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Mandela Barnes drops out of Wisconsin governor’s race as Francesca Hong rises in polls

By CNN

(CNN) — Former Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes dropped his bid for governor on Thursday, scrambling the race to replace Gov. Tony Evers less than two weeks from the Democratic primary.

In a video posted to social media, Barnes said that it’s “very clear who our nominee is going to be.”

Though he didn’t name her, democratic socialist lawmaker Francesca Hong has led recent polls. Hong’s chief rival for the nomination is now Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

Barnes called on Democrats to rally to defeat Republican US Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is all but certain to be the GOP nominee in the perpetual battleground state.

In the video, Barnes said he had a “very difficult conversation” with his staff Wednesday night.

“Now, it’s our time to come together, to focus our efforts” on defeating Tiffany, he said. “We have to do everything to beat Tom Tiffany. This is life or death for Wisconsinites.”

Barnes is the second major candidate to drop out of the race within two weeks. Earlier this month, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez — Evers’ second-term No. 2, holding the post Barnes held for the Democratic governor’s first term — also ended her campaign.

His exit increases the likelihood that the Wisconsin governor’s race becomes a critical test case, with the 2028 Democratic presidential primary looming, of how a democratic socialist candidate performs in a general election in a must-win presidential battleground.

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4 major Latino organizations joining forces to mobilize voters for midterms

▶ Watch Video: Only 15% of Latino voters say they live comfortably as they cite Trump economy concerns, poll shows CBS News has learned that four of the nation's largest Latino civic organizations — UnidosUS, the LULAC Institute, Mi Familia en Acción and Latino Victory Foundation — are joining forces for the first time, combining their voter outreach operations under a single strategy ahead of the crucial 2026 midterms.The coalition is aiming to connect with more than 5 million Latino voters, register 250,000 new voters, and lift Latino voter turnout at least 5% by 2028 — an effort organizers call the largest coordinated, nonpartisan Latino voter engagement campaign in recent history."Our national organizations have always been aligned in working towards civic engagement, but we've never come together and formally partnered ... raising these resources together and making sure that we're getting those results together. And that's what makes this unprecedented," Janet Murguía, president and CEO of UnidosUS, told CBS News on Thursday.Murguía said the investments will go towards canvassing, phone banking and digital engagements.The launch reflects the growing weight of the Latino vote at a moment when control of Congress could again hinge on razor-thin margins. More than 36 million Latinos are now eligible to vote — the nation's second-largest voting bloc and its fastest-growing electorate. The coalition's biggest investments will go to battleground and fast-growing states: Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico and California, which will have some of the most competitive House and Senate races in the country.Republicans, meanwhile, are working to defend the gains they made with Latino voters in 2024, when Mr. Trump won 48% of the Latino vote nationally — up 12 points from 2020. LIBRE Action, part of the center-right Koch network, has already begun campaigning for GOP Senate candidates in Ohio and North Carolina and gubernatorial candidates in Florida and Wisconsin. But there are signs that support is softening. Recent polls show most Latinos disapprove of the administration's handling of the cost-of-living issues and immigration enforcement. House Republicans — including Conference Chair Lisa McClain, who toured South Florida promoting the GOP's economic agenda to Hispanic communities — are pushing back against the idea that Latino voters are a single-issue bloc and argue that the GOP has better economic policies that will help Latino small businesses. Murguía also acknowledged Latinos aren't focused on just one issue but instead, "access to healthcare, to housing, affordable pricing. You know, dealing with the economy and inflation, jobs. Those are the issues that our community cares about. Most recently, the extreme immigration enforcement actions that have drawn concern, but it's the combination of kitchen table issues that draw our community as voters to the elections."The organizations are announcing their plans Thursday at the UNIDOS annual conference in Austin, Texas, where Hispanic leaders and voters have convened ahead of the midterm elections."I think today Latinos, we still have a lot of work to be done and we need to reach out to the Latinos very deeply," Tania Chavez Camacho, a Texas voter from the Rio Grande Valley, told CBS News at the Unidos conference. "Many of them are disengaged. Many of them do not find a political home in either the Democrats or the Republicans. And so, engaging in true conversation and sitting down with community is what's really going to turn them out."
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