When they met on a debate stage for the second and final time, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson and Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes both wanted to make their opponent a completely unacceptable choice to voters.
The Wisconsin Senate race got even worse at the University of Milwaukee. Two candidates accused each other of being extremists on abortion, not supporting law enforcement, and traveling on the taxpayer dime.
When the two candidates were asked what they thought was admirable about their rivals, the tone of the evening was nasty.
Barnes believes that Johnson is a family man. The first thing Johnson said was that he appreciated the fact that Barnes had loving parents.
The crowd booed when he responded.
Johnson is one of the most vulnerable Republican senators. With Barnes' low favorability ratings, Johnson and his GOP allies had little choice but to try to get him to like them more. Democrats have painted Johnson as out of touch with the needs of his wealthy donors, while they have assailed him with negative ads.
Despite getting off to a rocky start, Johnson has led the polls in recent weeks, causing concern among state and national Democrats. The contest is still close, with Johnson in the lead.
When they were named, Johnson and Barnes were given 30-second rebuttals. The audience at times cheered and jeered the candidates, so the moderators had to ask them to quiet down.
The politicians were asked a lot of questions, including about inflation, abortion and Social Security. Johnson criticized Barnes for being a supporter of the movement to defund police and for being involved in the release of prisoners who were violent.
Barnes said that no police officers in this country were more dispirited than those who were at the capitol. He said that Johnson had voted for the First Step Act that expanded early-release programs for inmates.
Barnes has said during the campaign that he doesn't support defunding police.
Both Johnson and Barnes took jabs at each other. Barnes claims to be part of the working class, but I haven't found any evidence that he actually worked in the private sector. Barnes said that Johnson took a lot of the credit for his business-in-law's success because he owned a business that created jobs.
In the midst of inflation and high gas prices, Johnson asked, "Are you better off or worse off since Democrats took control?" Barnes pointed to Johnson's chief of staff's ties to a fake electors scheme to argue that Johnson was a threat to social security and democracy.
Johnson has denied being involved. He initially intended to object to the election results, but decided to certify them.
Barnes said that the man tried to send fake electors to the vice president and that his involvement lasted just a few seconds.
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