Former Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes dropped out of the Democratic gubernatorial primary on Thursday, the same day the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published allegations that he used his role in the state party to pursue sexual encounters with young women, leaving self-described democratic socialist Francesca Hong as the commanding frontrunner.
Barnes posted a video to social media announcing he was suspending his campaign, just twelve days before the Aug. 11 primary. He acknowledged what the polls already showed: he was not going to win. The Hill reported that polling released earlier in the week put Hong at 38 percent, Barnes at 16 percent, and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley at 7 percent.
"It's become very clear who our nominee is going to be," Barnes said in the video. He stopped short of endorsing Hong by name.
But the timing of his exit raises questions the former lieutenant governor did not answer. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Thursday that Barnes had reportedly used his position within the Wisconsin Democratic Party to seek out sexual encounters with young women. The state party investigated the allegations last year. Barnes has not been publicly accused of any wrongdoing, and neither the investigation's findings nor its conclusion have been disclosed publicly.
Whether Barnes's withdrawal was driven by his weak poll numbers, by the Journal Sentinel report, or by both remains unclear. He offered no explanation for the timing.
In his video, Barnes cast his departure as an act of selflessness aimed at defeating the Republican presumptive nominee, Rep. Tom Tiffany.
"We have to do everything we possibly can to defeat Tom Tiffany, and that's exactly what I'm committed to doing for the next 96 days."
He also leaned into populist economic language, framing his candidacy as a fight against a "rigged system."
"Now I got in this race because we're living in a rigged system. The rich are getting richer while the rest of us are left scrambling for crumbs. I know this firsthand. That's why I've always fought for better as a legislator, as an organizer, as a lieutenant governor."
Yet for all the talk of defeating Tiffany, Barnes declined to throw his support behind Hong, the only candidate with a realistic path to the nomination. That omission is hard to read as anything other than reluctance to elevate a candidate running well to his left.
Barnes is not the first Democrat to exit this race under a cloud. Earlier this month, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez dropped out amid scrutiny over her campaign finances. Her departure prompted Crowley, who had previously suspended his own bid, to jump back in. Gov. Tony Evers, who is retiring, endorsed Crowley, but the Milwaukee County executive sits at just 7 percent in the polls, a distant third.
The pattern is becoming familiar for Democrats. In Maine, the party recently had to replace a scandal-plagued Senate candidate after allegations forced a withdrawal. Wisconsin's primary field has now lost two candidates to controversy and a third to weak polling, all before voters have even finished casting early ballots.
Early voting in Wisconsin began on Tuesday. The Wisconsin elections commission ruled this month that voters who already cast ballots for Barnes or other dropped-out candidates cannot recast them. Those votes are effectively wasted, a consequence that falls on the voters who trusted candidates who could not stay in the race.
The inability to reclaim those ballots underscores a practical cost of chaotic primaries. Voters who backed Barnes in good faith before his withdrawal have no recourse, even though the race has fundamentally changed.
With Barnes gone and Crowley polling in single digits, Francesca Hong is the near-certain Democratic nominee. She has locked down endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ilhan Omar, two of the most prominent progressive voices in national politics. She has been described as a democratic socialist.
Rep. Tiffany has already begun drawing the contrast. He has hit Hong over her left-leaning positions and called on Wisconsin to "reject" socialism. Wisconsin is a purple state, one that has decided recent statewide races by razor-thin margins. Barnes himself lost the 2022 Senate race to Republican Sen. Ron Johnson by just one percentage point.
For Tiffany, the general-election matchup could hardly be more favorable on paper. A democratic socialist nominee, backed by Sanders and Omar, running in a state where the last Democratic statewide candidate lost by a single point, gives Republicans a clear ideological lane. James Carville's recent warning that Democrats need to stop chasing identity boxes and find candidates who can win looks especially prescient in this context.
Hong's coalition is built for a primary, not necessarily for a general election in a swing state. Sanders and Omar energize the progressive base, but Wisconsin's statewide electorate has shown repeatedly that it punishes candidates perceived as too far from the center.
Several critical questions remain unanswered. What exactly did the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report about Barnes's conduct? The details beyond the general description, that he used his party role to seek sexual encounters with young women, have not been fully laid out in the available reporting. What did the Wisconsin Democratic Party's investigation conclude? Was Barnes cleared, disciplined, or was the matter left unresolved?
Barnes served as lieutenant governor under Evers during Evers's first term and previously served in the state assembly. He built his political identity around economic populism and ran a competitive Senate race in 2022. His withdrawal marks the second time in four years that a statewide campaign has ended in disappointment.
The broader pattern within the Democratic Party, candidates exiting races under pressure, investigations quietly conducted and never publicly resolved, voters left holding the bag, is not unique to Wisconsin. Across the country, Democrats who once demanded swift accountability from opponents have repeatedly dodged questions when the allegations hit closer to home.
And the structural dynamics within the party raise their own concerns. Critics have argued that the DNC's own primary calendar appears designed to control outcomes rather than let voters decide freely. Wisconsin's messy primary, with candidates dropping in and out, endorsements shifting, and early ballots rendered meaningless, fits that mold of a party struggling to manage its own internal contradictions.
Barnes closed his video with a note of gratitude.
"Now while I may be suspending this campaign, I'll never give up my fight for Wisconsin. I'm incredibly grateful for all the folks who joined this campaign, for the people who believed in me and this movement."
Gratitude is fine. But Wisconsin voters, especially the ones who already cast early ballots for a candidate who quit twelve days before the primary, deserve more than a thank-you video. They deserve answers about what happened, and a party that can field candidates who stay in the race long enough to be judged by the voters rather than withdrawn by their own baggage.
When your primary field keeps shrinking because of scandal and your last candidate standing is a democratic socialist endorsed by Bernie Sanders, the problem isn't one bad candidate. It's the bench.
