Charlie Sykes Argues Wisconsin Democrats Gave Away Their Chance to Unseat the ‘Most Vulnerable Republican Incumbent’ in 2022

The host of the Bulwark Podcast, Charlie Sykes, spoke with James Wigderson, the former editor of Right Wisconsin, on Wednesday for an in-depth look at the state of Wisconsin politics following Tuesday’s primary elections.

After a conversation about the GOP primary for governor, which saw the Trump-backed Tim Michels beat Scott Walker’s lieutenant governor, Rebecca Kleefisch, the two moved onto the U.S. Senate race in the state.

“Let’s talk Ron Johnson, I think objectively going into this year, he was the most vulnerable Republican incumbent as long as Democrats did not nominate somebody outside of the Wisconsin political mainstream,” began Sykes, adding:

And I got a lot of pushback on this, James. I have a lot of questions about Mandela Barnes, who is unapologetically progressive, was the candidate endorsed by Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren has played footsie with the folks from the Squad.

Lots of ties to ‘defund the police,’ the famous t-shirt, whole, you know, picture of him holding up a t-shirt saying, ‘Abolish ICE.’

“So give me your read on how Mandela Barnes plays in a general election in 2022 in Wisconsin?” Sykes, who is a regular on MSNBC, then asked Wigderson.

“Mandela Barnes is worse than all of that, actually,” replied Wigderson.

“I’ve been shaking my head since the beginning of the Democratic primaries,” he added, arguing, “Mandela Barnes is probably the worst of the four candidates that they could have run.”

“Not only does he have the extreme political positions, but he also has some personal baggage. This is a guy who didn’t pay his property taxes on time, which is a big issue in Wisconsin, property taxes are always a sore issue,” Wigderson continued.

“When he was asked about it, he said, well, he was too busy running for lieutenant governor. This is a guy who had to be carted around by the state patrol because he didn’t pay his parking tickets. I mean, he’s not exactly what you call your heavyweight candidate,” he added, before noting he also “recommended raising the gas tax just so people would use less gasoline” and supports the Green New Deal, which is anathema to Wisconsin dairy farmers.

The conversation then moved to how Barnes became the sitting lieutenant governor.

“He was an accident back then because nobody else ran for lieutenant governor. So he got the job. And now, 4 years later, his opponents decided that they weren’t going to attack him at all, even though he was definitely a target-rich environment and they all dropped out of the race rather than go negative on them. And here he is. He’s the nominee,” explained Wigderson.

Sykes went on to note that the whole “burning Kenosha” narrative, which is dominant in the state, will also “be used against him.”

“Burning Kenosha” refers to the August 2020 protests that caused some $50 million worth of damage to Kenosha, Wisconsin following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

Sykes then asked Wigderson to explain why the Democrats would nominate such a weak candidate.

“I think there’s a couple of reasons why, the base of the Democratic Party in Wisconsin is a little more to the left than the base of the Democratic Party in other states. It did support Bernie Sanders, for example, over Hillary Clinton,” he noted, adding, “They’re not understanding of the environment that they’re in.”

Wigderson went on to explain that his wife is a classic swing voter in the state and that “her first reaction to Mandela Barnes is, ‘He’s a moron.’ That was her exact words. So I can’t imagine that Democrats really think that he is going to appeal to the center of the electorate.”

The two then spent the next few minutes diving into what makes Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) such a vulnerable incumbent, listing off his many gaffes and extreme stances.

“When we’re talking about the stupid things we’re saying, you know, it’s everything from the people at the January 6th riot were merely tourists looking for the rope line to his quack medicine recommendations to, oh, you can just run down the list,” Sykes said of Johnson.

Sykes, a longtime fixture in Wisconsin GOP politics, once wrote he and Johnson “go way back” and Johnson himself once even attributed his first run for the U.S. Senate to Sykes hyping a speech of his on the radio.

Sykes then described the dynamic in the race as a choice between two candidates who seem bent on alienating as many voters as possible. “Whoa, does anybody want to win this race or is there this campaign? Like, who can actually touch the third rail more aggressively?” Sykes asked.

Listen to the full podcast episode here

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