{"id":970134,"date":"2026-07-31T00:29:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/970134\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T00:29:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:29:31","slug":"mandela-barnes-drops-out-of-the-democratic-primary-for-wisconsin-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/970134\/","title":{"rendered":"Mandela Barnes drops out of the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor"},"content":{"rendered":"

MADISON, Wis. (AP) \u2014 Mandela Barnes dropped out of the Democratic primary<\/a> for Wisconsin governor on Thursday amid news that the state party had reviewed past allegations of inappropriate behavior, further shaking up the race less than two weeks before the Aug. 11 election.<\/p>\n

The former lieutenant governor made the announcement in a video posted on his Facebook page as democratic socialist<\/a> Francesca Hong has garnered strong support from the liberal wing of the party.<\/p>\n

Barnes\u2019 decision to drop out came a day after the release of a Marquette Law School poll of Wisconsin Democratic primary voters that found Hong leading Barnes and the other candidates by a significant margin, although about one-third of primary voters remained undecided.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s become very clear who our nominee is going to be,\u201d Barnes said.<\/p>\n

Barnes\u2019 move came on the same day that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that it had asked him about allegations of inappropriate behavior lodged with the state Democratic Party, local party officials and others against him.<\/p>\n

The Wisconsin Democratic Party received an anonymous letter in 2024 and again in 2025 making allegations against Barnes, a person with direct knowledge of the party\u2019s actions told The Associated Press. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the review.<\/p>\n

The party hired a law firm in 2025 to look into claims that Barnes used his position in the party to seek out inappropriate relationships with young adult women, the person said. The review found nothing actionable because the allegations were anonymous and unspecific, the person with knowledge of the probe said.<\/p>\n

Barnes\u2019 campaign issued a statement saying, \u201cThere are no allegations of misconduct or wrongdoing against Mandela.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnes is the third Democrat to withdraw from the race. Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez ended her run<\/a> amid a campaign finance scandal two weeks ago and former state economic development director Missy Hughes dropped out in June.<\/p>\n

After Rodriguez ended her campaign, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley rejoined the race<\/a> with the endorsement of Gov. Tony Evers. <\/p>\n

Crowley made a direct plea to Barnes\u2019 supporters to back him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a place for you in what we\u2019re building,\u201d he posted on social media. <\/p>\n

Evers told reporters Thursday that he was surprised by Barnes\u2019 move.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he needs to do what he needs to do,\u201d Evers said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why he\u2019s getting out. I have to believe it\u2019s something relatively important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evers said he stuck by his endorsement of Crowley, who worked closely with Evers and Republican lawmakers on a deal to increase funding for local communities. Evers chose to endorse him over Barnes, who served as his lieutenant governor in his first term.<\/p>\n

Evers said Crowley was the best candidate \u201ceven if Mandela was in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hong did not immediately return a text message seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Joel Brennan, a long-shot candidate in the race, said, \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate for voters that this primary has gotten more attention for chaos than the stakes of this election.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shake-up comes after nearly 128,000 voters have already returned absentee ballots and on the third day of in-person early voting. On Wednesday, a judge rejected<\/a> a lawsuit supported by the Democratic Party seeking to allow voters who have already returned their absentee ballots to cancel them and vote again.<\/p>\n

The winner of the Democratic primary is expected to face U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who faces only nominal opposition in the Republican primary. Tiffany, who has the endorsement of President Donald Trump, said it\u2019s become clear the race will be a choice between a \u201csocialist agenda\u201d or \u201ccommon sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis election is not about red versus blue,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is about whether Wisconsin stays Wisconsin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnes ending his campaign comes after he benefited from other candidates dropping out in the Democratic primary race for Senate in 2022 to clear the field for him. He ended up losing by under 27,000 votes that year to Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADISON, Wis. (AP) \u2014 Mandela Barnes dropped out of the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor on Thursday amid…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":970135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[7373,379709,69,90,379710,57,51,379711,379713,50,80,20233,379714,10452,379717,14830,52,89,93,14831,1398],"class_list":["post-970134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-2026-elections","tag-david-crowley","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-francesca-hong","tag-general-news","tag-headlines","tag-joel-brennan","tag-mandela-barnes","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-ronald-johnson","tag-sara-rodriguez","tag-socialism","tag-tom-tiffany","tag-tony-evers","tag-top-stories","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-washington-news","tag-wi-state-wire","tag-wisconsin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117011767108140814","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=970134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/970135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=970134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=970134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=970134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}