CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Mandela Barnes has announced his next political act.
He announced earlier this week that he’s forming a political action group – The Long Run Pac – which will specifically support working class, minority, young, and LGBTQ+ candidates.
Mandela Barnes was perhaps the most radically liberal candidate to ever run for statewide office. He came within 26,000 votes of winning.
The most fascinating part of Wisconsin’s senate campaign was an article that was re-printed in the U.K. Daily Mail. In it a democrat political analyst shamed limousine-liberal candidates for crowding out more woke, more progressive, minority candidates who were having trouble overcoming the fundraising gap.
Senate Candidate Alex Lasry most certainly read that article. The next day the Jewish trust-fund candidate dropped out. He cleared the path for the black, woke, street-radical.
Lasry’s misreading of the political landscape was poor. He was the more electable candidate by far. Both men are liberal; either would be in lock-step with the Biden agenda in Washington. But Lasry had no baggage. Mandala Barnes did. There were dozens of social media clips, in his own words, where Barnes talked about the most radical ideas: defund the police, grabbing guns, anti-law enforcement rhetoric, about how exciting ‘the squad’ is, and about police shootings, that to him, seemed like vendettas. Barnes almost overcame all of that. His take-away is that he could run again and win.
Which brings us to the 2024 U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin. Tammy Baldwin is up for re-election. She’s female and gay; she checks some of the identity-politics boxes. But she was in office before wokeness was a thing. She tries to present herself as a middle-of-the-road candidate. She brags about being a gun owner. The far left sees her as a reliable liberal vote… but not down-for-the-struggle.
Would the Mandela Barnes wing of the democratic party tell Senator Tammy that her time is up, and it’s time to step aside? Would he dare to primary her? That Tammy Baldwin isn’t mainstream enough is a head-scratcher to those of us who live in political reality. But for the Barnes crowd, he’s never been closer to winning, and others need to get out of the way.
Chris Conley
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