Mandela Barnes came to Stanley-Boyd last week, coming to Stanley-Boyd High School Friday, Jan. 9 to answer student questions.
The candidate for governor, whose full name is Jesse Mandela Barnes, came to Stanley-Boyd High and took questions from students in Robert Seidl’s American Government and Kayleigh Steinmetz’s English 11 classes.
Organized by Barne’s campaign worker and Stanley-Boyd Class of 2019, Cole Wozniak, Barne’s visit to the Community Meeting Room off the high school library. Barnes explained the reason for the trip in the lobby at Stanley-Boyd.
“We are on an overnight road trip and we wanted to pop in. Cole is an alum of the school. We were able to get in touch with a teacher and have a conversation with students about politics in a government class.”
Following his stop at Stanley-Boyd, Barnes headed to Cadott.
Born Dec. 1, 1986 and named for South African anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, Barnes is the son of a public school teacher and United Auto Workers (UAW) member. Barnes grew up in Milwaukee and graduated from John Marshall High School before going on to Alabama A&M University, elected to represent Wisconsin’s 11th District at age 25 in 2013. Following an unsuccessful run for State Senate in 2016, Barnes worked for the State Innovation Exchange, being tapped to be Tony Ever’s running mate in 2018. Going on to win election with Evers, Barnes was sworn in as Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor on Jan. 7, 2019, before going on to run for U.S. Senate in 2022, losing to Ron Johnson by one percentage point.
Not invited into the classroom as to not to take away from the visit’s purpose, see inside on page 5 for questions we posed to Barnes after the event.