Mandela Barnes, a former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin who lost a close and expensive contest for the Senate in 2022, announced Tuesday that he was running for governor.

Barnes, 39, enters the race as the best-known Democrat in a field that includes several well-known candidates.

A progressive who has maintained a large fundraising network since his Senate race, Barnes is broadly well liked by fellow Wisconsin Democrats, though he faces some skepticism in the state’s political class about his ability to win a general election.

At stake in the contest to succeed Gov. Tony Evers, a two-term Democrat who announced in July that he would not seek reelection, is stewardship of the nation’s most closely divided battleground state.

In his announcement video, Barnes made overtures to the pol

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