Barnes’ Senate bid may ride on Milwaukee’s Black turnout

MILWAUKEE (AP) >> Standing beside the pulpit at King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church on a crisp fall Sunday morning, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mandela Barnes was preaching to the choir — they were assembled behind him, clad in blue and gold robes.

“This community is always top of mind for me,” he reassured the mostly older congregants filling the pews, as he hit on issues he knew they care about: crime, jobs, inflation.

It’s a typical strategy for any Democrat who wants to win in battleground Wisconsin — go to Milwaukee, speak in Black churches, pose for pictures with the churchgoers. And it’s a share of the electorate that should be especially fertile ground for Barnes, who grew up on Milwaukee’s mostly Black north side and first dipped his toe in politics as an organizer and later state representative there.

As Barnes, the state’s lieutenant governor, seeks to become Wisconsin’s first Black senator, his chances against two-term Sen. Ron Johnson may depend on how well he can connect with voters here who have not always turned out in big numbers.

“Our white population is split down the middle and minority voters will make the decision,” Reverend Greg Lewis, an influential organizer in Milwaukee’s Black community, said in an interview. “Whoever they vote for will win.”

Barnes knows most of the people at King Solomon are already in his corner, with some already turning in early votes for him. It’s not older, religious Black voters he needs to worry about mobilizing. It’s these congregants’ nieces, nephews, children and grandchildren that community organizers describe as a disaffected and disinterested generation.

“I’m asking you to help talk to some other people — some friends, some family, some neighbors. If we get five to 10 people out each, we can win this thing,” Barnes told the congregants.

For Barnes, whom polls show slightly behind Johnson in one of the handful of races that could shift Senate control, that means connecting with people like Joe Louis Gordon II.

Gordon, 32, met Barnes at a campaign event on Black maternal health in midOctober. As his girlfriend, Makoria Morrow, joined the discussion, Gordon sat to the side with their 2 ½-month-old daughter and said he “didn’t know too much” about Barnes. He said he hadn’t voted since Barack Obama was running for president.

“Just like everyone else in the community, we don’t really care about voting or care about the race or anything like that because we feel like our voice is not going to get heard anyways,” he said.

After seeing Barnes in person, Gordon said he planned to vote for him.