Democratic heavyweight and one-time presidential frontrunner Elizabeth Warren headlined a fundraiser for Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who is seeking his party’s nomination for U.S. Senate, in Madison on Friday.
The stop at Garver Feed Mill from the U.S. senator from Massachusetts was one of three events she headlined for Barnes over the weekend, a pair on Friday and a third event in Milwaukee early Saturday afternoon.
Warren billed Barnes as the person to fight back against the Republican agenda, saying he would be one of the two additional progressive senators needed to abolish the filibuster, a Senate procedural rule that requires 60 votes to pass most legislation, and accomplish real Democratic goals.
“We have problems like Roe v. Wade — a Supreme Court that wants to make second class citizens out of half the population," Warren told the crowd. "A Supreme Court that wants to take us back to a time when women's bodies were controlled by men, who decided what they could and could not do."
Warren said with Barnes in the Senate, Democrats would be able to codify the protections guaranteed by Roe.
The Massachusetts progressive also had sharp words for U.S. Sen Ron Johnson, Barnes’ would-be general election opponent if he wins the Democratic nomination.
Warren said backing Barnes in the primary was “the first step to dump one of the Senate's most extreme members, Ron Johnson.” Her comments were met with a roar from the crowd.
She also barbed Johnson for calling the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol a largely "peaceful protest."
“We have a Republican Party that not only endorses the big lie — led by your current senator — but also wants to describe an armed insurrection in the Capitol, that left 150 Capitol police officers injured, in which people smeared feces on the wall, ... as ‘legitimate public discourse.’ It’s time to call them out for the traitors they are,” Warren said.
She concluded: “I’m here tonight because step one in fighting back is getting Mandela Barnes elected to the United States Senate."
The senator and Barnes shared a hug when the candidate arrived on stage. In his 10-or-so minutes of speaking, the lieutenant governor continued to make the case that his humble roots will bring a new perspective to the U.S. Senate.
Barnes said he wants "to save our democracy, to make the United States of America the best place that it can be."
"We have all been left behind by too many self-serving politicians," Barnes said.
Warren’s trip to Wisconsin highlights a not-before-seen level of urgency from Barnes in the primary. Her three events followed the Barnes campaign’s announcement of a multimillion dollar TV ad buy earlier in the week, and came just weeks after a recent Marquette Law School poll showed his lead in the primary slipping.
Barnes, long considered the front-runner in the race, was in a statistical tie with Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry in that poll.
This story has been updated to include additional comments from Warren and Barnes.
