MADISON, Wis. — Democrat Mandela Barnes, who served four years as Wisconsin's lieutenant governor and narrowly lost a 2022 U.S. Senate bid, said in an interview Tuesday that he jumped into the battleground state’s open race for governor because “the moment is too urgent.”

Given his prominent name recognition and statewide funding network, Barnes enters the 2026 race as the presumptive front-runner in a crowded primary of lesser-known candidates who have no built-in network of support.

Wisconsin is a politically divided state that elected President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2024 and President Joe Biden in 2020. All three elections were decided by less than a percentage point.

Barnes used his campaign launch video to appeal to Democratic voters with an attack on Trump and to pitch a broade

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