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FACT BRIEF

Did Mandela Barnes receive a higher share of the Wisconsin vote than Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden?

By Hope Karnopp
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YES

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mandela Barnes received slightly more of the vote share than President Joe Biden did in 2020 and significantly more than Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton did in 2016.

Barnes, who lost to Republican incumbent Ron Johnson, received 49.5% of the vote in the 2022 midterms, compared to Johnson's 50.5%.

In 2020, Biden won Wisconsin with 49.45% of the vote, while Republican incumbent Donald Trump received 48.82%. 

In 2016, Clinton lost Wisconsin and received 46.5% of the vote, compared to Trump's 47.2%.

Turnout tends to be higher in presidential election years. Biden won about 320,000 more votes in 2020 than Barnes did in 2022. And Clinton received about 72,000 more votes than Barnes did.

Both presidential races also had Libertarian candidates on the ballot, while the 2022 U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin did not have any third-party candidates. In 2020, Jo Jorgenson received 1.17% of the vote, and in 2016, Gary Johnson won 3.6% of the vote.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
New York Times Wisconsin U.S. Senate Election Results
New York Times Wisconsin Presidential Election Results 2020
New York Times Wisconsin Election Results 2016
FairVote U.S. voter turnout
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Wisconsin Watch
Wisconsin Watch, the news arm of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, increases the quality and quantity of investigative reporting in Wisconsin, while training current and future investigative journalists. Its work fosters an informed citizenry and strengthens democracy.
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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.