In a stunning move with less than two weeks before the primary, Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry on Wednesday dropped out of the Democratic U.S. Senate race after having spent more than $12.3 million on the contest.
In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Lasry said he's endorsing the front runner, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.
"Mandela won this race," Lasry said.
A formal announcement will come during a news conference scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Lasry's withdrawal put Barnes in the driver's seat to win the Aug. 9 primary and face Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson in the fall.
Lasry has consistently been running second in polls to Barnes. An internal Barnes poll his campaign released this week showed Barnes up 39% to 25% over Lasry.
Lasry said he spoke in recent days to Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and reached out to Barnes on Tuesday to notify him of the decision.
"After talking with Tammy and seeing the data, I think it was clear there was no path forward for us to be able to win," Lasry said.
"We wanted to make sure we were able to unite and rally our support to ensure we're spending every second we can to get Ron Johnson out of office," he said. "It's clear the lieutenant governor is going to be the nominee."
In a statement, Barnes said he was "grateful to Alex for all of the work he’s done to move Wisconsin forward, and I’m proud to have his endorsement."
“I deeply admire Alex’s commitment to creating good union jobs and raising wages...
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