Mandela Barnes Pivots to a Moderate Position on Another Hot Button Issue

Earlier, we told you about Mandela Barnes, the Democrat running to replace outgoing Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, and how Barnes is singing a different tune about ICE deporting illegal immigrants. Barnes is a radical Leftist who is on record wanting to abolish ICE, so his shift in policy smacks more of him trying to pull a fast one on Wisconsin voters rather than a change of heart.

But it wasn’t just ICE that Barnes pivoted on. He’s long been a proponent of “criminal justice reform” including defunding the police and cashless bail. Townhall reported on that here.

“Defunding [the police] isn’t as necessarily as aggressive as a lot of folks paint it,” Barnes said. “We need to invest more in neighborhood services and programming for our residents, for our communities, on the front end.”

“Where will that money come from?” Barnes asked. “Well, it can come from over-bloated budgets in police departments.”

During an interview with local media over the weekend, Barnes was directly asked about cashless bail.

“It would determine upon the specifics of that bill.”

Dem candidate for gov Mandela Barnes on whether he would sign legislation ending cash bail in Wisconsin: “Well, that’s not my focus … a person who has the money to buy their way out of jail should not be able to do so…” pic.twitter.com/zOSfkU4qgb

— Matt Smith (@mattsmith_news) December 7, 2025

“Well, that’s not my focus,” Barnes said. “What I have been focused on as a legislator is making communities safe. That means the person who has the money to buy their way out of jail should not be able to do so. And this mischaracterization from people like Tom Tiffany, I don’t believe that a person should commit a crime and just pay their way out of jail.”

Barnes, of course, is not advocating for keeping criminals from all socioeconomic levels behind bars when they commit crimes. He’s turning it into a race and class issue instead.

“It’s not fair,” Barnes said. “It is an unequal system that has led to issues of our communities being less safe.”

Barnes was asked again if he would sign such legislation.

“It’s not about ending cash bail,” he said. “This is about a person who has committed a crime and the severity of that crime. If you committed that crime, you should be … held behind bars and when your court day comes, that person will see their fate.”

In a February 21, 2022, article published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Barnes came out in favor of ending cash bail nationally (emphasis added):

Amid the recent furor over major crimes apparently committed by defendants out on low bail, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes is standing his ground. 

Barnes, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, once sponsored a bill to end cash bail in the state.

The 2016 measure would have barred judges from using the “nature, number and gravity” of the charges as the sole reason to hold a defendant before trial. Instead, a judge would be required to release a defendant unless there was “clear and convincing evidence” that a defendant was a flight risk or a danger to an individual or a witness.

There you have it, folks. Barnes was not only in favor of cashless bail, he wanted it to be national policy and he wanted to prohibit judges from keeping violent criminals behind bars before trial.

There’s also a video of Barnes calling for an end to cash bail.

It’s not a mischaracterization. Mandela Barnes said on video he wants to “end cash bail.”

That means violent criminals back on our streets. It’s that simple. https://t.co/s1seuembvn pic.twitter.com/OjdX2E1VhZ

— Tiffany War Room (@TiffanyWarRoom) December 8, 2025

“We have to dismantle mass incarceration, end cash bail, and root out systemic misconduct in our police departments and prosecutors’ offices,” Barnes said.

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