OPINION:
Socialist Mandela Barnes, the former lieutenant governor and failed U.S. Senate candidate, entered the race for governor in Wisconsin this week.
He might be the country’s most radical candidate for that job. That said, he is the front-runner in his primary, and he could win the general election.
Today, I issue a warning to conservatives like myself here in Wisconsin and across the country to take note of this election.
Soon after launching his campaign, Mr. Barnes promised to repeal Act 10, saying he would ensure that “every union in our state has the full right to organize and collectively bargain.”
Ending our signature reform would have a devastating impact on students. Money would flow out of the classroom and into the hands of union bosses. School officials would be forced to consider mass layoffs and program cuts on a much larger scale, just as they did before our reforms became law.
While serving as lieutenant governor, Mr. Barnes and Gov. Tony Evers introduced budgets that raised tuition for students at University of Wisconsin System campuses. Mr. Barnes also advocated for taxpayers to subsidize tuition for illegal aliens at these same schools. In other words, taxpayers would have to pay higher tuition for their own families while footing the bill to reduce costs for families who broke the law. He even wants illegal aliens to get Wisconsin driver’s licenses.
Mandela Barnes has repeatedly supported higher taxes, yet has failed to pay his own taxes and tickets on time. In 2019, he failed to pay $2,225 in property taxes for the previous year. A judge blocked his vehicle registration for failing to pay his tickets. So Mr. Barnes wants to raise taxes and fees on others, but he has consistently failed to pay his own until media outlets in his community exposed him. He embodies more of the hyper hypocrisy of the radical left.
On his campaign website, Mr. Barnes declares that he wants to expand Medicaid to cover able-bodied, working-age adults. This means putting on welfare an entire generation of men who are physically and mentally capable of work. Even President Clinton was in favor of welfare reform. Mr. Barnes is so radical that he wants even more people dependent on the government.
Yet he is the most extreme when it comes to public safety. The image of Mr. Barnes holding up a shirt that reads “Abolish ICE” speaks volumes about his view on protecting law-abiding citizens in Wisconsin. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had a detainer placed on an illegal alien who was accused of raping a child in Green Bay, Wisconsin. ICE had a detainer placed on an illegal alien who led police in Stoughton, Wisconsin, on a 116-mile-an-hour chase in a stolen car. ICE had a detainer on an illegal alien who was dealing fentanyl near a school in Brown County. ICE had a detainer placed on an illegal alien who was accused of killing a father of three from Rusk County. These are the criminals that ICE is trying to protect us from in my home state.
This is a real threat in Wisconsin. Look at the case the radical state Supreme Court has agreed to take up, which would essentially bar sheriffs from honoring ICE holds. God help us if the state had a governor who wants to block law enforcement, at any level of government, from doing their jobs.
As a state lawmaker, Mandela Barnes sponsored legislation (Assembly Bill 981) to end cash bail in Wisconsin. During his race for the U.S. Senate, his campaign said he favors ending cash bail nationwide. Eliminating or lowering cash bail is a terrible idea.
In 2021, Darrell Brooks drove his red SUV down a closed Main Street in Waukesha, Wisconsin, during the annual Christmas parade. He killed six people and injured more than 60. Despite having been charged with crimes 10 times previously, he was released on low bail just five days before the attack — even though he had been arrested and charged with running over the mother of his child with the same vehicle he used to kill and injure the people in the parade. He did not belong on the streets.
My mother was sitting along the parade route that horrible day. She was a block away from where he mowed down his victims. It took her years before she could even walk past that block again. The fact that Brooks should have been sitting in jail when he killed those people made it that much more painful for the community.
The policies supported by Mandela Barnes would put more Darrell Brookses out on the streets, and they would pose a threat to the safety of children, families and seniors across the Badger State.
In a sane world, Mandela Barnes would be too radical to be elected governor of Wisconsin. The results in the Virginia attorney general race, however, suggest that may not be true. Voters learned of statements made by the Democrat in that race — texts that included fantasizing about putting two bullets into the head of the former Republican speaker in Virginia — and the man still won.
This should be a warning to us all not to take anything for granted next November.
• Scott Walker is a columnist for The Washington Times. He was the 45th governor of Wisconsin and launched a bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. He lives in Milwaukee and is the proud owner of a 2003 Harley-Davidson Road King. He can be reached at swalker@washingtontimes.com.
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