Comment BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. — As he made his final pitch to voters in western Wisconsin last week, Sen. Ron Johnson told a story about a truck driver who got stuck while traversing a rough road. The senator said he was driving through Portage when he encountered a traffic snarl caused by the stationary truck. Johnson said he’s usually impatient, but he wasn’t in this case because he saw something “heartfelt”: People in the small central Wisconsin community sprung into action to help the truck driver get started again. He ended the story with this revelation: “You know, a small point really — it doesn’t play a part in the story at all. But the driver was an African-American gentleman. Now why add this little detail? I happen to be running against Mandela Barnes,” Johnson said. Barnes, currently the lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, he is black and has criticized the effect of systemic racism on society in blunt terms. Johnson has drawn attention to those observations in recent days, along with the anecdote about the truck driver, that took place in a city that is nearly 90 percent White. His campaign did not respond to questions about the message Johnson hopes to convey with the story, but critics believe it is meant to reassure white voters that Barnes is wrong about the systemic racism that worries Wisconsin. On Nov. 6, Democrats and Republicans were optimistic about their chances of securing victory in both houses of Congress, two days before Election Day 2022. (Video: The Washington Post) Race played a central role in Wisconsin’s Senate election, which is one of the closest in the nation and could determine the partisan balance of the Senate. Supporters of both candidates accused the other side of unfairly injecting race into the campaign. For weeks, GOP outside groups have sponsored an onslaught of ads, including a spot that featured Barnes’ name in graffiti style and others calling him “dangerously liberal” and “different.” In some ads Barnes’ skin is darkened. At a campaign stop Saturday in Racine, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers criticized Johnson and the GOP for playing the game in the Senate campaign. “I think they’ve gone out of their way to make him look like an evil and angry man – making his face look darker. This is unbelievable, honestly,” Evers, who is in a tight re-election race, told reporters after a rally with supporters. “I think it’s racism when you’re — when you take a candidate who happens to be black — and you try to make him look blacker and angrier.” Evers said. In his speech over the past few days, Johnson echoed some of Barnes’ earlier comments about systemic racism and said the Democratic nominee has shown “contempt” for America. “That’s what he thinks about you. Literally, do you want him to represent you?’ Johnson asked a crowd at Black River Falls. “No!” several shouted. Johnson continued: “Why does he want to represent people who he thinks are just systemically racist?” A Johnson campaign spokesman argued that Barnes’ past comments about systemic racism have made the issue fair game. “Unfortunately, Lt. Gov. Barnes is the candidate who brought race into the campaign,” Johnson spokesman Ben Voelkel said. Voelkel added: “Lt. Governor Barnes wants to talk about anything but his record as a career politician who supports President Biden’s economy-crushing inflationary policies and wants to lay off the police and let violent criminals go free.” For the most part, Barnes was reluctant to address questions about whether Johnson and Republicans are leveling racist attacks. When asked directly about Johnson’s attacks on Friday, he compared him to the notorious red-baiting former state senator. Barnes said Johnson is “the worst senator in Wisconsin since Joe McCarthy” and that the current senator is “doing everything he can to emulate him.” Others had no qualms about the way Johnson and the Republicans campaigned against Barnes. Actor LeVar Burton, of “Star Trek” fame, who campaigned with Barnes in Madison on Friday, said Johnson “is one of my least favorite human beings. He’s arrogant. He’s racist. Just look at the ads that shows”. Earlier last week at a Rotary Club event in Milwaukee, Barnes was asked about Johnson’s comments questioning why he wanted to represent people he believed were racist. “I wouldn’t be running for the U.S. Senate, I wouldn’t be here today if any of what he said was true,” Barnes said. If he prevails, Barnes would be Wisconsin’s first black senator. The state is 87 percent White, according to 2022 census data. It has become one of the nation’s swing states, with most major elections in recent years decided by extremely narrow margins. Voters here supported Barack Obama twice in the presidential election and then helped send Donald Trump to the White House in 2016. Some political observers, including Barnes supporters, say the focus on race, especially in comments Barnes made for that matter, it’s meant to make some voters uncomfortable with Barnes’ views and reluctant to vote for him. At the start of the year, Wisconsin was considered among Democrats’ top chances to win a Senate seat, largely because Johnson, 67, was unpopular in his home state. In February, just 33 percent of Wisconsin voters said they had a favorable view of Johnson, while 45 percent said they had an unfavorable view, according to a Marquette Law School poll. But in recent weeks, Johnson has appeared to gain a lead. Barnes, 35, has been in public life for a decade and has given numerous interviews over the years on the issue of race and policing in black communities. Many of them have been repeated in recent weeks by Republicans trying to paint him as extreme. In a wide-ranging July 2021 interview on Black Oxygen, a podcast, Barnes said national parks “were not made for the enjoyment of non-white people” and added that some of them are carved out of indigenous land. In the interview he also says that the parks have “many positive benefits”. In a 2018 radio interview, he said racism in Wisconsin is “a little scarier” because it’s “much more hidden” than in the Deep South and “can be institutionalized.” He said the dynamic could be called “hidden racism.” Johnson has addressed both of those comments in recent speeches, saying that Democrats — and Barnes in particular — want to overhaul the state and that Barnes’ talk of racism in society is unfounded. The senator has his own history of comments that have drawn scrutiny. A few months after the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, Johnson made a comment that was widely condemned as racist, with some even calling for him to resign. In an interview with a conservative radio news program, Johnson, who was in the Capitol when rioters stormed and ransacked the building, said he was “not worried” about his safety. “I knew these are people who love this country, who really respect law enforcement, they would never do anything to break the law,” he said, referring to the mostly white, pro-Trump rioters. But, he continued, “if the tables had been turned and President Trump had won the election and these were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and counter-demonstrators, I might have been a little worried.” The riot left five people dead, including a policeman. two other officers on duty that day later killed themselves. More than 100 officers were injured and the Capitol suffered more than $1.5 million in damage. Johnson’s supporters play down racism in the campaign. “Mandela Barnes’ inability to win over voters in Wisconsin, like his lack of accomplishments as our lieutenant governor, is his fault, not the result of racism,” Sen. Julian Bradley, R-Rep., said in a statement. Bradley, who is the first black Republican elected to the state Senate, said Barnes would have more traction with voters if he spent more time focusing on increasing crime, which he said is “an issue that disproportionately affects black families.” Johnson’s strategy to boost the race on the trail is an effort to appeal to GOP base voters, said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll. “We’re in this last push to mobilize every last possible party voter,” Franklin said. The state’s western communities, where Johnson has delivered his latest speech, are predominantly white. There, race is even echoed in a reference to Milwaukee, where most of the state’s black population lives, and which may strike some voters as a “scary place, far away,” he said. “When you’re as evenly divided in a state as we are, turnout could make a difference,” Franklin said. “Perhaps the key appeals at this point are what the campaigns have decided to focus on.” While campaigning last week, Johnson told the truck driver story at least twice. Both times, he didn’t mention the driver’s race at first and instead led with the driver’s predicament: He had struggled to navigate a tight turn and was causing traffic to be delayed. “It had to be so embarrassing for this guy,” Johnson said at a Tuesday afternoon stop in Onalaska, a town of about 6,000 people that is 96 percent white, according to census data. “He was in a horrible state.” But locals stopped to help the man, Johnson explained. Some directed movement. Others offered tips on how to best handle the truck. Eventually, the man managed to get away. “It’s just one of those happy moments, right?” Johnson said, explaining how those who helped him gave him a thumbs-up and honked their horns to cheer him on. Reggie Jackson, a Milwaukee-based historian, said it’s clear to him what…
