FILE — Mandela Barnes leaves the voting area after casting his vote Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022, at GreenTree Preparatory Academy in Milwaukee. Barnes is the Democratic candidate running for U.S. Senate. (Ebony Cox/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes won the Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday and will face two-term Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in what is expected to be one of the country’s most competitive races for control of the U.S. Senate.

Barnes’ top rivals dropped out of the race late last month and backed the former legislator, a sign of Democrats’ intense focus on defeating Johnson, who is one of former President Donald Trump’s most vocal supporters. The Senate is currently split 50-50, with Democrats relying on the vice president to break ties, and the Wisconsin contest is one of the few races seen as toss-ups in November.

Barnes contrasted his middle-class upbringing with the millionaire Johnson, who he said caters to special interests and wealthy donors.

“Wisconsin deserves to be represented by leaders who have a firsthand understanding of the challenges they’re facing and their hopes for the future,” Barnes said in a statement Tuesday. He would be Wisconsin’s first Black senator if elected.

Johnson called Barnes the “most radical left candidate” Democrats could have chosen.

“This is a contest between radical left socialism versus freedom and prosperity,” he said.