-prosecuting DAs are as negligent as the officers in these situations".

2022 US Senate campaign

Main article: 2022 United States Senate election in Wisconsin

On July 20, 2021, Barnes announced his candidacy for the United States Senate in the 2022 election, contesting the seat held by Ron Johnson. Barnes was the eighth person to enter the race for the Democratic nomination. By July 29, 2022, all of Barnes's major competitors had withdrawn from the race and endorsed him, leaving his way clear to be the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Barnes and Johnson had the first of their two scheduled debates on October 7, 2022, in Milwaukee.

In the general election, Johnson narrowly defeated Barnes. If elected, Barnes would have become the first black person to represent Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate. For his loss, his campaign and other Democratic strategists blamed Barnes' relative political inexperience, his vulnerability on policing and crime, the advantage of his opponent's incumbency, and that his campaign was outspent $64 million to $56 million after he was nominated.

Post-lieutenant gubernatorial career

In February 2023, Barnes launched The Long Run PAC to help the U.S. political campaigns of "pro-democracy" Democratic candidates who are young, persons of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and/or have working class backgrounds.

Political positions

Barnes has branded himself as a progressive and voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 and 2020 Wisconsin presidential primaries.

Abortion

During his campaign for Senate, Barnes supported legislation that would codify federal protections of abortion rights nationwide, "to make Roe v Wade the law of the land", and would eliminate the U.S. Senate filibuster to pass such a bill.

Gun control

Barnes has said he will "prioritize preventing gun violence by keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people" if elected to the Senate, saying in May 2022, "We can save lives or we can kowtow to the gun lobby." He supported red-flag laws, universal background checks for gun sales, and bans on privately made firearms, assault weapons, and high-capacity magazines. He would vote to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which gives manufacturers and dealers liability protection when a purchaser uses a firearm to commit a crime.

Healthcare

Barnes supports Medicare for All as well as incremental steps like lowering the age of enrollment from 65. In September 2021, as a candidate for the Senate, Barnes said in a series of tweets, "In Washington, I'll be one of the few elected officials that have actually been on one of the programs we fund and debate" and, referring to when he was enrolled in the Medicaid-based program in 2018, "I've been on BadgerCare, and I've seen how critical it is for working people."

Other issues

Barnes supports a Green New Deal, a $15 per hour minimum wage, eliminating cash bail nationwide, and legalizing marijuana.

Electoral history

Wisconsin Assembly (2012, 2014)

::data[format=table]

Year	Election	Date	Elected	Defeated	Total	Plurality	2012	2014
Primary	Aug. 14	Mandela Barnes	Democratic	2,596	68.14%	Jason Fields (inc)	Dem.	1,206
General	Nov. 6	Mandela Barnes	Democratic	16,403	98.79%	--unopposed--	16,604	16,202
General	Nov. 4	Mandela Barnes (inc)	Democratic	17,328	98.83%	17,534	17,122
::

Wisconsin Senate (2016)

::data[format=table]

Year	Election	Date	Elected	Defeated	Total	Plurality	2016
Primary	Aug. 9	Lena Taylor (inc)	Democratic	11,454	60.56%	Mandela Barnes	Dem.
::

Lieutenant Governor (2018)

::data[format=table]

Year	Election	Date	Elected	Defeated	Total	Plurality	2018
Primary	Aug. 14	Mandela Barnes	Democratic	326,855	67.86%	Kurt J. Kober	Dem.
Corban Gehler (write-in)	Dem.	12	0.00%
William Henry Davis III (write-in)	Dem.	8	0.00%
General	Nov. 6	Tony Evers
Mandela Barnes	Democratic	1,324,307	49.54%	Scott Walker (inc)
Rebecca Kleefisch (inc)	Rep.
Phil Anderson
Patrick Baird	Lib.	20,225	0.76%
Margaret Turnbull
Wil Losch	Ind.	18,884	0.71%
Michael J. White
Tiffany Anderson	Grn.	11,087	0.41%
Arnie Enz
N/A	Ind.	2,745	0.10%
Ryan Cason (write-in)
N/A	Rep.	4	0.00%
N/A
William Henry Davis III (write-in)	Dem.	3	0.00%
Mark S. Grimek (write-in)
N/A	Con.	2	0.00%
Richard M. Turtenwald (write-in)
N/A	Ind.	2	0.00%
Paul Boucher (write-in)
N/A	Dem.	1	0.00%
Robbie Hoffman (write-in)
N/A	Ind.	1	0.00%
N/A
Corban Gehler (write-in)	Dem.	1	0.00%
::

US Senate (2022)

::data[format=table]

Year	Election	Date	Elected	Defeated	Total	Plurality	2022
Primary	Aug. 9	Mandela Barnes	Democratic	390,279	77.78%	Alex Lasry (withdrawn)	Dem.
Sarah Godlewski (withdrawn)	Dem.	40,555	8.08%
Tom Nelson (withdrawn)	Dem.	10,995	2.19%
Steven Olikara	Dem.	5,619	1.12%
Darrell Williams	Dem.	3,646	0.73%
Kou C. Lee	Dem.	3,434	0.68%
Peter Peckarsky	Dem.	2,446	0.49%
General	Nov. 8	Ron Johnson (inc)	Republican	1,337,185	50.41%	Mandela Barnes	Dem.
Adam Paul (write-in)	Ind.	67	0.00%
::

References

References

1. Kassel, Matthew. (2021-12-15). "Milwaukee's son makes a Senate run".
2. "Democrat Tony Evers ousts Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker". Politico.
3. (2021-02-12). "Mandela Barnes".
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5. (2021-07-20). "Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes joins US Senate race".
6. (December 2, 2025). "Former Lt. Gov. and Senate candidate Mandela Barnes enters Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor". [[Wisconsin Examiner]].
7. (2019-08-09). "Barnestorming".
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9. Shafer, Dan. (2022-08-10). "Opinion {{!}} Meet Mandela Barnes, the 35-Year-Old Candidate Working to Oust Ron Johnson". The New York Times.
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11. [https://www.watchtheyard.com/kappas/kappa-alpha-psi-mandela-barnes/ Kappa Alpha Psi's 31-Year-Old Mandela Barnes Becomes Wisconsin's First Black Lieutenant Governor]
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13. Beck, Molly. "Mandela Barnes said months ago he 'finished' college but now says he didn't graduate".
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16. (12 July 2021). "Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes reveals he received college diploma in May 2020, 12 years after graduation ceremony".
17. (1 September 2020). "Young, Black and in power: Wisconsin's lieutenant governor steps into national spotlight amid racial reckoning {{!}} CNN Politics". CNN.
18. (2016-12-12). "SiX Welcomes Two New Staff Members: Press Secretary Margaret Ann Morgan and Deputy Director of Strategic Engagement Mandela Barnes - State Innovation Exchange".
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42. (2019-06-07). "The Latest: GOP roads deal limits security for lt. gov".
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54. (April 8, 2020). "No regrets about having voted for him both times.".
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58. (August 9, 2022). "Democratic candidates rally around abortion — are they reaching Black voters?". PBS Wisconsin.
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61. (2022-05-31). "For the Record: Renewed calls for gun control; A sudden gap on the Wisconsin Election Commission".
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65. (2021-09-17). "2 Wisconsin Senate Candidates Paid No Income Taxes".
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67. (September 17, 2021). "Barnes paid no income tax, was on BadgerCare in 2018".
68. "Stimulus Relief, Incarceration, Legalizing Marijuana: Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes Answers Your Questions".
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71. (November 26, 2014). "Canvass Results for 2014 General Election - 11/4/2014". [[Wisconsin Government Accountability Board]].
72. (September 30, 2016). "Canvass Results for 2016 Partisan Primary - 8/9/2016". [[Wisconsin Government Accountability Board]].
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